Amex Platinum Charge Card - You have to pay now!

[parksie]

I am a long standing amex customer and recently received a platinum charge card.

The spending has been 5k-10K per month for years on a blue business card.

This month I used the Platinum card for a business purchase $27,000 and the balance with this purchase for the month came to $46,000.

I had a call yesterday to advise that i could not use the card any more until I has cleared 1/2 the outstanding amount.

This would be acceptable if I was outside of the terms and conditions of the card however I have not even received the statement yet and when i do (sometime this week) the payment wont be due for 21 days.

Is this fair and reasonable of Amex to put a complete stop on my spending until i clear 50% of the amount due on the next statement?

They advised that because this month was above my normal spending pattern that this is why they are not allowing me to make any more charges on the card.

I must say I was pretty unhappy that 1) they let the charge for the $27,000 go through and 2) now have stopped my use of the card!

If i had of known that this would happen i would never have use the Platinum card to make the business purchase and as per normal would have paid via bank TT!!!!

Any comments please feel welcome.

best regards,

Glenn

 

[serfty]

I understand your concern, but in reality all is in the control of Amex. As for being "fair and reasonable", that is irrelevant.

I have and use an Amex charge card. There is an "unseen credit limit", even on charge cards. I guess you have exceeded this.

... the payment wont be due for 21 days. ...

Firstly, this is erroneous. By the T&C of Amex Charge cards, all amounts are due on the statement date, not 21 days afterwards.

As for the stop, Amex are covering their @rse - as your normal spend had been generally less than $10K per month and you have more than quadrupled this in 2 weeks it's certain to flag issues.

What you could have done before the purchase would have been to contact Amex and tell them you are intending to make such a commitment and discuss it with them.

Whether this would have helped or not, I do not know.

 

[parksie]

Thanks for your comments.

Well the guy on the phone told me 21 days after the statement date.

Also if I had of known there was going to be an inconvenient stop put on my use of the card then I would not have used it.

I have actually been more compromised than they have.

I think that t would be better to explain things like this to new card members (Platinum) to avoid the embaresment and inconvenience this has caused to me.

Serfy, I think that if Amex don't want you to spend this kind of money then to be honest they shouldn't let you.

 

[lovestotravel]

I had the same rubbish a few months back, but I hadn't gone over what I had been spending in the past few months.

The morons from Amex called me twice, but never left a message for me to call back.

I (and most people) don't simply call back a missed call.

Few days later went to use the card and it was declined.

Rang Amex and they had to refer me to another department.

I had an argument with the guy on the phone he kept insisting that I needed to pay the amount now, even though the statement and bill was not due for close to a month

You DO get 21 days to pay the account, taken from the statement "Please pay immediately, but no later than 21 days from statement date printed above."

Anyways this guy kept insisting that the payment was due now etc etc and even when the statement comes I have 14 days to pay etc etc.

I ended up asking him can I continue to keep using my Plat Credit Card and he said "Yes" so I thanked him for his time and hang up.

I continued to use my Plat Credit Card instead and spent $25K over the next few weeks.

I paid the Plat Credit Card around 17 days after the statement came and the card was good to use two days later without any other calls to Amex

I understand they would have had some sort of flag on their screen to call me and request payment, but I was simply not going to pay earlier than I needed to.

I much rather have $20K sitting in my bank account than paying the bill which was not due.

I put these poor customer service experiences down to yet another reason to cancel my card (get the annual fee waived)

 

[lovestotravel]

The added problem for now now though is that over the past few months I have put only a few hundred dollars through my plat charge card due to the Westpac KF card.

Then another promo is occurring with the CBA Amex card

This will mean that for 6 months I have had pretty much ZERO usage on my card so come February when I want to start using the card again it will have a lower "credit limit"

I will probably give them a call to let them know the card will be back in full force in Feb (failing any other 3 points per $1 promo) with other card providers.

 

[Mal]

Amex have been doing similar in the U.S as well - they see sudden high spenders as their most likely customers to declare bankruptcy or otherwise not pay their debts.

I didn't realise it had spread so well into Australia.

Amex as a company are hurting, (although I'm sure the Exec's are still getting their indecent salaries!), so have taken a range of measures to help their credit flow - no further balance transfers, near elimination of bonuses to sign up to cards, reduction of some credit limits, and monitoring of other ones.

 

[Dave Noble]

It seems a reasonable response from American Express

You have a personal spending pattern and then in this month charged well outside of this at $46,000 which is a high figure and it seems pretty reasonable for them to be concerned. American Express Charge cards are not limit-free and you have hit yours

That you have a business card as well is not relevent since that is related to a business entity rather than personal income.

They did allow the charges through rather than decline them and then informed that further spending was to be curtailed; how would have declining the transactions have been better?

If you want to use the card, what is the issue with just making a payment?

Dave

 

[straitman]

It seems a reasonable response from American Express

You have a personal spending pattern and then in this month charged well outside of this at $46,000 which is a high figure and it seems pretty reasonable for them to be concerned. American Express Charge cards are not limit-free and you have hit yours

That you have a business card as well is not relevent since that is related to a business entity rather than personal income.

They did allow the charges through rather than decline them and then informed that further spending was to be curtailed; how would have declining the transactions have been better?

If you want to use the card, what is the issue with just making a payment?

Dave

parksie,

I agree entirely with Dave Noble here.

What you have done previously with a Business Card has no relevance to what you do with your new Platinum Card. They will only be looking at the fact that it is a new card and there is no established spending pattern.

For many years I have had an Amex Corporate Card for the largest company in the world. Despite having the backing of a company with $US40 billion in cash (and a few other assets), if I went outside normal spending patterns then they would query and/or stop the card. It is purely a fraud measure in this context. If I rang ahead and spelt out the unusual large expenses to be charged then all was OK.

Last March I also got a bright and shiny new Amex Platinum Charge Card. In the first month I also had the queries as you have mentioned as I paid a lot of the Oz Fest #6 bookings on the card. With an appropriate explanation they were happy.

I am currently in the USA on holiday using my Amex cards. Before making any 'unusual' charges on these cards I rang Amex and warned them out and they were happy.

If it were my company then I certainly would require them to have this degree of diligence.

 

[parksie]

Guys,

Here is my issue.

I am happy to pay - no question of not paying.

However, I use the card almost everyday - I don't carry cash and have not done so for years - force of habit you may say.

For no fault of my own I am now not able to use the card until either 50% of the amount due or as usual the entire amount is cleared within the terms of the agreement.

Amex did not advise there was any limit.

Amex did not advise that they would want immediate payment of 50% of the outstanding amount once we had put the transaction for $27,000 through.

As I stated before - we usual send TT's for this kind of amount however I was led to believe from years of Amex Platinum marketing that there is no limit when you are a member of the Platinum card.

I am now unable to use the card until the statement is paid.

If it is a fraud issue then why are they asking the question after the money has been billed to my card?

Personally I don't really get it.

Amex should come clean and be honest. They should tell people that there are spending limits so that this kind of problem does not happen.

 

[serfty]

Thanks for your comments.

Well the guy on the phone told me 21 days after the statement date.
...

...

You DO get 21 days to pay the account, taken from the statement "Please pay immediately, but no later than 21 days from statement date printed above."

...

In actual fact Amex normally give you until the next statemnt to pay your charge card; at which time they begin to apply "late" fees if you havn't. After that there's another 2 weeks before more fees are applied and the sh!it starts to "hit the fan".

Irrespective of 21 days or 30 days or 45 days or what's written on the statment or indicated online, the T&C's you agree to when obtaining a charge card are that the full amount becomes payable and due on statement date.

 

[parksie]

Serfty,

I have not received the statement.

However, I received the call yesterday to advise - no more credit!

 

[serfty]

...

Personally I don't really get it.

Amex should come clean and be honest. They should tell people that there are spending limits so that this kind of problem does not happen.

They do come clean - this information is available in the PDS which you agree to when you first apply/get/use the card. (http://www.americanexpress.com/australia/pdfs/PlatinumCard_TC.pdf)

6 Suspension

We can suspend your right to use the Business Card with or without cause
and without notice. If we do suspend your Charge privileges you cannot
use the Business Card until such time as arrangements satisfactory to us
have been made for payments of outstanding Charges. If we do suspend
your Charge privileges we shall not lose any of our rights under these
Conditions or at law and these same Conditions shall apply if and when such
suspension is lifted.

At least they gave you notice ... :-|

If you change your mind and decided you do not like these terms, then you have the perfect right to cancel the card.

 

[parksie]

Serfty,

As they say ....it is always in the small print.

However business is business.

If I had a client that had an impeccable payment history since 1990 I would have handled his / her case on an individual basis and would not treat this customer like a customer without trading history.

This is generally how businesses keep customers.

In this case American Express has left me with a very sour taste in my mouth.

I do not feel privileged in the slightest to hold an American Express Platinum card and isn't this how you are supposed to feel?

I simply am left feeling like American Express does not trust me after all of the years we have built up a long standing business relationship.

So with this in mind I think we will have to disagree on this one.

Thanks for your comments and input.

Glenn

 

[lovestotravel]

I do not feel privileged in the slightest to hold an American Express Platinum card and isn't this how you are supposed to feel?

NO - The only benefit with a Plat Charge Card is the good Membership Rewards scheme. I get better service with my CBA or Westpac cards on the odd times I need to call them to discuss something.

The only reason to keep an Amex Charge card is for the "credit limit" if you have built it up over months, and the Membership Rewards. Apart from that they are useless.

At the moment I have had outstanding service from Westpac Platinum with the KF card. I have only needed to call them twice so far.

Once when they had called me (left a message on my answering service), emailed me and smsed me about too much spending and they wanted me to call back and answer some questions before I continued to spend

Amex Plat don't do that, they have cut me off twice when overseas and tried to call me on my work number in Australia but not my mobile number.... They don't sms nor email you.

Westpac get 10/10 for contacting me fast and via any means possible before cutting me off!

The other time I called them was to dispute a charge from a shop that had double charged me. That was resolved in a week as well

If you continue to use your plat charge card don't be surprised if they:

• Cut off your card without warning

• Request payment up to a month before the printed due date on the bill

• Have to ring back several times before getting a resoultion as the first and second people you speak to don't do what they say

• Attempt to use their travel services and end up paying much more than you could when booking yourself online

 

[parksie]

Gee,

The Amex experience sounds enticing so far!

What is the Westpac KF card?

Thanks for your comments - makes me feel like I am not the only one who is feeling unloved.

 

[lovestotravel]

Yeh they have gone downhill over the past few years! Lots of "competition" out there now with all the platinum cards, but the Amex charge card still has the best overall Membership Rewards program.

As for the Westpac card
http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/com...ac-singapore-krisflyer-credit-card-17536.html

KrisFlyer

 

[Dave Noble]

As I stated before - we usual send TT's for this kind of amount however I was led to believe from years of Amex Platinum marketing that there is no limit when you are a member of the Platinum card.

I am now unable to use the card until the statement is paid.

In the time that this thread has been running, a payment could have been electronically made and all would now be closed to being resolved

 

[Dave Noble]

If I had a client that had an impeccable payment history since 1990 I would have handled his / her case on an individual basis and would not treat this customer like a customer without trading history.


I do not feel privileged in the slightest to hold an American Express Platinum card and isn't this how you are supposed to feel?

You have made purchases that are well outside normal levels of spending and AMEX feel that this is a risky level and so have restricted access; this is called sensible risk management

Why should you feel privileged to hold a piece of plastic ? it is just a card for making purchases

Dave

 

[parksie]

Dave,

I can make the payment right now.

I could have made it yesterday.

In fact I would have been better off not using the card at all for the $27,000 purchase!

However this is not the point.

I am on not able to use the card until I pay - and this is the point I am trying to make.

I have not received the statement, I have a great credit history, I am not outside of the terms of the payment agreement.

Surprised you are not getting it?

Do you work for American Express?

 

[Binxx]

First Amex issue you with a charge card with $x limit

They do not have an issue when you spend $x per month and pay it back in full for years and years.

Out of the blue one month you spend a large amount and they rightly should question it as the card could have been stolen and the spend is outside your spend pattern.

Next is the interesting bit

No way should they ask for the money back and put a stop on the card. This is akin to a kind of extortion.

What if one does not have any other cards?

If I were you, I would write and explain to them the position they have put you in and wave them good bye.

+1 here for Westpac Cards and customer service