Complaint Rating:

Company information:
American Express
PO Box 981540
El Passo, Texas
United States
Phone: 1-800-528-4800
americanexpress.com

BEWARE OF PAYING AMEX BILL EARLY. Three times in this last year I paid my amrican Express bill early. What you need to know and be aware of is that if you pay your bill after the previous due date, but before the closing date, AMEX will apply that payment to the previous billing cycle. Example: If your due date is the 21st and the closing date is the 1st and you pay your bill during that period the payment is considered to have been made prior to the 21st regardless of when it was received. Don't beleive me? TRY IT! I did it 3 times in last year and each time I did it I was credited with 2 payments in one month and none in the next, assessed a late fee, and subject to an APR increase.
My company prefers we all have an AMEX card and so I brought this to the attention of some of my colleages and told them to watch out. Of the 4 pesons I informed, one looked back and found that the same thing had happened to him - twice!

If you call them on it they'll back out the late fee but if they bump the rate you won't know until the next bill and then you really have to work hard to get the rate back because the calcualtors are working daily on your balance (and you never really figure out if they got it right or not).

How's I get there?: I've tried for years to get AMEX to change my due dates to on or after the first of the month (because I get paid on the 1st) and I wanted to pay all my bills at the same time. They refused for years until this last March when a representative said to me "no problem" and supposedly change the date to the 1st. What really happened? They SKIPPED my next bill - just never created one - then hit me HARD with a triple whammy: APR increase, late fee, larger interest accrued (becasue the number of days in the billing cycle essentially doubled) and - ready for this? - moved the due date from the 27th to the 21st!!

So after 15 years with AMEX I had enough and cancelled my card. I'll have the balance paid of in a few months and be putting they in my rearview mirror.