American Express
reviews and complaints

On 12/9/20 we bought 14 Amex gift cards which were delivered on 12/11/20. 7 were in $50 denomination, 7 were in $200 denomination. Yesterday we found out 4 cards were compromised this year: one $50 card completely at 7-11 in June, one $200 card completely at an arcade in Denver in January, one $200 card for $98.06 at PayPal in November and one $200 card for $110.00 at PayPal in September.

The American Express Gift Card department will not help beyond giving merchants’ phone numbers or reimburse us for our loss, stating the cardholder’s agreement does not obligate them to investigate fraudulent transactions or issue refunds.

I was given an American Express gift card, I went online to check my balance on Oct. 9th 2022. Unfortunatly I went to a scam web site made to look just like the American express gift card site, obviosly I did not know that at the time. I put in my card info only to be directed to a Target web site?! No balance was given. I knew then SOMETHING WAS NOT RIGHT! 1 hour later I went to use my gift card, at Walmart and my money was gone! Somehow someone online used my GC at SEPHORA. $232.00

I called Amex... they said for me to call Sephora and try to cancel the order. I called Sephora they said they would send a reversal, and It may take a few weeks, but to check back with them. That did not happen. AMERICAN EXPRESS told me they would reimberse me when Sephora canceld the order. NOTHING WAS DONE ON EITHER END. American express allowed for the process and Sephora also did not reverse the transaction. I Gave my info phone number and FULL gift card number, to never hear back from anyone. I called amex just before Halloween to seewhen I can expect my new card in the mail. Only to be told to wait longer, because Sephora had not reversed the transaction. SO BOTH COMPANYS ALLOWED FOR ONLINE FRAUD to process. I have the full card number and it is in my physical hands. I CAN PROVE IT, I can prove who bought me the card. I can tell you also American Express customer service lerson told me they recieve the hightest amout of fraud with thier Gift cards. They know of the fraud activity and have no plan to help those how become victims if this online fraud.

Today I was denied a hardship request due to my disability and was transferred 5 times and then denied a request for a manager. I have paid my credit card bill on time monthly and previously set up a higher monthly amount to pay off my bill early before becoming temporary disabled. according to the website this company has an hardship department but are denying my request.

Hello, I made a Electronic Payment of 250.00 With My Debit Card from my Chase Privat Cliant card rto American Express and the transaction was sent back as they say they could not process . I was billed a 35.00 Returned payment. I have pleanty of money in my account and have had your american express Business card since the early 80s I made a previous payment and it went right threw.A Phone call would have been nice to straighten it out My Bank said they show no request for payment. I was not satisfied with the answer i recieved from your customer Service Dept. I was told there was nothing they could do about the charge, Stated It was a computer era . But Whos. Should have been handled better.

Sincerely Frank Usher

Card No 24005

American Express - Had a contract which included ACH payments. The company continued to deduct payment beyond the amount due. When it was brought to their attention, they finally stopped the monthly payments. When the overpayment refund was requested, both verbally and in writing on several occasions, our efforts were ignored.

Please assist in the recovering the $4,343.90 funds that were stole by American Express. Any and all records originally used in the attempt to recover the funds will be provided upon your request.

Stephen J. Squeri 

Chairman And Chief Executive Officer

200 Vesey Street New York, NY [protected]

RE: Callous Behavior Received 

Dear Mr. Squeri,

As an American Express cardholder of over thirty three (33) years and having spent close to Two Thousand Dollars in membership fees. I have concluded American Express shows long time customers a despicable lack of consideration as it applies to Customer Service. On March 24, 2022, I purchased Ink Cartridges for my HP Printer from NeedInk.com for $67.99 .  For the record, I purchase these items in advance in order to have when needed.  On October 18, 2022, when I placed these new cartridges into my printer, it informed me the HP chip was missing and the cartridges would not work.  As I had similar problems in past cartridges, I contacted the company, however, they informed me it was the fault of HP.  I proceeded to call HP and was informed this was not possible as my printer has not received updates in over three years as the warranty is out of service.   I called NeedInk back and they were extremely rude and condescending refusing to replace the cartridges as they did in the past.  However, on their website they offer a one (1) year Guarantee of replacement.  Refer to https://needink.com/guarantee/I requested help for American Express to intercede to help me obtain a replacement and was shown disparate treatment.   As this company is an American Express merchant, I expect American Express to help me in convincing NeedInk to replace the bad cartridges, as my request was denied by your merchant that is defrauding and deceiving me. Once again as a 3 decade member, I believe this courtesy should be extended to me.Carol [protected]@aol.com

We (our businesses) have had three credit cards with American Express for many years. We recently received notice in writing and via a phone call that all our American Express cards have been cancelled for the reason of, "based on regulatory guidelines." That was all they would tell us. Our attempts to reach out to American Express to solicit both a more detailed reason and to rectify the matter results in our being told by all representatives that they can tell us nothing further. We have no unpaid balance, no late payments and have been their customer for over twenty plus years. Our credit scores appear to be good. Our bank can not even understand why this happened and are shocked by the lack of explaination.

I was late on my payment due to unforeseen circumstances and they add extra charges to it . During the period I received more than 5 emails from them and not phone call.

I call them and make the full payment with extra after 15 days later I wanted to use the card, the card was declined I gave them another call and I was told because of the late payment that’s why. I ask simply question why couldn’t they send me email or call me to discuss this with me as a customer? And I have been with them since 2012.

I was ask to provide my three month bank statements which I did after the review I received email to call them, I did call and the lady said to me because I have U.K. bank account my card should be cancelled ,I ask question don’t I have the right to work outside Netherlands? And she said my limit now is 500 because I have U.K. bank account. I was not happy with that so I ask for email address to complain… she go online but the card will be cancel I ask her don’t I have the right to complain of am not happy? She said yes , I told her if the outcome of that complain am not happy I will cancel the card.. she quickly should I cancel it ? I said no. And I ask for her name.

Can I have a policy of American Express Netherlands? Thanks.

To Whom It May Concern:

I am a merchant who provides beauty services as part of my living. On August 21, 2022, one of your customers visited my business at 828 Merrick Road, Baldwin, NY 11510 for services for a full set of long nails, a removal, brow styling, nail art, and a pedicure to just call your company to claim fraud on the use of her card and return the money. This client deliberately planned to use your company to take back the money by using the purchases of my company gift card services instead using of her AMEX card directly. She additional purchased two more gift cards DURING her services without informing me of it instead of waiting until she was to be asked for payment for additional charges. The actions of this client are not normal protocol with any client I had dealt with in the last 38 years of doing this profession. Your client had blazingly committed a criminal act of misdemeanor in the state of New York by stealing services without the intention of paying for them. I'm very disappointed that your company is in support of thieves just because of what stories they claim to be the truth.

I have been an American Express Optima cardholder for 43 years. I have never missed a payment since the inception of my account. I filed a complaint with them regarding the manner in which they arbitrarily decide who get interest rate increases on their credit card. A month has passed and I have not heard back from anyone at AE. Since I've been a stellar customer for 43 years, it is disturbing for me to have no advance knowledge of their interest rate increases. I pay my bill online and look over my account charges at that time. At no time did American Express provide me notice of any interest rate increase. Had they done so, I would have not used the card. This is a deceptive practice of hiking interest rates and not providing adequate notice to the consumer so the consumer can decide whether or not to use the card. And, of course, they said its due to the prime rate; however, AE has complete control and authority to not raise rates to the highest percentage of 25.49%.

Over the years American Express had made thousands of dollars charging me interest on my card. I have asked them, as a 43 year loyal customer to lower my card interest rate. No response whatsoever. This is a deceptive practice and should not be allowed to occur to consumers. I would like my interest rate lowered.

American Express boulevard app is very misleading and very technically not Savage where they charge you to try and put another debit card or link any other type of debit card to your blue word debit card..

I currently have 14 transactions standing back from September 27th 2022 made by merchants like Google AdWorks and venmo and PayPal and consecutive small increments of 10 cents per transaction and to this day September 2nd each transaction from Google AdWords and venmo and PayPal are still in hold so I can't dispute my transactions with the fraud department for American Express bluebird..

On the flip side every check that I've tried to do a mobile check with comes back from bluebird as they can't see the check but they tried to take the funds from the check because I get a call from the owner of the check which is my ex employer ADP because American Express bluebird has a glitch in their app they say but the third party vendor for the app is indigo for mobile check and they take out $5 per check if you want to do it instant or they make you wait a days calendar days to do it for free.

I have three returns from cvs.com two of the returns went back smoothly from the merchant to American Express bluebird the third and final one is for $19.61 and it is in review by American Express bluebird for 7 days and they won't release my funds knowing that the money is there in my account but they will let me touch it because they want to review it for 7 days and cvs.com told me that they released the funds on the 1st of September to my account but I can't touch them in my account because American Express won't let me do it and they can't do anything about it from what they tell me so I have no funds in my account but money is coming out of my account by other merchants that aren't really other merchants they had my identity and American Express won't even cancel off my card but I tried to freeze my car with the app and people are still taking out 10 cent increment transactions throughout the day from Google AdWords and American Express customer service won't let me dispute anything cuz everything's on hold still in my transactional history from these three merchants that I don't use..

Hello,

I recently linked my outside banking account at !st MidAmerican Credit Union with my Bluebird American express card and transferred $200 dollars from my Bluebird card to my checking account at 1st MidAmerican Credit Union. The transfer showed for 2 days on my Bluebirds account as pending and on the 30th of August just disappeared from my transactions on my Bluebird account. I called Bluebird twice yesterday with no explanation as to why the transaction had disappeared. So they switch my called to technical and then had the transaction cancelled. I was told it would take 1-3 days for that to happen. So this morning the -200 reappeared on my account as a completed ACH transactions yesterday. It has not appeared in my !st MidAmerican Credit Union account as of 1:30 p.m. today. My name is Caroll Nannette Martinez

American express Card company received a balance transfer of $326.84 on 7/20/2022 and they are still stating they didn't receive payment. I have called them several times to explain that my new Citi Bank mastercard paid them on 7/20/22 and that Citi Bank has called them as well to try to resolve this balance. Also, American Express sent me a email (that I have) asking for my statement where it showed on 7/20/22 this balance was paid in which I did get confirmation they received my fax and also a verbal confirmation with American Express they did indeed receive my credit card statement showing the amount paid and date. I have been trying to resolve this matter for over a month now and I am not paying a balance that was already paid to them The dispute reference number is PCN8197 with American Express and the credit card ending is 4-81004. I.m asking for help for I don't know how else to resolve this and don't want my excellent credit ruined over their oversight of receiving the balance transfer that was paid to them for Citi Bank and I have tried several attempts now to get resolved. Thank you, Nancy Myrick

I received a gift card from a group of people out of state. The card was apparently not activated. Your customer service representative stated that nothing could be done without a receipt or that I would have to go to the store where it was purchased (in another state). The funds are unusable, I don’t have the original receipt and am not going to another state. Your policies are unreasonable and this is. A scam.

My name is Liza girges and I’m filing complaint against American Express . In December 2021 i opened card with American Express. On January 29, 2022, my card was stolen . I have filed for fraud with them my fraud case is for $21,849.07 they don’t want to give it to me they shut down my card they don’t want to re -open the credit team closed it without even knowing about my fraud case I truly need help either they open my card or return my money via check

Purchased an American express gift card on July 22, 2022. Tried to use gift card same day. Was denied. Reason given was you need to wait 24 hours. Next day tried to use it, and it had balance of zero because it was stolen from the day before when I tried to use. I believe American express should refund my money of $500 dollars. They have nothing on card saying you need to wait 24 hours before using. I am 78 years old and money doesn't come easy to get. This $500 was to be used for my security . I had never heard you need to wait 24 hours to use a gift card. Will never use American express again if they don't make this right.

Card holder for 4 years. I had autopay set to pay the full balance every month 10 days early. Recently, I paid the minimum due for 1 month, then back to paying in full on autopay. Amex, without notice, limits my card to 2k a month. This renders the card useless, as that won't even cover monthly bills and is too difficult to keep up with constantly paying to keep it current to cover auto drafts. I call and question it and all I get is questions about my personal and work business. They tell me to fill out paperwork that they will send and then they will evaluate it. Never received any paperwork via mail or email in which I have received amex correspondences in both historically. I used their credit check option in the amex app to see if something changed and my credit had improved due to paying off a mortgage in full. Horrible customer service on the 3 calls it took to resolve nothing.

Next, the app has ridiculous password constraints that are useless and a security problem. It will not let me use any of my normal password patterns that are 16 characters, capitals, symbols, numbers, and punctuation included. Therfore I always end up trying so many times for it to take a password that I don't remember what the last attempt was. I got a new phone and try to reset password and end up in a card verifying, password/username loop that never ends. I finally call customer service and they, after 17 minutes, give me a temp password to enter and I finally get logged into the app. Upon further investigation, it says the card is canceled and I am not able to utilize any of the options.. when going to log out, I notice the card picture looks different and find that they had me logged into an account I had for a business corporate card for a company I hadn't worked for in 3 years and has been canceled since the day I quit the job. The only good thing about this was that it might have justified some of the previous lack of customer svc due to their rediculous confusion of the 2 accounts that I had never even considered. Also of this stemmed from not being able to use an email address for a username. Instead I forced to choose a username that I was unfamiliar with as it wouldn't take my normal username I use. Now I know why, because I had used it for the canceled Corp card.. regardless the login page shows asterisks for the last portion of the username and the visible portion was the beginning of my normal user name the therefore when switching to a new phone, I assumed it was just that. I just finally was able to successfully reset a password when I i found that it would allow much less secure passwords than I was trying. It took my first and last name as one word no caps 8 characters.. ridiculous...moving on, I close my bank account that amexnis drafting autopay from. My bill is due on the 10th and autopay already attempted when I login on the 30th prior to the 10th. Knowing it won't go through, I call customer service and attempt to make a payment with a visa check card that I have used in the past to make a payment. They will not take any form of payment but a linked checking account, providing an account and routing number. I again consider canceling the card, but decide to comply with their ridiculous requirements that were not enforced last time I had made a phone payment. I pay the same amount (the bill in full ) that autopay had attempted. The app shows that both cleared, with a "thank you for your payment" in the statement. Balance shows that I am overpaid by $663 but available balancento charge is $0.00 due to both transactions appearing to clear. I call and they can't do anything about it, rep is working a third party call center as usually and i cannot understand a word they are saying as usual. card gets declined and I see that it is overpaid. 4 days pass and the same situation. Amex requires a linked bank account but can't process a transaction in 4 business days? I then submit feedback on the app regarding the fact that their customer service has never solved a single issue while AMEX was at fault in all 4 attempts. The following day I get an email that my card is canceled with no explanation. I am not upset about the cancelation as they proven without a doubt that they are not capable of providing an honest, credible financial service of any kind. However I am upset that they would even consider taking this action after a continued display of unprofessional and unacceptable customer service on their part, and their policies making my use of their service a constant hassle. If you made it this far, you likely have read many of the other complaints and they paint a correct picture of a failing, disrespectful, and unprofessional company. Not a good choice when it comes to finances, there are other companies that want your business..

We signed up for the AX Gold 2 months ago. Now we know when they assign separate AX numbers to spouse/companion card. This way they can continue to have you pay for baggage. VERY deceptive advertising! The first time used was by the spouse to travel to her mother funeral.

We will be paying card off and cancelling. Wish to give our business to an honest company.

AMEX ASSURANCE COMPANY will take 1 Month to read in detail everything possible to deny the claim, nothing wrong with that since I cannot blame them for doing business. I blame myself for not reading the "fine print" in detail. Trips cancellation are most of the time issues because of boarding denial for Visas, COVID or other situations out of your control, AMEX ASSURANCE COMPANY does not cover any of this. Stop thinking that they will understand your situation and see in detail all proofs provided: it will be denied. So before spending your money on them if you think they will cover "any reason" for trips cancellations or delays. (No matter the level of coverage you buy: Platinum in my case). They are very strong when giving you the answer, and they will go all the way to deny the claim. Look at the pictures included. In a time where COVID is affecting the country, what other issues affect trip cancellations? I thought I was covered when I purchased this expensive ($380.00 Extra trip coverage - Platinum), I was wrong.

Amex travel ID #: [protected]

My husband and I attempted on 7/12 to have our flight changed on 7/13 to an earlier flight. We went through 2 different representatives who kept verifying us and repeating themselves over and over again. We were on the phone for over an hour and a half with the second representative saying she needed to verify and placing us on hold for 3 to 4 mins every 10 mins until she just hung up on us. We never received a call back which was also infuriating considering they kept asking us for a call back number.

I tried contacting customer service by phone and email and couldn't get through to anyone. Email said it's invalid. Customer.[protected]@americanexpress.com. Literally searched for 20mins looking of how to send a complaint to Amex to no avail.

All we wanted to do was see how much an earlier flight would cost and change it. A simple yes or no and how much and it could of been solved.

That was one of the most frustrating and miserable customer service experiences we've had in a very long time and considering how much we use our platinum card and the fee associated with it. We expect better. We no longer want to use or recommend others to use Amex for traveling because we can't trust it'll be taken care of if something goes wrong.