After 5 years of good payments, and some minor hick-ups, I fell behind in paying on time each month. Although my payments were sometimes late, they were made. On my last billing statement, my balance was $1400. I paid them $700 knowing some new charges were coming. Promptly after receiving their $700 they cancelled my card. In doing that, I had to prioritize, and pay other bills.

Now, they have sicked some awful Collection Agency on me. I explained the situation and tried to be nice. Now they call every week, wanting their last $1200. When I told them I would pay on the first of the month, they wanted $100 now. I told them NO! When I mentioned "harassment" the operator went CRAZY.

If at all possible, do not get this card. They love you when you pay, but when you don't, they sick the dogs on you. Try to pay your debts as much as you can, but steer clear of these people.

I am now boycotting ANYTHING to do with American SUCKSASS.

My husband and I have been an American Express Card carrier for close to 10 years now. We have never been late on a payment since we have had the card. This now being the second time this year that we have received a notice that our interest rate is increasing. The rate will be going to close to 20%. All the bills that we have are paid before the due date, but it seems that American Express is punishing their good customers. Next we are waiting for them to start lowering our credit limit and hurting our FICO score. In this economy everybody needs a good FICO score. I called twice to speak to someone about lowering our interest rate, but they would not budge. It is wrong that American Express is allowed to hurt customer's FICO scores. I have looked into starting a class action suit for all the grief they are causing not to mention the stress. This is very wrong and American Express should be liable for what they have done to good paying customers.

I will try to summarize a very disturbing action that was taken by American Express with my AMEX credit cards. For the past 23 years, My wife and I have had AMEX credit cards. In particular, My wife and I had a Platinum card and a "Blue" card. A few years ago, I applied for an AMEX business card to be used by myself and my administrator for business expenses. Everything went fine.

In late April, on a weeked, my platinum card was denied at a local restaurant. This had occasionally happened in the past and it was always due to a potential security break and AMEX would contact me to check on a questionable charge. This is obviously a good thing and I was always impressed.

This time I never received a call so on Monday morning, May 4, I called the AMEX Platinum number and was told that my Platinum card had been cancelled. Not only had my and my wife’s Platinum card been cancelled, but they also cancelled our Blue cards and my business card!

It took the better part of the week and a total of 8 hours and three days on the phone to find someone who could tell me why they cancelled all of my cards. It turns out that my company business has its own merchant account and during the previous week, my secretary had reason to believe that there was a problem with our merchant account and used my business card to do a test of the system. Apparently, using my business card on our merchant account was in violation of AMEX policies and they automatically cancelled all of my cards. I was told that I should have known this since it is part of the 10 page, number 2 font, terms of agreement that I received with the issueing of the card. I never received any call or notification from them that this was going to happen or that it already happened! They told me on the phone that a first class letter was mailed to me informing me of the situation. To this day I have not received any formal, written notification. I proceeded to request that my annual Platinum fee be returned since I paid that in March leaving me with less than a month of account use. Platinum card fees are $425 for my card and approximately $200 for my wife's.

As of June 18th, I have not received even a prorated refund, and trying to communicate with AMEX results in me wasting my time for at least 2 hours with every call. I mentioned to an account representative from North Carolina that every communication I have with AMEX seems to disappear into a great big black hole. He assured me that he would personally take care of the matter and call me back before the end of the day. He has never called back and it has now been almost 2 weeks. I asked him for a telephone number to contact him and he graciously gave me his “direct” line. That number turns out to be their direct line to their “big black hole”. It is answered by a machine!

Four weeks ago I wrote a letter to a VP who's name I was given, to explain the situation. I have yet to hear from her or even receive an acknowledgement! I would really appreciate your help in this matter. I don't know who else to turn to. It is extremely frustrating. By the way in case you are wondering, they have confirmed that my credit history has been fine and has nothing to do with this whole bizarre episode.

All American Express cardmembers by now should have received the August 2009 letter from Amex stating the huge rate increase and the changes in the terms of the Amex contract. All members should be outraged at this despicable act by this company prior to the first stage of the Credit Card Reform Act of 2009.

There are many sites discussing this travesty by a company who as recent as April 2008 testified before the House Financial Services Sub-committee this would never occur. American Express Executive VP and GM of the Consumer Card Division spoke on behalf of Amex stated adamantly, "We do not increase an individual customer's interest rate-or APR-for any reason other than the customer's performance on that particular account."

He also testified, "As you know, the capital markets are experiencing considerable uncertainty, which has had an impact on the cost of commercial borrowing. Even for well-capitalized, A-rated companies, like American Express, interest rate spreads are extremely high. This means that the rate reductions American Express has passed along to consumers have exceeded the reduction in our own cost of funds. As I mentioned earlier, American Express will not increase an individual Cardmember's interest rate based on their performance with other lenders, or based on a change in our cost of funds."

All Amex Cardmembers need to join together and loudly voice their objections to this act by American Express. I urge all cardmembers who are fed up with being pushed around and lied to by companies like American Express to sign the petition at,

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/amexcardmembersprotest/index.html

and get in your voice against this wrongful, dishonorable, and despicable act by American Express against their loyal customers who have honored their commitment to Amex by paying their accounts on time and in good order. The American Express vow to all their "good" customers is “GOOD CREDIT DESERVES GREAT REWARDS”.

Sign our petition and be a part of a unified voice against American Express. Again:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/amexcardmembersprotest/index.html

Thanks on behalf of all Amex cardmembers.

Would someone at American Express please tell Christopher Jackson who is the Procurement Manager for American Express at 200 Vesey Street, New York, New York, to stop sending harassing emails while he is at work. This is against the law and against the policies of American Express. <br />
His email addresses are: [email protected], he is sending harassing personal emails from his work computer and from his Verizon Blackberry on American Express Company time, this is theft of services and he should be terminated ASAP.