AMEX card holder since 1974. Always paid off the entire balance every month. Used it three times Sunday night, Nov 9, 2008, for about $200 total. Less than 24 hours later, a $50+ was denied at a grocery store BECAUSE I HAD NEVER SHOPPED THERE BEFORE! Don't ever recall being declined before.

First, that's bull. It had been two years since I shopped in one of those stores, but I had shopped with them before.

Second, TRY and get a believable answer by calling one of their "service" numbers. You end up talking to someone in India who obviously has no idea what standing in a grocery line is about and told me I should have called them on the spot to clear up the matter! Next time, I'm leaving the groceries and walking out.

Third, even if it WAS a fraudulent charge, it was just above $50. Technically, I'm responsible for teh first $50 of fraudulent activity and they cover the rest. So why decline a charge that's so small? Seems more like harassment than protection to me!

I have had my gold card for 9 years. I have always paid my balances, even through a bad period, 6 years ago, when I let other cards balances be delinquent due to medical bills.

The one thing I always appreciated with AMEX was their awesome customer service. The about 3 years ago, I noticed they had begun outsourcing customer service and billing questions to a call center in India. There were more instances of what I would term poor communication: speaking with a rep in India, being assured that a payment would post... and then finding out it had not.

I never had a pre-set credit limit, and always paid off my card every month. However, about a year ago I had a family emergency and was unable to pay off the entire $2500.00 balance in one month. I called customer service, and they helped me set up a three-month pay off plan. I followed through, and did not miss a payment.

It wasn't until the last four months, that I ever again carried over a balance, but they never complained.

Then last week I paid off the entire balance to zero. I was thrilled that I was finally caught up.

Yesterday, a small charge with Amazon.com was denied. Curious, I called AMEX. The rep told me that my card had been canceled. I asked why in the world would they cancel my card when I had just paid them in full last week. I even talked to them on the phone last Friday to make sure my online payment went through.

The rep told me he didn't know, but that if I wanted my card "re-instated" I would have to pay $45.00.

I told him that was perfectly ridiculous and asked to speak to a supervisor. The rep cut me off.

I called back again, and then, after telling the same story to another rep, she said she would transfer me to a supervisor.

I waited for 30 minutes (timed it on my cell) until a person reading from a script (obviously not in the US), with a very heavy accent, told me that because I had something unfavorable in my credit report from the past, which was noted by a credit reporting agency, my card had been canceled.

She then offered to reinstate the card for a charge of $25.00.

When I asked to speak to her supervisor, I was told that he would not be able to do anything else for me. I told her to go ahead and transfer me anyway. She then cut me off.

At first I was mad. Then I felt hurt. I have used this card ethically for 9 years, and always paid my bills. My credit score is not perfect, it is 658.

But I have been striving to make it better every year.

My sense is that AMEX will be doing this to hundreds of us Americans over the coming months, and as they lay-off thousands of employees, those trying to communicate with them will be waiting for hours on the phone, and never be able to resolve problems.

I, like many Americans, needed my credit card for making reservations for business travel, shopping at Costco, and purchasing business supplies.

We are going to see greater repercussions; other businesses rely on us using our credit cards online, and during holidays. It will be interesting to see what happens to this "house of interconnected cards" as the months roll on.

We taxpayers may have bailed out the banks, but the banks are holding us up with threats of cancellations, higher fees, and trumped up charges.

Beware of American Express. With my husband's advice, I took the scissors to the gold card last night, and I look forward to a class action suit against them!

I have been a client for American Express since 2000, today Saturday 1st of November I was notify that my Gold Card ( "not preset limit card") was reduce to a max spend limit of $2800. I have never missed a payment for this company in 8 years and they did not have the courtesy to give me at least 24-48 hours prior notification of this change so I can re arrange all my already scheduled payments that go out on the first of every month. Today is the first of November Amex says that they made that decision yesterday, why didn't they call yesterday? why wait until Saturday? why didn't they at least give me a prior notification of this change and since when it will be effective? Don't you think this is wrong? Don't you think this goes against the client rights? American Express gives a damn about their clients, now I have a lot of problems because the lack of professionalism of this company, and also the lack of respect and consideration for their clients. I used to have the platinum card with them also, they practically beg me to "upgrade" my card, when I realized it was a scam that was costing me over $400 at year I "downgraded to Gold" and now that I called to request 24-48 hours for this "max limit change" I was denied the right to it. If all my payments bounce because of this I want American Express to pay for this. I have been treated in the most disrespectful way, I feel insulted and used, it seems that American Express is a company that don't have rights for their clients and the worst part is that nobody does anything about this abuse to customer rights specially in these tough economic times, Amex protects only their interests and not his clients interests, they use their clients for profit and does not care about us, Us who made them who they are.
And you know why they lower my spend limit? because like almost any property owner I'm going through a short sale process, IF AMERICAN EXPRESS WANTED TO MADE CHANGES THEY SHOULD CONSIDER THE FACT THAT I'M A HUMAN BEING WITH PLANS AND RIGHTS AND GIVE AT LEAST A COURTESY CALL OF 48 HOURS OF ANTICIPATION DURING A BUSINESS DAY SO I CAN RE-ARRANGE MY LIFE, DON'T YOU THINK?, BUT NOT I DON'T HAVE A 740 SCORE ANYMORE SO I'M USELESS TO THEM EVEN THOUGH FOR 8 YEARS I MADE PAYMENTS ON TIME, EVEN THOUGH I MADE THEM LOTS OF MONEY, WHERE IS THE CONSIDERATION AND THE RESPECT? WHERE IS THE BALANCE OF RIGHT AND WRONGS? WHO PROTECT US AGAINST THIS ? WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE WORKS FOR THIS COMPANY THAT THEY DO NOT HAVE A SENSE OF WHAT IS RIGHT AND WHAT IS NOT RIGHT? HOW CAN YOU TELL SOMEBODY THAT EVEN THOUGH HE HAS BEEN AN EXCELLENT CLIENT FOR OVER 8 YEARS HE HAS NOT RIGHT AND AMEX CAN SCREW HIM OVER ANYTIME THEY WANT.
I BELIEVE WE LIVE IN THE GREATEST COUNTRY, I WANT TO KNOW NOW WHERE ARE MY RIGHTS.
IS SOMEBODY WANTS TO SUE AMERICAN EXPRESS COUNT ON ME FOR IT. THERE IT MUST BE A RIGHT IN THAT BIG LAW BOOK THAT PROTECT US AGAINST THIS

Hi,

I hope someone can give me contacts ( people ), addresses and telephone numbers to resolve my problem and re-instate my cards.

On Tuesday, October 28, 2008. I received a call from my accounts manager ( never knew I even had one) at American Express asking why $56, 000 had been run through my merchant account machine my companies' Platinum Card.

I explained that I had a customer in the Bahamas whose card that would not work ( to pay for a printing job) and that I swiped my own card to see if my machine was broken. I know a " REALLY DUMB " thing to do ... and I did it 3 times ) ANOTHER DUMB THING ... but you can see I am telling the TRUTH ... and I thought I was putting in $18.00 NOT $18, 000. So I told the guy, " Hey I'm sorry, won't do it again, it was a mistake" ! So he says well isn't not that simple .. "this is fraud (none of the swipes went through), and it's a serious violation and ALL your cards are CANCELLED.

He further went on to say, that the CANCELLATION of ALL my cards will be reported to ALL CREDIT Reporting Agencies (Closed Due to Fraud) which will lower your FICO score, and upon review we may ask ALL OUTSTANDING balances be PAID IN FULL immediately (approximately $86, 000) and ALL your points 161, 396 have been forfeited / taken away.

Does anyone who I can contact who can take care of this ?? Any and all help appreciated.

Warning! amex will with no reason, justification or cause take away your credit limits and destroy your credit score! They are currently gutting loyal clients credit lines, and destroying good honest peoples credit scores! By destroying the credit score they are single handed making the credit crisis much worse. By destroying my score, they just caused a loan to my business to be declined and caused it to close, putting several out of work. DONT TRUST YOUR FINANCIAL LIFE TO AMEX> They dont care about their customers and have no loyalty, even to customers of over 20 years! With so many good credit card companies like Chase, B of A etc.. dont let amex screw you like they just did me.