Consumer complaint received 2018-06-17
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: CT
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-issue: Confusing or misleading advertising about the credit card

Complaint:
I have been an American Express cardmember since XXXX and have had their Platinum ( with {$550.00} annual fee ) for several years. On XX/XX/XXXX I navigated in my account page which they call MYCA, to Account Services->Card Management->Add Someone to My Account and added two family members as additional cardmembers via this webpage hosted by XXXX ( https : //www.americanexpress.comXXXX XXXX XXXX ). 

The website returned an error saying that my request would have to be reviewed and a decision would be sent to me within 7-10 days. I waited until Monday XX/XX/XXXX and called the XXXX new account desk to find out what was going on. The representative asked if I had a credit freeze on my credit file. I confirmed I do and that I was a victim of identity theft so there's a fraud victim statement as well as a freeze. I asked why that's relevant since we're only adding two people to my account and she advised that they don't need to run an inquiry against my report but they need to validate my personal information. I told her I'm applying for a mortgage and it's important that I don't have any hard inquiries appear on my report so I asked her to confirm that it was a soft inquiry versus a hard one. She confirmed twice more that it would be a soft inquiry at which point I lifted the freeze as she requested. Within 5 minutes she told me that everything was fine and I would be receiving the two additional cards within a week. 

The next day my credit monitoring services sent me several alerts that my credit hard been pulled. I retrieved a copy of my credit report and it turned out XXXX really did process a hard inquiry against my credit despite the assurances it would not happen. I immediately called XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX and the supervisor with whom I spoke assured me it was a mistake on their end and they would send a request to the bureau to remove the inquiry. I was told I would also receive a copy of the request within 7-10 days for my mortgage company. As part of the error they agreed not to charge me the {$170.00} fee for adding additional cardmembers to my account. 

As of XX/XX/XXXX the inquiry was still on my credit report and I never received any letters from XXXX so I called and spoke to supervisor XXXX. He noted that he saw record of my prior conversation and promised to send another copy of the letter. I asked to have one faxed or emailed as I was in the final week of mortgage approval and needed something to show my lender to avoid further delays and expiry of my rate lock. I pointed out to XXXX that not only did XXXX break the law by not obtaining my express informed consent to pull my credit ( required under the FCRA ), I explicitly advised the rep on XX/XX/XXXX that I did NOT authorize a hard inquiry, I noted to him that there are no disclosures appearing on the " add additional users '' page nor did the phone XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX provide any disclosures about pulling my credit. I also advised him I would be filing a CFPB complaint and that XXXX is putting my at risk of financial harm if they can't satisfy my request. Ultimately XXXX was unwilling to do anything aside from re-requesting a paper letter to be mailed to me ( which, as of XX/XX/XXXX, I still have not received ). 

I want American Express to 1 ) admit the error 2 ) fix their disclosures 3 ) apologize for breaking the law as well as 4 ) causing me undue stress and risking customer financial harm and 5 ) refund my {$550.00} annual card fee IN FULL.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief