Consumer complaint received 2017-05-14
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: NY
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Sub-issue: Account status incorrect

Complaint:
American Express ( AMEX ) h as failed to perform the full set of remedies they agreed to in response to my previous related complaint, filed with CFPB in  XXXX  relating to events that occurred in  XXXX . I have included a copy of that complaint below, setting forth the details. Moreover, despite reasonable efforts on my part to request that they complete this performance, AMEX has been unable or unwilling to complete the necessary actions.     I consider this failure extremely serious. It has caused concrete material and significant harm to my credit rating due to AMEXs initial errors, compounded by AMEXs failure to follow its own procedures, its failure to fix the problem it had caused at the original time it was detected, and now its ongoing failure to fix the error it has acknowledged, and committed to rectify. It is also causing me personal distress as a result.     To start on a positive note, in response to my previous CFPB complaint in  XXXX   XXXX  AMEX acknowledged in writing their erroneous actions that had caused the situation, including their failure to follow their own procedures. AMEX followed through on a portion of the remediation in that it reinstated my platinum card account, and restored my Membership Rewards miles.     However, AMEX has not fulfilled its commitment to take the necessary steps to rectify the harm to my credit rating at consumer credit rating agencies caused by their improper actions and by their own reporting to the credit agencies that resulted from their own improper actions.     Specifically, my credit rating reports from AMEX for relevant periods in  XXXX  wrongfully show that I have past due, seriously past due and then delinquent payment status resulting in account closure. An example is attached to this complaint. This has caused enormous damage to my  XXXX   XXXX , which has fallen from an excellent score in the  XXXX  prior to this situation to a current rating of  XXXX . The report shows this as the sole material negative event so it is quite clearly and wrongfully directly continuing to cause me major harm.     As I detailed more fully in my original complaint, and as  AMEX ac knowledged, my account was current at all times during the relevant period. The issue was that AMEX had kept a  XXXX , old account open without my knowledge or clear proper notice I had understood it to have been terminated due to suspected fraudulent activity. AMEX continued to accrue other new charges to this account, sent bills and past due notices to an old address ( while sending new bills on the new account to the new address ), and then closed both the new account ( despite its being in perfect standing and current status ) and the old account when the old account fell into delinquency.     My credit history with respect to  American Express  must be corrected to be conclusively shown as perfect and pristine during  XXXX  in all respects at all consumer credit reporting agencies.     My recent efforts in  XXXX  and  XXXX   XXXX  to resolve this through AMEX Platinum cardholder customer service and the  American Express  credit reporting bureau have revealed that there is no person with sufficient access to information and authority to provide this type of error correction to credit bureaus. This is unacceptable, and it is wrongfully continuing to cause me material harm as well as personal distress.     I would note that  AMEX has provided no way to reach the AMEX  employee who reviewed the prior complaint.     In addition, in my prior complaint I had requested restitution of all interest, late fees and penalties that I had paid in  XXXX  in connection with these events. AMEX has not yet provided me with a statement itemizing what these were nor has it provided me with restitution of these amounts.     Therefore I am requesting the following.      1. AMEX s hould designate a responsible individual with the necessary authority and accountability, and access to the necessary information and systems, to rectify this situation. This persons contact information should promptly be provided to me in writing.    2. AMEX  should take all necessary actions at all consumer credit reporting agencies, such that the past due, delinquency and amount closure are cleansed or forgotten, and provide documentary evidence when all the ratings have been corrected. It is outrageous that my credit history should show past due or delinquent status, as well as account closure for nonpayme nt ( or  any reason ), when all of these events were caused b y American Expresss  failure to follow its own procedures, its failure to send bills to the correct address, and other acknowledged errors and deceptive practices.    3. AMEX s hould bear the costs of all credit reports I request from all agencies from todays date until the date three years after the ratings have been corrected consistent with this complaint and my prior complai nt 4. AMEX sh ould provide me with copies of all documentation it provides to each of the agencie s 5. AMEX s hould provide me with any additional letter or documentation that I may request to correct this credit history and/or demonstrate to prospective employers or governmental authorities that these negative credit events were not my fault  6. AMEX s hould refund my annual membership fee for the last three years and waive my annual membership fee for the next 5 years.    7. AMEX s hould provide restitution of all interest, late fees and penalties I incurred in  XXXX .     In addition, I believe that both this complaint and my prior complaint are matte rs that AMEX  should have been able to address without the need for me to take the steps of filing complaints with the CFPB. However, no one  in AMEX c ustomer service has the necessary information or authority to do so. I believe AMEX should consider establishing, or be directed to establish, a function within customer care that has the necessary training, information and authority to resolve this type of problem without necessitating customers to go through these additional steps.      XXXX  Following is the original complaint I filed with CFPB in  XXXX   XXXX   American Express ( AMEX ) h as wrongfully closed my Platinum Card account, wrongfully deprived me of over  XXXX  Membership Miles, improperly deprived me of access to years ' worth of my records ( including records relevant to this complaint to CFPB ), wrongfully charged me late fees and penalties in amounts I am unable to determine without full access to my records. AMEX has provided misleading and/or deceptive information regarding my card account whose charging was terminated by  AMEX due to suspected fraudulent activity by unknown persons. AMEX dec eptively and without clear notice to me continued to cause charges to be incurred by the terminated card account, in contravention of past practice and in a deceptive manner. AMEX compounded this conduct by causing other charge s ( which  I paid in timely fashion ) to be incurred by the new replacement card. Amex has also submitted misleading credit reports that have damaged my credit rating, and has unfairly and in a retaliatory way denied me the opportunity to reopen an account and reestablish access to my Membership Miles.     I was  an American Express Plati num cardholder from  XXXX  until  XXXX .  American Express c ontacted me regarding possible fraud on my card in  XXXX   XXXX . An Amex rep told me that due to suspected attempted fraudulent activity on my card, they were immediately terminating any further charges on that card account, and sent me overnight a replacement card with a new account number. I promptly activated and began to use the replacement card. In  XXXX   XXXX  I changed my billing and mailing address, and received email confirmation from  Amex of  the change. I did not learn until many months later th at American Express ha d also kept the old fraud-associated card account open ( I understood they had closed it when their representative told me on the phone in approximately  XXXX   XXXX  that they were terminating any new charges on the card due to the possible fraudulent charges ). Amex continued to bill certain charges to the old fraud-associated account instead of the new account, which I did not see or know about. They sent bills for the old fraud-associated account to the old address, which I had changed officially with AMEX pursuant to procedures specified by AMEX, not my new address. They also charged late fees, interest and penalties to the old account.     I should note that at several times in the past prior to the  XXXX  events I had reported a lost or stolen card on my platinum account and received a replacement card. In every case, no further charges were billed on the old card, everything rolled onto the new card where I could plainly see it, and merchants were unable to charge the old card. This was the case as recently as three months previously, as indicated by  XXXX   XXXX ,  XXXX  email attached to my complaint submission. Therefore, based on past experience and past practice by Amex, I had no reason to think they would keep the old fraud-associated account open and bill charges there. I first learned of this problem in approximately  XXXX   XXXX  when I was contacted by phone by an Amex rep regarding past due charges on my account. This was a great surprise. My records confirm payments in full on  XXXX   XXXX ,  XXXX   XXXX ,  XXXX   XXXX , &  XXXX   XXXX ,  XXXX . At this time I learned of the second account, that being the old account with the fraud-associated card. The representative told me there were several months worth of late fees, interest & penalties. He agreed to waive 2 months worth, since the error was on the part of Amex in failing to notify me of the second account. I discovered in  XXXX   XXXX  that both accounts had thereafter been closed. However, the rep did not provide clear or adequate notice regarding the possibility that my account would be closed. I also lost access to more than  XXXX  Membership Rewards miles, which AMEX has refused to let me access or transfer

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief