Consumer complaint received 2021-03-26
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: MA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-issue: Didn't receive advertised or promotional terms

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2021 I was applied for and was approved for a Platinum Card from American Express after being offered a sign up bonus of XXXX points ( Equivalent to at least {$1500.00} cash ) after spending {$15000.00} in the first three months. In the terms and conditions of this offer American Express specifically indicated certain charges that will not count towards the {$15000.00} spending requirement. The following is the quote from their terms and conditions : " Eligible purchases do NOT include fees or interest charges, purchases of traveler 's checks, purchases or reloading of prepaid cards, purchases of gift cards, person-to-person payments, or purchases of any cash equivalents '' On XX/XX/2021 I made a {$6000.00} payment to XXXX XXXX XXXX, and on XX/XX/2021 I made a {$9000.00} payment to The Village Experience both using my American Express Platinum Card. Both of these organizations are registered 501 ( c ) 3 nonprofits doing wildlife conservation work. I additionally made several smaller charges, but would be unable to meet the {$15000.00} requirement without these charges. 

Upon not receiving the bonus in a timely manner, I contacted Amex first through online chat and then by phone the next day. Several Amex representatives including a manager indicated that charitable donations are considered " Cash Equivalents '' and as per the terms and conditions do not count towards the spending threshold. I explained that no reasonable person would consider a charitable donation to be a cash equivalent, and that I believed American Express was not upholding the terms of their contract. The manager further explained that since a donation was basically just a transfer of cash to me to the charity, that is considered cash equivalent. I explained to here that in that case, anything is a cash equivalent : for example, when I buy groceries with my American Express card, I am simply transferring cash to the grocery store. She was not moved by this argument. My understanding, and I believe the common understanding, of a cash equivalent, is when I receive cash directly - for example, getting cash back at a grocery store or using the card at an ATM. The examples given by Amex in their own terms and conditions ( quoted above ) also indicate that these are the types of transactions they are talking about. Furthermore, I would like to point out that these terms exist to prevent abuse. For example, if I was able to withdraw {$1000.00} in cash from an ATM using my credit card, I could use that to pay off the credit card balance and repeat this process indefinitely. This would allow me to accumulate an unlimited number of rewards points, which American Express is certainly correct to disallow. There is absolutely no possibility of abusive behavior like this when donating to charity. 

Finally, I would also like to note that I have made many charitable donations using other credit cards from other banks and have never been denied rewards for such. It is common practice in the industry to treat charitable donations as normal spending and not as cash equivalent. A quick XXXX search reveals many articles advising consumers of which credit cards to use for charitable spending to maximize rewards, for example : XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX/ I would like to point out that all three of these articles recommend using American Express cards to make charitable donations XXXX First of all, this clearly attests to the common understanding that credit cards, including American Express cards, earn points on charitable spending. More importantly, all three of these sites receive compensation from card issuers for referring new cardholders, hence they are acting as advertising agents for the card issuers. XXXX  in particular states that they receive compensation from American Express for referring customers ( XXXX XXXX XXXX ). Hence the article encouraging consumers to use American Express cards for charitable spending is essentially an advertisement from American Express with fraudulent claims.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation