Consumer complaint received 2017-08-04
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: MD
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-issue: Problem with rewards from credit card

Complaint:
I applied for the American Express Platinum card with American Express and got approved for the card on XXXX XXXX, 2016. The signup bonus of this card is receiving XXXX Membership Rewards by spending {$3000.00} with the card within 90 days from opening of the account. I met this spending requirement and received XXXX Membership Rewards on XXXX XXXX, 2016. As I noticed the card was not as good as I expected ( for example, the card was unexpectedly not widely accepted by many stores when I was traveling in XXXX, but I could use any XXXX or XXXX credit card ), I asked to close this account in early XXXX, 2016. Before I let the Amex representative to close the account, I asked the representative if I would lose the XXXX Membership Rewards after the account was closed. I was assured by the representative that no Membership Rewards in my account would be lost, including these XXXX Membership Rewards, as long as I kept my Amex Premier Rewards Gold card open, which could keep all my Membership Rewards in my account. After getting this promise from Amex, I chatted with a representative to close the Platinum card, and kept using my Premier Rewards Gold card ( ending with XXXX ) until now. However, to my great surprise, I found after my Platinum card account was closed, XXXX Membership Rewards were removed from my account on XXXX XXXX, 2016, shown " adjustment ''. I totally disagree with what written in the reply from American Express to my previous complaint ( XXXX ), and am absolutely not satisfied with their resolution of the issue in this case. I hope CFPB could transfer my following reply to American Express and post it to the public : 1 ) In the terms of the American Express Platinum card and the signup bonus, I can receive XXXX Membership Rewards if I spend {$3000.00} with the card in the first 3 months. I met this spending requirement, and received the signup bonus. However, it was not written in the terms that the XXXX Membership Rewards will be removed provided the spending requirement is met and all spending is eligible. It is only written that it may take 4-8 weeks for me to receive the signup bonus. However, in my case, I have already received the signup bonus after meeting the requirement of the offer for a while when I requested to close my account. It seems that the representative tried to mix up the terms and confuse customers on purpose. 2 ) In the terms of the card, it is not written that the signup bonus ( XXXX Membership Rewards ) received after cardholder making eligible purchase to meet the spending requirements would be reversed if the card is cancelled. In addition, when I called customer service of American Express to close the account, I was not notified in any way that the signup bonus I received would be removed by American Express, otherwise I would definitely not close the account at that time. 3 ) I have called to inquire about if the XXXX Membership Rewards I received from opening the account still exist in my account if I closed the account. I was told I would still have the XXXX Membership Rewards as long as I kept other American Express charge card open. Following this advise, I have been keeping my American Express Premier Rewards Gold card open all the time until now. Furthermore, when I was aware that the signup bonus was removed without any notification after the card was closed, I called American Express again to inquire about the reason. I also told the representative that I would be happy if the card could be reinstated and the removed signup bonus ( XXXX Membership Rewards ) could be returned to my account. However, I was told by a American Express representative that even if they reinstated the card for me I could not get the XXXX Membership Rewards back. In summary, the way that American Express removed the signup bonus ( XXXX Membership Rewards ) from my account is baseless, and is against their terms and promise to customers. I strongly urge American Express to take responsibility to correct this mistake in a proper and prompt way.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation