Consumer complaint received 2022-11-15
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: NH
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: I do not know
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed
Sub-issue: Debt is not yours

Complaint:
SECOND ( OF TWO ) ISSUES W/AMEX. Complaint is against AMEX. I am having two possibly related problems w/this company. This is the second. ( I have filed another complaint w/CFPB on this day for that one, too. ) About five years ago, I signed up for a credit monitoring service with XXXX b/c I was required to do so by an organization I was joining. I signed up for monitoring for, I think, as best I recall, five years, b/c it was actually cheaper, or very similar in price, to do that rather than getting the one report I needed for the organization I was joining. So I got email updates regularly on my credit ( which has always been exceptional BTW ). About three months ago, I got a report out of the blue regarding a balance with AMEX that was 30 days past due. At first, I wondered if it didn't relate to a {$95.00} annual fee they've been trying unsuccessfully to collect from me for 2-3 years or so, on an old AMEX card I had cancelled ( or tried to cancel ) literally that many years ago. I thought I'd wait and see if another bill for the {$95.00} came or not, which required some investigation and waiting, since I've been in the process of a major move, complicated by COVID and transportation/moving delays/cancellations, etc.. I never received a bill, but I did get an email from XXXX shortly thereafter saying I was reported as 60 days overdue w/AMEX. ( Weird since they've been trying to collect the {$95.00} for years, not months. ) At that point, I notified XXXX in writing explaining about the {$95.00} and asking if it was for that or something else. It seems it was for something else, which was strange b/c I had not only cancelled ( or tried to cancel ) the AMEX card they wanted {$95.00} for, but ALL my other AMEX cards as well, literally years ago, and had cut up my cards in anger over that fee they refused to waive. ( I had 2 or 3 accounts w/AMEX, though one may have been my business account, I just don't recall at this point. ) I immediately notified XXXX it had to be fraudulent, explaining I didn't even have these cards, had destroyed them, and had cancelled them literally years earlier. Given AMEX had refused to cancel the card w/the {$95.00} fee, and I was moving and not always regularly getting mail -- esp. during peak COVID -- I was understandably concerned I had been a victim of fraud here. ( I pay the few bills I have now via ACH. ) I filed my fraud notification w/XXXX in writing as well. They said I would hear back shortly, maybe w/in two weeks. I waited, and in fact, did get a notification from XXXX to go to my account, b/c they had received a response from AMEX, or so I thought. I signed into my XXXX account, only to be greeted with a bill! It was only for {$25.00}, but it was a fee to continue my credit monitoring and apparently, they couldn't use the credit card they had on file because it had expired in 2020. My five years of monitoring was apparently up. In order to see the response from AMEX, I'd have to pay that fee w/another card. This was a form email that was merely coincidental to this problem w/AMEX, but I really didn't, and don't, need the service anymore, but it dawned on me that perhaps I had charged that original fee for five years credit monitoring on an AMEX card . Sure enough, I seems I had, though I really have no idea which AMEX card it might have been since I don't have/have n't used/closed, or tried to close these cards years ago. I can't get into the XXXX account to find out A ) what AMEX said, if anything ; B ) what AMEX card I might have used ; or C ) anything else useful to solve this problem, though I did learn that the credit card ended in XXXX. BUT, I do know that AMEX has received my complaints IN WRITING. ( I can't provide a copy b/c they were sent via XXXXXXXX XXXX website and I didn't make a copy b/c my printer was packed in storage. Furthermore, I can not get into my XXXX  account anymore, but I am taking them at their word AMEX was notified as promised, so AMEX should have these. ) As best I can tell, AMEX has done nothing to remedy my credit, but to be fair, maybe they have, and I just don't know about it yet. Still, I need to ensure this doesn't happen again, and I seek relief as described below. ( I'd recommend contacting me by email as needed as I plan to keep this email account until my move is finalized -- by years ' end -- and it will be faster than trying to get mail forwarded to me which is iffy at best. )

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation