Consumer complaint received 2023-10-11
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: NY
Product: Credit card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Problem with fees

Complaint:
Good Morning/afternoon to all who will be reading this message I opened my American Express account sometime around XX/XX/2023, at the advice of my mother because an American Express gold card is a good card to hold and no one in my family has one that was my first mistake. Was aware that American Express charges an annual fee of {$250.00} but since I just opened the account I did not expect to have to pay the fee that year I was surprised to see that {$250.00} was charged to my account within a XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX XXXX timeframe. At that point, I was still paying off my student XXXX credit card, and I still am. So paying for two credit cards at the same time was very stressful for me thankfully around XX/XX/XXXX. I finally finished paying off the membership fee only to come to a realization. I am aXX/XX/XXXXXX/XX/XXXXand XX/XX/XXXXXX/XX/XXXXwho gets paid at a weekly timeframe if I'm lucky I make {$150.00} a week but it usually ends up being somewhere between {$110.00} and {$110.00} a week. So when I sat down and thought about it, there is no guarantee that I aXX/XX/XXXXXX/XX/XXXXand aXX/XX/XXXXXX/XX/XXXX can 100 % guarantee I would be able to pay {$250.00} on time each year my work schedule and school schedule can get very disorganized, so there are times where I might be even making less than {$110.00} and still have to pay for school expenses. After I came to that realization, I decided it was best for me to close my American Express Gold card at least for now and hopefully, when I graduate and have a more stable job and less hectic lifestyle, I can re-open the card, so that is what I did on XX/XX/2023, I canceled my American Express Gold card and on that same day I sent in a request to get a refund for my {$250.00} now here comes the confusion I was not aware that you had to cancel your card in a certain timeframe to be able to get a return for your annual fee payment if I had known that from the beginning, I would've not even bother applying for the American Express Gold card I spoke with a kind woman on XX/XX/2023 to request for me to get my annual refund back and she said I would hear back from American Express and the call ended. I did not hear back from them and I had to call I can express customer service myself again on XX/XX/2023 only to find out that my request was denied ( and no one could even give me the common courtesy of notifying me that it was denied ). I ended up having to escalate it and speak with a manager or supervisor. I'm not sure which one that lady was and she made another claim for me and she told me within 10 to 15 days it should be resolved and to look out for an email requesting more information. I called one more time on XX/XX/2023 to once again find out that my request/claim was denied again. I tried to speak with a supervisor/manager but at the time they were all busy so they ended up calling me back hours later and telling me that there was nothing that they could do and in their opinion I should have at least used the benefits, but since I close the card it was too late. Here is my issue with how my claims have been resolved issue number one I did not use that card at all. I didn't even swipe it for five cents so the fact that I had to pay {$250.00} which to me a college student is a lot of money and not even used. It seems extremely unfair to me. Issue number two was that I was not even extended the common courtesy of having someone notify me of the status of my claim/request American Express is a {$100.00} XXXX company so the fact that I can not even get a refund of {$250.00} seems absurd to me I could understand if I am requesting a refund and it's been over a year or if the annual amount is {$50.00} or lower I would just suffer the losses but I did not have a card for that long. I did not use it at all, {$250.00} is a lot at least to need a middle to lower-class person. ( I also tried to get the American Express chat option in the app so overall I contacted American Express customer service four times and all four times. My issue was not resolved in a way that I approve. ) At this point, if this does not work out for me, I have no issues with going to small claims court.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief