Consumer complaint received 2020-07-06
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: NY
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Closing your account
Sub-issue: Company closed your account

Complaint:
-I have an American Express Card account that I have had for 25 years which was arbitrarily canceled by Am-Ex because of their error. 
-In XXXX several vendors charged my card recurring charges that I did not authorize. 
-I tried repeatedly to get the vendors to stop and also to get Am-ex to stop authorizing them. 
-Am-Ex said they could not block these charges and advised me to change my card -Twice I changed my card but that did not stop the charges -Finally Am-Ex advised that I should change my entire account number and assured me that it would stop all recurring charges. 
-It took several months and great inconvenience for me to get a new account number and card. But I was eventually able to complete this. 
-Only to find several months later that they had not canceled the old card number and were still allowing charges. 
-I paid whatever was valid but told them that they must cancel the old card because I could only manage one card and one account. 
-Recently during COVID I found out that the old card was left open and not canceled when I received a call that payment for it was overdue 120 days ; That they allowed charges I had not authorized. I had no knowledge that the old card, and account, was still open. 
-I informed am-ex that the card was supposed to be canceled and I had not authorized the charges. 
-I was told that the credit department does not speak to the dispute department and that I had to filed a dispute which I did. 
-They removed the charges however, at the same time they canceled my new replacement card and account because of the past due payment for the old account that I had no knowledge and for charges that I did not authorize. 
-The credit department claimed in part they canceled my account because I did not answer their call. They called when my sister was sick and then later died. During that time period, they canceled my account of 25 years. 
-They further canceled my 22 years of rewards points which was the only reason I had an Am-ex card and which I was saving for a large family trip. 
-After they removed the charges on the old card they said they would restore my valid card and account along with my rewards points. However, they later refused to do so because they said I had a poor credit rating despite the fact that I had paid my bill on time for the past 25 years. 
-After they arbitrarily closed my account and robbed me of my 25 years rewards points I informed them that I would not pay my current balance because the value of my rewards points far exceeded my balance. 
-Also since it was the only charge/credit card I had it has caused great harm to my credit and financial situation to arbitrarily cancel my account. 
-The initial cancelation was due to an error on their part for an account they were supposed to cancel and charges that were not authorized. 
-In the past 25 years, American Express has earned over {$22000.00} from my charges and since they breached my contract with them I want to be reimbursed for those charges.,

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief