Consumer complaint received 2018-08-07
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: DC
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Credit card debt
Issue: Written notification about debt
Sub-issue: Didn't receive enough information to verify debt

Complaint:
This is in reference to CFPB Complaint # XXXX I received a response from American Express that did not answer my questions and concerns. 

1. Even though I am responsible for all the charges on my closed corporate account - it was closed in XX/XX/XXXX, American Express failed to send me any outstanding bills to my email or to my address after XX/XX/XXXX. In response to my last CFPB complaint against American Express ( XX/XX/XXXX - see referenced CFPB complaint ID ), they provided me with all of the bills from XX/XX/XXXX and forward. I can say with 100 % certainty that these bills never arrived at my home and I was never notified appropriately via email. Needless to say, I had to find out the hard way in XX/XX/XXXX that I incurred over {$200.00} in fees. 

If I would've been properly received a bill with the first late fee, I would've paid off the balance in full avoiding this entire situation. I was making payments over the course of the year against the {$320.00} ( which was part of the {$1300.00} charge ). American Express was disputing the entire charge as part of a long term claim that in an effort to have the moving company make the {$320.00} adjustment ). I made several calls to American Express about the issue, however, in order to receive my belongings from the movers that were moving me across country, I was forced to sign on the invoice authorizing the AMEX transaction or they would not hand over my items. The moving company used that to their advantage to show that the transaction was legitimate, even though they were honestly taking advantage of me. I told AMEX that I made several attempts to negotiate and file a claim with the movers but they were uncooperative. 

If I would've received a bill to my address on the statement after XX/XX/XXXX, noting any late fees incurred, I would've paid off the disputed amount in full a long time ago. Also I wasn't notified as to when the disputed charges of {$320.00} were to be paid back to American Express in full by the specified date on the statements provided to me in XX/XX/XXXX. 

Instead of handling this appropriately by reaching out to me via email or mail with a statement, American Express decided to send me to collections over a year and a half later over these late fees I never knew about. American Express told me in their response to my last CFPB complaint, that my corporate card agreement stipulates the late fees, however, I was not notified until now ( after being sent to collections ). 

I reached out to XXXX XXXX XXXX asking them why I wasn't notified about this outstanding balance/payments and they told me that I needed to handle this directly with American Express and not them. How am I to know of what I owe if no one proactively took the effort to reach out to me with a statement or email notification between XX/XX/XXXX to current? 

The balance was paid back in full after the collections agency ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ) inappropriately handled my account - a CFPB complaint was filed against them for this issue as well and for the violation of my privacy rights. - 2. Issue regarding the disclosure of my privacy information : Your response to my initial complaint doesn't suffice. Nowhere in the cardholder agreement does it explicitly say that you can disclose my sensitive personal banking information ( my checking account and routing numbers ) to a third party collections agency - XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. After my CFPB Complaint to them, they confirmed that American Express ( their client )  transferred over my sensitive bank account and routing number information to them in a confidential manner. Being that this is my sensitive personal data, American Express had to notify me before doing such transfer of personal data. You never received explicit consent from me stating that you could do such transfer. You had no right to give XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX my sensitive and confidential personal information. The corporate card holder agreement at the time my account was open does not explicitly disclose these types of terms.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation