Consumer complaint received 2017-01-27
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: GA
Product: Prepaid card
Sub-product: General purpose card
Issue: Unauthorized transactions/trans. issues

Complaint:
My name is XXXX XXXX and I am sending this letter in regards to recent issues I have been having with American Express and the Way they have been handling my transactions. 



I am attempting to reach out to in regards to this issue that, I have attached American Express licensing information. Below you will find their license number in case You need to have a reference point American Express Prepaid Card Management Corporation and American Express Travel Related Services Company , Inc. are LICENSED BY THE GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF BANKING AND FINANCE. American Express Prepaid Card Management Corporation 's license number is XXXX. American Express Travel Related Services Company , Inc. 's license number is XXXX. 


I have been having issues with this company holding my incidentals after recent hotel stays. American Express keeps the money, always for a full 30 days. I 've called numerous times. I 've spoken to several supervisors of American Express customer service. However it appears that anyone with the ability to make anything happen at American Express are so high up that it Is extremely difficult for you to get in contact with them. I 've taken the liberty of attaching a couple of names to this e-mail. 

For the past several months, American Express has given me very vague details on the reasoning behind holding monies on my card for longer than a few days. Each time I 've called the hotel I stayed at to verify that my money ( incidentals ) has been placed back into my account. Each time the hotel would tell me the exact details of my transaction and that it was released back to my card. After which, I would then call American Express to verify that the money had been placed back into my account. American Express would give me some vague or watered down excuse. Always giving me a reason slightly different from the first, and sometimes even going as far as saying that it 's the hotel 's fault. I 'm tired of the back and forth. 
I would then have to communicate with them what the hotel told me and still get no results. American Express " always '' holds the incidentals which can be well over a XXXX dollars for an entire 30 days. This is not credit ... this is my hard earned cash. And that XXXX timeframe is unacceptable and way too long. Hopefully, I am making this aware to the right parties. 
At this point, I still have a transaction that is on hold. I 've called the recent hotel to verify that they have placed the money back to my card, which they verified to me that they have even having them on a 3 way call with AE. Even with this information, AE refuses to release my funds. 
I honestly believe that this is greed and a bit of bullying. 

I feel that American Express keeps this money in an interest bearing account and needs a way to justify why they do this to give them the ability to hold customers ' money for the entire month. At the end of the day, this practice that they claim is new due to a change in policy they 've recently made ... which just so happened to be on the very day of my hotel stay 3 months back, a Sunday ... 
This is unethical and misleads customers and is just flat out wrong. The Serve is a pre-paid card and once my hotel issues my money back, it should be readily available to me. This has happened 4 times so far and I fear other people are running into this issue. This card is suppose to be a service for me that I pay for ( through overpriced ATM Fees : ( ) and my direct deposit being made with them. 
This now feels like American Express is bullying me out of the availability of my money and I will not stand for it! I fear there are thousands of XXXX residents that uses the American Express Serve card that are having this same issue but with no CEO or support to express their disapproval. Please help me with this issue. 



Regards, XXXX XXXX ( XXXXXXXXXXXX ) XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation