Consumer complaint received 2017-03-15
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: NY
Product: Credit card
Issue: Customer service / Customer relations

Complaint:
I have had an account with XXXX for about 20 years. I made timely payments for 14-15years however during the last 5-6 years I started to lose time from work due to a number of sicknesses such as XXXX, XXXX XXXX and several other XXXX. Because of these XXXX I was hospitalized many times and had surgeries. I came closed to XXXX a few times and because my husband is XXXX years older than I, he was eligible to retired to help with appointments and household items chores. I was upfront with XXXX. Now my husband is ill. He suffered from XXXX types of XXXX, degenerative XXXX and XXXX a month ago. He has been sick since XXXX. In XXXX I suffered from XXXX and it lasted for a year. I ended up having XXXX emergency visits and XXXX hospitalizations. Together we have been incapacitated for two years. So we put all of our bills on auto pay When I set up the payments in XXXX I was assured by an XXXX agent that my interest rate would stay at 4.1 %. The agent also guaranteed that my rate would not go up without written notice because we had been loyal and excellent clients. I called several times to confirm the rate. 
After I began to get better, I noticed that my bill was dramatically higher and when I spoke with the agent they told me my rate was 9.4. I spoke with several agents and they said that my rate was never at 4.2 .They could not or would not give statements prior to XXXX. They said these " older '' statements were routinely discharged and I was dubious about this claim. At the time someone had hacked my account at least two different times. 
To make things worse because I could not work my husband had to sell off his retirement account and then pay the interest for taxes. My retirement account is half of what is was since I retired partly because I had to pay loans and because my financial advisor misled me on our fees. The last year I was with them, my quarterly payment was XXXX. This was information that I learned about when I was transferred to another advisor. This account was from XXXX and they would not give me my fees from previous years. 
My husband and I have 15 years of education. We always payed our loans. We were always honest and we always payed our bills on time but our generosity and naivety brought us down Even though I was a great XXXX, I was threatened by our superintendent at the time that they would take my retirement money away if I could not promise to stay healthy and not take a sick day, not because I was a bad XXXX, but because I was sick. I was so scared I signed a resignation letter that was already typed before I arrived at the office. I did n't, t even know what the appointment was about until l arrived. I signed under duress because I knew what he wanted was impossible. I later learned that the superintendent allowed a man that same year with XXXX who could not talk to work. The school hired XXXX aides to help him. I also learned later that they had to fire a XXXX due to decreased population ( I was the XXXX, and they chose to let me go because I was older and had been sick and they also chose to give help to the man who died the next year instead of me ) I was unaware of these circumstances at the time ) IF they had been compassionate with me and Had given me help, maybe I would of not got sicker and I would have had the money to pay my bills. 
But I have to get some kind of help in order to pay all my bills. Right now I need you to help me. With my XXXX, than XXXX, than the bigot who scared me into taking a smaller retirement pay and obviously discriminating against me because I was sick WOMAN. 

Sorry for the errors, it 's hard to manipulate with XXXX.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation