Consumer complaint received 2021-02-10
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Struggling to pay your bill
Sub-issue: Problem lowering your monthly payments

Complaint:
Back in XXXX of 2020 I was being asked to pay a minimum payment of over {$2200.00} in full that I could not make. American Express put me on pay over time years ago after being a green card holder in good standing for over a decade and it has gotten me in trouble multiple times. This time, I ended up buying groceries for a neighbor who was elderly and contracted XXXX XXXX. In order to make it easier for him to pay me back when he could, I split the sales at the supermarkets between his and mine to keep track easier with the receipts. Not realizing that the pay over time feature only moves purchases {$100.00} and higher over, I had major bills every month to pay in full, but this particular month the minimum payment was about half the outstanding amount on the credit card of a little over {$4000.00}. I called American Express to see what I could do as far as working with them as I was being charged over half the outstanding balance on the card that month and I was put on a payment plan to be direct debited {$340.00} monthly and I could only spend up to {$340.00} on my card per month until it was paid off. The first month was fine. The second month after the second payment was made, all automatic payments on this card were declined as well as the two other small purchases I made. I called AmEx in a fury and was told I had a {$5.00} credit line and noticed my new overall balance went up over {$1000.00}. It turns out I needed to pay that prior month in full or the {$340.00} wouldn't clear me for {$340.00} in purchases until it was paid down, and I wasn't made aware of that when I signed up for this. They automatically only deducted the {$340.00} and left you to have to make additional payments on your own to clear the card so you could charge only {$340.00} worth of purchases. Since one of the bounced automatic charges was XXXX he allowed me to have the ability to charge on the card for the remainder of the month and he apologized that I wasn't aware of this when I signed up and he could do an investigation but that would make things worse with the card use. 
However after all of this, I called CFPB and spoke and received great customer care, including advising on closing credit card accounts. I have been a " member '' of American Express for 25 years and I was in my teens when I got the card in college. It is the longest card history and highest line of credit I have and I've continued as a loyal customer mostly for that reason, but after multiple issues with this card, including this one, it is more than apparent that " Membership doesn't have any benefits ''. I then got a loan to pay this off and they received the payment, so I called to make sure the account was in good standing. Apparently I somehow still owe {$56.00} due on the XXXX of XXXX and the rep took me off of automatic payment and the plan hasn't been closed. The bill you receive once you're on the plan does not show your full balance ( at least not on my last bill in XXXX ) and I have that document. The number to pay was pulled online and submitted to the other bank who cut the check to them in their name that I mailed them and yet I still owe money and I'm still not clear? I again was extremely irate over all of this while dealing with their rep XXXX, who then at the end of dealing with me told me I had dealt with a supervisor before, but he was going to put in to do the investiation to make sure I wasn't mislead and started asking me if I owned a business and where I worked and what my annual salary and standing was and I realized that he asked for my full card number in the beginning of being on the call and suddenly I was very uncomfortable and hung up.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief