Consumer complaint received 2020-10-14
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments — Problem during payment process
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY (OR)

I have an American Express Gold card and always pay my outstanding balance off either prior to, or on the due date. The usual due date for my statement cycle is around the XXXX of each month. I generally spend about $ XXXX $ XXXX monthly on this card. The XXXX statement due date was XXXX and on XXXX i had an outstanding unpaid balance of {$710.00} for the amount due on XXXX on XXXX i made a mobile payment through the AmEx app of {$780.00} which was the total amount used on the card outstanding through that date ( {$710.00} from the current billing cycle and the remaining amount charged in the new cycle ( due XXXX ) ). On XXXX i opened the AmEx App to verify that my AmEx balance was XXXX because i was about to spend around {$2500.00} on the card as usual. to my surprise my balance was a credit balance of {$710.00} as AmEx had processed an automatic payment from my bank account for the {$710.00} that would have been taken out had i not paid the balance off prior to the due date. I was then contacted by my bank and notified that they had returned a ACH payment to AmEx due to lack of funds. Between XXXX and XXXX AmEx had attempted to pull these funds 3 times from my bank causing me {$100.00} in NSF fees and AmEx charged me {$29.00} in return fees. I contacted AmEx to let them know that they had made a mistake and tried to pull a payment that was not due on my account. The rep did let me know that ACH automatic payments will continue to pull unless the balance is brought to XXXX 48 hours prior to the due date. and offered to see if AmEx would waive their fee for me but that they could not waive my bank fees. On XXXX I attempted to use my AmEx to make a purchase which was declined. I called AmEx and was informed that my card was " on hold '' due to the returned payment and that i would need to grant the agent access to the balance in my bank account in order to get the hold released ... even though this was an error made by AmEx. The agent then contacted my credit union and had me give the information to access the balance in my account. At this point i was told that since i had money in my bank account the hold could be released on my AmEx card. I then attempted to use the card again after the hold was released and discovered that my approved credit limit had been reduced to {$1900.00} ( about the exact same amount as the balance in my bank account when we called to verify ) It is confusing to me that an error made by American Express that would have overpaid them by over {$700.00} would cause them to punish me for making my payments on time or ahead of time. As I see it, they should return my account to the same terms and conditions prior to their error, reimburse me for the charges incurred by my bank, and discontinue the practice of demanding to know the balance in a cardholders bank account as a condition of releasing a hold on a card ... that strikes me as illegal at worst and an unnecessary privacy intrusion at best.