Consumer complaint received 2023-05-01
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest — Unexpected increase in interest rate
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY (GA)

I have been a customer of American Express since XXXX I believe. Since opening up business accounts with them I have experienced discriminatory and predatory business practices. They have directly decreased my personal credit score by decreasing my spending limit repeatedly without cause. The one time I was late making a payment by a day they took away my O % intro apr and replaced it with 25 % interest rate trying to trap me into never paying them off. I had one personal credit card with them since XXXX. The spending limit was XXXX. I have never missed a payment. In XX/XX/XXXX I opened two business credit cards for two different LLCs. One account was given a spending limit of around XXXX ( XXXX XXXX ) and the other was given around XXXX ( XXXX XXXX for XXXX ). I was informed that part of the XXXX XXXX XXXX was that if I needed additional credit that I could just ask for it and I could spend beyond the credit limit. It was 0 % apr promotional for at least 12 months. The first issue that arose was I made two purchases of {$10000.00} and {$15000.00} via XXXX for XXXX XXXX for Counseling my business credit card for the purchase of an office ( real estate ). I thought this card had the {$25000.00} limit. This was the first and only purchase on either card. I received simultaneous emails for both business credit cards and my personal credit card on XXXX My business accounts were frozen. My personal credit card spending limit was decreased from {$15000.00} to {$6200.00}. Directly decreasing my personal credit. My credit at the time was in the XXXX. The business accounts sent me an email saying that my credit limit was now fixed. I immediately asked for an increase in the spending limit for XXXX XXXX for Counseling as I was informed upon signing up for the card. They denied that immediately as well on XX/XX/XXXX. Upon calling they told me I would have to pay the overage in full by the end of the billing cycle. They refused to assist me. They refused to move the overage to the other business credit card. I asked for an extension to make the payment and they refused. I was able to make the payment without their help. I was still in the 0 % intro apr. I made a payment after XXXX on the day it was due from their website in XXXX and XXXX and it was considered a late payment. As a result they turned my apr into 29.99 % for statement due XX/XX/XXXX. I asked for my APR to be reinstated and for my personal credit limit to be returned to what it was. I was told no. I am a small business owner. My company brings in {$10000.00} a month. I transferred my personal credit balance to a different card. I do not use it short of a monthly bill that goes to it. When they recently decreased my personal credit balance to {$1000.00} from {$6200.00} I only have {$83.00} dollars on the account. I pay it in full. This decrease came after I paid a lump sum to pay off my XXXX XXXX for XXXX card. I am working to no longer use Amex at all and to ensure I pay off the accounts and they are still harassing me and impacting my personal credit. There is no reason why my personal account is affected by my business cards. These are LLCs. I have been paying down my cards this entire time without missing payments. Their recent reason was because I have too many inquiries on my personal credit. My inquiries are in an attempt to transfer my business cards to a lower interest rate. My debt has not increased because I am actively paying off my debt and not adding to anything. For the XXXX XXXX credit card every month when they add their interest fees it pushes it past the spending limit. I will pay {$630.00} in interest alone for XXXX. Now my account is over by {$400.00}. This is very intentional. They do not want me out of debt. 

Currently I have my personal credit card carries a XXXX balance. Last week I paid {$5000.00} ( transferred to my XXXX XXXX business card ) off the Beneficence business credit card. It now has a balance of {$4600.00}. Which I assume is why they are dinging my personal credit card. The balance will be paid on Friday. There is no reason why transfers between my business cards ( especially since XXXX XXXX doesn't report to any credit system ) are impacting my personal accounts/credit. The inquiries are not on my personal credit because they were for business credit cards that did not do a hard pull. Also because I wouldn't have made the inquiries if Amex hadn't revoked my 0 % APR. This will leave me with only the XXXX XXXX business credit card to have to transfer elsewhere which is {$25000.00}.