Consumer complaint received 2024-01-04
Product: Prepaid card — General-purpose prepaid card
Issue: Trouble using the card — Trouble using the card to spend money in a store or online
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY (OH)

On XX/XX/2024, a family member of mine purchased an Amex prepaid gift card for {$100.00}. This gift card included a 15 digit card code, an expiration date, a CVV, and a serial number on the back. On the next day ( XX/XX/2024 ) I tried to make a purchase of a yearly subscription for XXXX ( XXXX XXXX XXXX software ) and that did not go through initially. I was confused, then directed to the Amex website and the terms and conditions of prepaid cards. According to Amex, recurring billing can not be done with a prepaid gift card. Once I figured that out, it was just fine. Later that day, I tried to make a purchase for XXXXXXXX XXXX ( A food delivery service ) of around {$25.00}. This should obviously go through since the card is {$100.00}. The payment was declined, and XXXX placed a {$0.00} hold on the card, which was found on the balance page for the Amex XXXX XXXX section of the website. On the same day, I also tried to purchase {$18.00} worth of items from XXXX, and XXXX requires the card number, expiration date, and XXXX. According to Amex, the card should be available to use for online purchases. The purchase also declined, and I went to a last resort. I navigated to fsdreamteam.com for a XXXX XXXX add-on, and tried to buy XXXX XXXX from the website. The price is {$29.00} USD, which should not be a problem again because the card is {$100.00}. The purchase declined twice. I then resorted to calling Amex XXXX ( XXXX EST ) that is located on the rear of the card, and provided the card number and completed a security question with the robot. After getting transferred to an agent, I described everything I have described above. The agent said that they were very sorry for this inconvenience, and they would get to fixing it. My serial number of the card was requested by the agent, and then I was placed on hold for them to see if anything was wrong with the card. I was told that there was nothing wrong with the gift card, and that it was activated and ready to go. I then thanked the agent and waited a few hours. I then tried to make the purchase of XXXX XXXX again from the website, which asked for my card number, expiration date, and CVV. The purchase declined again, so then I became a bit worried with what was really happening. I then called support again ( XXXXXXXX XXXX ) to see if this issue could be resolved. The bot went the same way, and I was soon transferred to an agent. I was asked for my 16 digit card number when the gift card only has 15. I let the agent know, then I was asked again for the serial number and expiration date. The agent put me on hold to check the card and if anything was wrong with it and apparently some security lock was enabled on it, and it needed to be XXXX to use the card. I was surprised, and the agent let me know to try again in 24 hours and it would work. I tried XXXX and XXXX again after 24 hours, and got the same issue. I called support for the third time at XXXXXXXX XXXX  on XX/XX/2024 and was met with the same bot questions, then transferred to an agent. I immediately let the agent know what the issue was and that the card should not be declining when the balance is way more than what I was buying and that every need was met. The agent apologized for the inconvenience then let me know another security lock was on the card. I was surprised again and was told to wait 24 hours to try and purchase again, and if it didnt work, to call and request a replacement. It has been 3 hours since the call, and I conducted some research to see if others had this issue, and low and behold, many have had this issue with Amex. The solution they had was to file this complaint and receive a check, so thats the route Im taking.