Consumer complaint received 2017-03-13
Product: Credit card — 
Issue: APR or interest rate — 
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY (CT)

In the past six months I have had a number of shockingly large and unexpected interest charges levied on my AMEX account. 

As background, I 've had an AMEX account continuously since XX/XX/XXXX. I run several XXXX XXXX dollars through my AMEX card every year, and I also run a business whose employees use AMEX for corporate travel. I always pay my bill in full each month. 

In XX/XX/XXXX I had a payment of {$21000.00} due by XX/XX/XXXX to avoid interest charges. AMEX received it on XX/XX/XXXX. The interest charge for ten days? {$800.00} or 3.8 % of the amount owed or an annual rate of almost 140 %! In XX/XX/XXXX it happened again. This time, it was interest of {$670.00}. Payment in that case was received by XX/XX/XXXX and was due by XX/XX/XXXX so I have no idea why any interest was charged. There was another charge, ofr {$630.00} ; payment that month was due by XX/XX/XXXX but was not received until XX/XX/XXXX. 

I called AMEX, to no avail -- their customer service reps have no idea how AMEX computes interest, and then wrote AMEX two letters. The response to each was a form letter referring me to the Card Member Agreement. The Card Member Agreement is a ( no doubt deliberately ) obtuse and confusing document ; I say this as a XXXX of XXXX and someone with a XXXX in XXXX who nonetheless struggles to understand what the Agreement says. AMEX divides charges each month into various buckets and then charges different interest rates and fees and penalties on each bucket depending on all sorts of things. Calculating whether an interest charge or a late fee is valid is impossible and trying to dispute it with AMEX is even worse because you need a PhD in the different ways AMEX rips you off to be able to argue effectively with AMEX. 

AMEX ' stated interest rates are usurious and predatory. AMEX for one bucket charges a flat late fee of 2.99 % even if a payment is only one day late! That can be thousands of percent per annum. On other buckets, it will charge a rate of up to 29.99 % per annum -- when interest rates are at historic lows. 

This may all seem like a bit of a rant, but I would urge anyone reading this to read the AMEX Cardmember Agreement. They differ by the color of one 's card. I have the one for a Platinum card holder. It is absolutely impossible to decipher and the result is that consumers can not verify whether anything they are charged is reasonable or, even if it is unreasonable, whether it is consistent with the agreement. Its customer service staff are not competent in this matter, and if you write them a letter to ask about an interest charge, they simply write back saying that all charges are consistent with the cardholder agreement and refer you to the cardholder agreement. They will not address any specific questions asked about a charge relating to interest. 

AMEX clearly engages in unfair business practices by not providing a straightforward basis for consumers to understand what their charges are, and their charges are usurious and predatory. AMEX ' practices are a perfect example of why consumer interest rates need to be regulated again.