Consumer complaint received 2021-02-23
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest — Problem with fees
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY (NY)

American Express XXXX XXXX bills me each year in the XXXX week of XXXX a hefty {$550.00} as the year 's credit card fees just to use the card and provides some benefits like travel allowance set off etc to offset the card charges. Last year, I wanted to cancel the card as I found it too expensive but realized a little late in XX/XX/XXXX that Amex already billed me in XX/XX/XXXX for those charges and called them requesting cancellation of the card due to hardship circumstances of the pandemic and my income had come down steeply and my inability to meet such expenses. I requested them to do a pro-rata for the time the card was outstanding and refund the balance fees. They gave me a long explanation of how they can not and offered me a concession for the year of about {$300.00} credit against fees 'if I spend more than {$4000.00} within the next 4 months or so on this card '. I told them over the phone call that I have no intention of continuing with the card for the next term and I will comply with the spending requirement on the card just so that I will be eligible for the concession for XXXX. I did spend the {$4000.00} within the time limit imposed by them in good faith. Now, I saw that the card company once again charged me {$550.00} credit card fees on XX/XX/XXXX, and called them immediately requesting them to cancel the card and refund the amount. They now tell me that I have to keep the card till XXXX atleast because they gave me a concession in the previous year on the card fees. That means, I will have to pay the {$550.00} now and forego the rest of the year when they cancel my card after XXXX - by which time it will be too late to refund me my credit card fees. They tell me that the fine print that was sent to me in XX/XX/XXXX when we had the discussion on cancellation of the card contains the stipulation to retain the card at least another 12 months from XXXX and not XX/XX/XXXX. This is quite absurd. That means there is no way I can avoid the full credit card fees in the month of XXXX because I haven't completed the revised 12 months by then. This is a type of unfair practice of tying up a customer to the credit card and charging the fees despite a request to cancel the card services. I tried explaining to them at length that right from last year I had no interest in retaining their credit card services but was forced to keep the card on till the term ended and that I had no idea that I will be locked in for another 12 months beyond the card fee billing cycle of XX/XX/XXXX. This was I will end up again spending the {$550.00}. When I called the Credit company they were quite rude. They told me to read the fine print when I was given the concession last year based on my spending {$4000.00} within their stipulated time. They told me that if I cancel the card now, they will refund me the {$550.00} but will retain the concession they gave the previous year of {$300.00} because I did not hold the card till XXXX. I told them if I hold the card till XXXX - I would have paid {$550.00} for the credit card fees just for 2 months and thats not fair. Kindly correct this situation with Amex as request them to refund my credit card fees for XXXX wihtout penalising me for not retaining the card till end XXXX by reversing the {$300.00} concession they gave in XXXX.