Consumer complaint received 05-09-2017 about Credit card or prepaid card (General-purpose credit card or charge card) with AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY (GA).
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-issue: Other problem

Complaint: American Express ( AMEX ) turn ed on and then suspended the P ay Over Time fe ature on my card. For some years, I have enjoyed a feature of my AMEX Platinum card : Pay  Over Time. Normally, the entire balance of my AMEX Platinum is due each month with no interest, but Pay Over Time allows   card holders to transfer portions of their Pay in Full balance to an interest bearing balance. Over the last  XXXX  months,  AMEX had made several changes which have significantly affected me and my family. Pay in Full balances traditionally were due on the last day of the billing cycle. Now, they are due about a week prior to the cycle ending. I have been a loyal patron of AMEX for well over a decade and have used Pay Over Time in some instance. During a different issue, AMEX sustained   that my Pa y Over Time f eature had been suspended in   XXXX   XXXX  . After I made a very large payment in   XXXX   XXXX  , where  AMEX assured me that a certain amount would be left in my Pay Over Time balance, and it did not, AMEX affected me negatively. AMEX fixed this by re-activating my Pay Over Time feature and passing a portion of the balance to Pay Over Time. Just before this incident, AMEX could not find or tell me exactly what happened to a payment I had made. I had to file a complaint because I was getting nowhere dealing directly with AMEX. At  that time, I was getting ready to request a business loan and refinance my real estate properties ; however, with everything that happened reference AMEX in  XXXX  and   XXXX   XXXX  , my credit was affected, and I lost the opportunity to refinance and enhance our small business. On   XXXX   XXXX   XXXX  , I called AMEX with a simple purpose : to move {$8000.00} of my Pay in Full balance to Pay Over Time. The call was routed to a department other than Customer Service, and I was informed that my credit limit had been decreased to {$0.00} available. I took almost an hour to deal with this problem, which I am still working. However, I was able to have the  AMEX representative return my limit with the condition that I schedule a payment to AMEX and provide certain documents to AMEX  within  XXXX  business days. I scheduled a payment for {$1500.00} on the due date of  XX/XX/XXXX , since I was expected to transfer the {$8000.00} to Pay  Over Time. At the conclusion of this conversation, the representative s aid that his department did not handle Pay Over Time, and he would transfer me over to Customer Service  as  Customer Service would be the ones to transfer a balance to Pay Over Time. I spoke with the Customer Service representative, who became frustrated because he could not move the {$8000.00} I requested into my Pay Over Time as the system showed that the Pay Over Time feature was not active. He patched me back over to the previous department and advised me to immediately ask for a supervisor. For approximately another hour, the representative reiterated that there was nothing she could do about why my P ay Over Time featu re had been suspended, that it had been suspended in   XXXX   XXXX  , and that she could not re-activate it : no one could. She sustained that only the system could re-activate the feature and that she could not transfer me to a supervisor. She said that if I wanted to speak to a supervisor, I would have to wait for a return call within  XXXX  hours. I did not accept this and eventually, she patched me on to a supervisor. I am not certain this last person was a supervisor. She stood on the same story as the other representative : no one can re-activate my Pa y Over Time. However, I challenged her to look at my account to see that my Pay Over Time had been re-activated this year. I explained that as I understood this to be the case ( Pay Over Time was active ), and I was still dealing with the repercussions from AMEX follies  in  XXXX  and  XXXX   XXXX , I really needed to put {$8000.00} of the Pay in Full balance in Pay Over Time. I am willing to pay interest on this amount, but it is essential that  AM  EX makes good and moves that amount. The representative instead recommended I call Customer Service to set up a payment plan. She said that a payment plan would only reflect late internally at AMEX  and they would not report to the credit bureau for   XXXX   days ; however, that my interest could go up. I explained that this was not an option for me, as I am a member of the  XXXX   XXXX  and late payments etc. could have adverse effects on my career. I explained that I depend on  AMEX because I pay my bills and many payments are set to automatically charge to my account. Again, I asked to speak with someone who could re-activate my Pay Over Time feature in order to transfer the {$8000.00}. In the end, AMEX led me to believe that they had fixed their previous mistakes. I therefore planned on the availability of Pay Over Time. Furthermore, over the past year, AMEX representatives had harasse d my wife because she made partial payments throughout the month until the due balance was paid by the next billing cycle, sin ce AMEX representatives felt this was not the proper way to make payments. In the end, I find it interesting that these issues started a little over a year ago, after I requested that AMEX honor the spirit of the SCRA and grant me a 6 % interest rate or lower. Then they suspended my Pay Over Time, har assed us to pay in  XXXX  payment, changed when payments are due, among many other issues. I feel like I am being punished for requesting  SCRA ; p unishing me because I am a  XXXX .

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation