Consumer complaint received 2025-09-03 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments — Problem during payment process
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: AZ

Complaint narrative:
I use the AMEX Platinum Credit Card for general day-to-day spending. Historically I have exclusively paid off my credit card payments in full before every billing cycle, always leading to {$0.00} in credit card debt carried over between billing cycles. 
From XXXX - XX/XX/XXXX I used my AMEX Platinum card to pay for flight training lessons through a XXXX, AZ XXXX XXXX which led to above average spending on my credit card, however it was always below my credit limit and I always paid off the Platinum credit card before every statement close. 
For the billing cycle that ended on XX/XX/XXXX there was a discrepancy where AMEX did not acknowledge a payment I had deposited from my checking account. Below I will describe precisely what had happened and the action steps I took to remedy it, and where AMEX has failed to acknowledge my payment despite ample evidence. 
On the statement ending on XX/XX/XXXX ( Titled AMEX Statement Preceding Discrepancy.pdf ) you can see that it says I owe a balance of {$7500.00} due XX/XX/XXXX. 
You can then see on the statement I included titled Disputed AMEX XXXX that on XX/XX/XXXX an Autopay for the exact amount ( {$7500.00} ) was attempted where Amex Autopay tried to pull the payment from my Chase Checking Account. The issue there- and this part was my fault- was that I keep the majority of my money in a XXXX XXXX XXXX Account ( XXXX ) and had neglected to transfer sufficient funds to my checking account in time for that withdrawal. So when AMEX tried to pull that {$7500.00} from my XXXX Checking account it got returned due to insufficient funds. As soon as I noticed this issue I immediately transferred enough funds from my HYSA to my Chase Checking account to cover the Credit Card bill. Then AMEX Autopay repeatedly kept trying to pull the {$7500.00} ( which was something I as the consumer was not able to stop ) though there was insufficient funds for several days while I waited for the XXXX XXXX XXXX Checking transfer to go through. 
Once the XXXX -> Checking transfer was complete I manually sent {$8600.00} from my Chase Checking to my AMEX XXXX account on XX/XX/XXXX. I highlighted this in yellow on both PDF titled Disputed AMEX Statement.pdf and XXXX Checking Statement.pdf. 
As you can see that {$8600.00} successfully left my XXXX Checking and successfully arrived to my AMEX XXXX account. In the days between the autopay attempt of {$7500.00} and XX/XX/XXXX when I manually paid the card off I accrued another {$1100.00} of Platinum charges ( from additional flying lessons ) which explains why I seemingly overpaid the original statement balance of {$7500.00}. 
I noticed quickly that though I paid off my Platinum card balance of ( at the time ) {$8600.00} my balance was unchanged, both on the AMEX app as well as my AMEX account website. Though the payment of {$8600.00} was successfully posted and successfully removed from my XXXX Checking account my balance never showed {$0.00} like it does every other month when I paid off the card, instead the balance just kept growing and I was charged interest on a late payment. 
After waiting and seeing if it would resolve on its own I called AMEX XXXX customer service on XX/XX/XXXX to file a complaint over the issue, the customer service representative agreed with me that I was correct but was unable to fix the issue himself so he created a claim on my behalf, thus I began waiting for the claims team at AMEX to reduce my balance by the appropriate amount. I waited weeks to no response so I called again on XX/XX/XXXX to see if there was an update, the new customer service rep I spoke with had no additional input, now we are 3.5 months out and my balance has not been reduced, I have accrued three months of interest charges over it, and it appears there is no end in sight for AMEX to do right and finalize this claim. It appears my only recourse is to continue calling customer service, which has so far been futile, and the claims team has yet to respond. For reference my AMEX claim number is : XXXX I also provided the statement following the discrepancy to show that I paid off all new charges to bring my balance back down to what should have been {$0.00}. Every month with every credit card I have I pay off the balance to {$0.00}, I have historically done this every single month since I got my first credit card in XXXX. It appears that the combination of AMEX autopay trying to pull the original {$7500.00} and having it rejected while I manually paid {$8600.00} confused the automation behind AMEX 's app payment system. I paid off my Platinum credit card to {$0.00} on XX/XX/XXXX and it should be reflected as such.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation