Consumer complaint received 2026-05-04 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest — Charged too much interest
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: CO

Complaint narrative:
American Express has charged me approximately {$18000.00} in interest on a card I configured to pay in full every month. Every dollar of that interest exists because XXXX XXXX autopay system failed to honor my selected payment setting. During roughly XXXX days of that same period, XXXX additionally violated the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act by charging me APRs oXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX % instead of the federally mandated XXXX % military cap. The autopay failure ( primary claim ). I opened this XXXX XXXX ( account ending XXXX ) on XX/XX/XXXX. From the start, I set autopay to " Statement Balance '' the option XXXX itself describes as paying the full statement amount each cycle. With that setting, this card was never supposed to carry a balance and never supposed to be charged interest. After the " Plan It '' feature was activated on the account, autopay began paying only the Adjusted Balance ( essentially the minimum payment plus the Plan It installment fee ). Every month thereafter, a " Pay Over Time '' balance frequently more than {$20000.00} was left untouched on the account and accrued interest at XXXX % APR. XXXX 's own statements document this month after month : the prior statement balance was $ XXXX, the autopay payment was $ XXXX, and the difference ( often XXXX figures ) carried forward to accrue interest. I never changed the autopay setting from " Statement Balance. '' I never authorized XXXX to pay anything less than the statement balance. The interest charged is entirely the product of XXXX 's system paying a different number than the one I selected. SCRA violation ( secondary, supporting claim ). I am an XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX, XXXX ). My XXXX records and Title XXXX / Title XXXX orders document at least XXXX days of SCRA-eligible active military service since the account was opened, with continued accrual under my current Active XXXX XXXX order through XXXX XX/XX/XXXX. Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, my interest rate during those active-duty periods is capped at XXXX %. XXXX charged XXXX XXXX XXXX % throughout. A statement-by-statement reconstruction in the attached supplemental document calculates approximately {$8500.00} in interest that XXXX charged in direct XXXXolation of the SCRA 's XXXX % cap, with continuing accrual through the end of my current order. This independently establishes that XXXX has been charging interest it was federally prohibited from charging on this account during a substantial portion of the period in question. Pay Over Time auto-enrollment. " Pay Over Time '' was active on the account by default. I did not affirmatively enroll in a revolving credit feature on a card I had configured to pay in full. The combination of ( a ) Pay Over Time being on by default, ( b ) Plan It being marketed as a no-interest installment feature, and ( c ) autopay paying the Adjusted Balance instead of the Statement Balance, is the mechanism that produced {$18000.00} of interest charges on a card that should have generated XXXX. Account history. Opened XX/XX/XXXX. Total lifetime purchases : ~ {$88000.00}. Total lifetime payments : ~ {$76000.00}. Total interest charged : ~ {$18000.00}. Current balance : {$31000.00}. Payment history : XXXX never late, never missed.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation