Consumer complaint received 2016-05-19 00:00:00
Product: Consumer Loan — Installment loan
Issue: Problems when you are unable to pay — 
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: TX

Complaint narrative:
I went on a debt management plan to take care of credit accounts, one of which is this Amex ( Gold Card ) account. It had XXXX parts, a revolving credit part and a pay in full part. The revolving part was the only part that could go on debt management. 
In spite of the fact that the payments have gone out to Amex through the debt managemnt plan, my account was reported out to the credit bureau as past due - 30/60 and just this week, 90 days past due. I called American Express about this - both the group that handles the debt management portion, and Amex 'proper '. 
The debt management group said I am on time with payments, no problem. 
However, Amex 'proper ' said that they no longer owned the account. They sold it to a collection company, XXXX XXXX XXXX, and it is THEY who are reporting out to the credit bureau. I have not heard from them at all in any way ; and, even if they contacted me, I have no extra money to pay them back. 
It obviously is killing my credit score. 
I get statements from Amex about this account, saying that my account is closed and past due, and that I am on a debt management program, continue to pay, etc. ( document is included ). It also is showing that the payment from the debt management plan is actually paying down the 'pay in full ' balance - that part was not supposed to be included in this debt management plan. Interest continues to accrue on the revolving debt balance -which is the balance that my payment SHOULD be applied to. 
But, I am still getting negative reporting out to my credit report, in spite of the fact that the debt collection company has never contacted me about this debt, and Amex disavows any part in this. I do n't know at what point they turned this over to the collections company. I have n't contacted the collections company. If they have bought this debt, it is their responsibility to contact me about this. If they did that, I could try to see if I could work out some kind of payment arrangement with them. 
So, my issue is with both XXXX XXXX XXXX, for repeatedly making negative reports out to my credit report without ever having tried to contact me about making payments - AND with Amex, for turning this over to a collection company, unbeknownst to me, while collecting payments through the debt management plan. It seems that they are collecting on debt they no longer own. 
On my credit report, the balance showing due is the entire balance that shows on the Amex statement I get each month. 
I have included the XXXX past due reports from my credit report. 
This is very frustrating! I made the decision to avoid declaring bankruptcy, so that my credit would n't get hurt by a bankruptcy - it just would take a hit becuase of having all the credit card accounts on this debt management plan closed - which has a negative impact on the credit score, as well. Yet, my credit score is being hurt because of these missed payment reports, while I am struggling to make the payments to these same credit card companies through the debt management plan company. 
I feel like I am in a no-win situation and there does n't seem to be anyone who can resolve this. The debt management company would n't be able to do anyting about this, because they only deal with the credit card companies that are enrolled in my plan. The collections company is outside of this plan. And, the only reason I know the name of the debt collection company is that the customer service representative at Amex was able to give me the name of the company. Other than that, they are n't abe to give me any more information because '..they no longer own the account.. '

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation