Consumer complaint received 2025-06-30 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement — Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: NJ

Complaint narrative:
I have an XXXX XXXX credit card through American Express which I opened in XXXX. I quickly stopped using this payment method due to high interest rates and at this point its been years since I made a purchase intentionally on this card. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I was charged for XXXX purchases on XXXX which I did not authorize. I made those purchases with a different payment method, but when that payment method failed to process XXXX apparently took the liberty of creating and charging a backup payment method on my behalf without my knowledge or consent. I was never notified that another payment method would be charged. I never authorized a backup payment method, and I reached out to XXXX as soon as I noticed those charges to have them reversed and remove that payment method. I was explicitly told that those charges would be reversed by XXXX at that time and billed to another payment method and that my American Express card would not be charged again. I was told they would take care of the whole thing and that they were sorry for the inconvenience. 

Fast forward to today, and I get a call from American Express claiming I still owe them $ XXXX. The initial purchases that were charged to that account totaled about {$60.00}. I refuse to pay those fees under any circumstances, respectfully. Theyve been charging me late fees for months on transactions I was told would be reversed months ago. If you look at the whole of my credit history youd see a perfect on time payment history. Literally 100 % on every card except this one And the reason why that is appears to be an intentional effort on XXXX behalf to charge these American Express XXXX XXXX cards. I guess one or both of them receive some kind of financial gain from those transactions. Every time I make a purchase on XXXX I have to go into my list of payment methods and change the payment method to my debit card despite my debit card being my primary payment method. Their system automatically tried to charge those cards for some reason even when you explicitly tell it not to. Ive had to cancel several orders over the years for the same reason. The only difference in this case is that I did not notice the transaction right away and was not in time to cancel it when I did. I no longer have access to the email account I signed up for the card with. Its an old email I do not use. 

Funny thing is, when I called American Express to dispute the charges the representative I spoke to knew about this issue already and told me theyve had lots of people calling about XXXX charging their XXXX business card without their knowledge. American Express is fully aware of this issue and so is XXXX, yet they both continue to do it anyway. American Express benefits from cases like this because most people will just pay the fraudulent charges to avoid hurting their credit score I guess. I am not sure, however, what XXXX has to gain. But you have to assume theres some kind of deal going on between them, otherwise their logo wouldnt be on my Amex card. 

I was told there is nothing either of them can do because XXXX  days has now elapsed and they are unable to dispute the transaction. Which is XXXX, because I already disputed those transactions months ago with XXXX and was told XXXX would take care of it. I was lied to and mislead into waiting until the window for a dispute had closed. 

I think any rational, decent human being with the power to reverse these charges would do so in a heartbeat. I am not asking for free stuff. Charge my debit card for the items, I dont care. I am asking for late fees and interest to be removed because I did not authorize those transactions and my account history clearly shows that this is not an account I ever intentionally use. 

I asked to speak to a supervisor with Amex hoping they would hear the details of my case and realize it was wrong to charge those late fees. He was a bit rude and didnt do anything for me except tell me I was XXXX basically because it had been more than 60 days. 

Tell me, if someone steals your grandmas credit card and buys XXXX dollars worth of stuff, but she doesnt notice until XXXX  days after the last transaction, would you tell her, Oh well, sorry maam, looks like you owe us {$60000.00} plus interest!. Really??? 

I got ta believe American Express is a better company than this.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief