Consumer complaint received 2025-04-21 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments — You never received your bill or did not know a payment was due
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: TX

Complaint narrative:
I was having difficulty making payments for my business Gold charge card with American Express towards the end of last year. In XX/XX/year> I received several emails and phone calls with payment plan options to help me make the payments and regain my card membership. This plan had 3 options to make equal installment payments in 3 months, 6 months or 12 months. I chose to make payments in 12 months of {$370.00} because it was the lowest amount that I could afford at the time. At this point American Express had decided to close the account because it had been past due by over 120 days which I was ok with, but said that after making payments there might be a way to regain the account. So I proceeded to enroll in the program and setup the payments which they autodraft every month on the XXXX starting in XX/XX/year> from my bank account. I have made every payment since then on time. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I received an email to view my statement and when I tried to login I was unable to access my online/mobile banking account. I called American Express and was told that my account was in collections with a 3rd Party and they even offered to give me the collections agency number. I told them that I was enrolled in a payment plan and that does not seem accurate. I was then given a number to call to speak to a different department that handles my account and when I called I was told that everything was fine and that I was infact enrolled in a plan and that my account was still with American Express and wont be sold off to another party and that I should just continue to make payments. There was no mention of my account going further into deliquency. 

On XX/XX/year> my account was reported as charged off to XXXX by American Express. When I called American Express they said my account had continued to remain delinquent because I was not paying enough to cover the minimum payment due. This is where the deception lies, why did they continue to autodraft {$370.00} knowing it was not enough to cover their " minimum payment '' to avoid getting reported as past due. Why even offer it as an option without clarifying that this will not be enough to stop them from reporting your account as deliquent. There was no mention that I should have been making " more payments '' which then defeats the whole purpose of enrolling in a payment payment. 

They also told me that I should have called them to clarify how much I should have been paying and not just rely on the payment plan. I was under the impression that the payment plan they offered me was to help payoff the card in full and that the account was still with them and will not be charged off of sold to collections. Why would they expect me to pay minimum payments due and still enroll in a payment plan that does not cover this minimum payment. The whole point of enrolling in a payment plan is because I was unable to make the minimum payment.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation