Consumer complaint received 2024-11-03 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: WA

Complaint narrative:
In late XXXX of this year we received a bill for {$18000.00} from American Express. We paid the bill in full, as we do every month. However, the bill was due XX/XX/XXXX XXXX American Express said they did not receive the payment until XX/XX/XXXX. ( XXXX has held an American Express card for 58 years. This account is shared with me, his wife, who has been an American Express customer for 46 years. To our best recollection this was the first late payment. ). A late fee of {$29.00} was assessed. This fee was posted to our account XX/XX/XXXX. It seemed to be a legitimate charge, if a bit heavy-handed way to treat long time customers with an excellent payment history. 

On XX/XX/XXXX we were charged an " interest payment '' in the amount of {$940.00}. We contacted American Express and were told this charge was for the one-day late payment and that " nothing could be done '' to appeal or request reconsideration. We contacted American Express about this interest charge again on XX/XX/XXXX XXXX spoke with two Service Representatives. The second representative, XXXX, agreed to look into this matter and get back to us. 

When we had not heard from her we called American Express again. This time we spoke with XXXX who put us on hold and spoke with XXXX. He came back on the line and told us that the late fee and interest payment would be credited back to our account in 7-10 business days, subject to an internal review. When we did not hear from hime, we assumed the problem had been resolved. 

However, when we received our next bill ( due XX/XX/XXXX ), the credit did not appear. What did appear was a second " interest payment '' charge, this one for {$890.00}. On XX/XX/XXXX, we called American Express again and were told this was for the same late payment that had occurred in XXXX, bringing the total fees including the late fee to {$1800.00}. We were told that if we did not pay this amount, we would continue to receive charges. We spoke with several representatives and were told that no one had the authority to address the matter and that our only alternatives to write " Corporate Headquarters. '' But no one would specify a name, office or phone number. If we wished to pursue the matter, we were to write " to whom it may concern '' at the corporate office. To prevent more charges while we were disputing the issue, we paid the {$1800.00}. 

On XX/XX/year> we again called American Express. We wanted to try one more time to resolve this issue. We spoke with two different representatives who unsuccessfully tried to resolve this issue for us. We were then transferred to a more senior ( " third '' ) level representative, XXXX. XXXX said nothing could be done and he could not, or would not, refer us to a higher level. He informed us that " American Express does not make mistakes, '' referring to when they post payments and " American Express never refunds an interest payment. '' ( These are direct quotations. ) We, of course, deeply resent the way we have been treated by American Express and the time and energy we have had to devote to this. We are planning to discontinue our account. In the meantime, we continue to dispute these excessive charges and hope the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau can assist us.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation