Consumer complaint received 2024-12-22 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Savings account
Issue: Managing an account — Problem making or receiving payments
Company: AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY
State: NV

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/XXXX, American Express National Bank sent me emails confirming that the two IRS direct debit transactions I initiated from my savings account were successful. ( Attachment A ) One payment was for my XXXX income tax balance ( {$60000.00} ), and the second was for my XXXX first quarter estimated tax payment ( {$24000.00} ). ( Note to CFPB : Please redact the payment amounts if publishing this complaint. ) I had already confirmed that my savings account had more than sufficient funds for both payments.

Much to my surprise, on XX/XX/XXXX American Express National Bank froze my savings account due to fraud concerns and rejected both of my tax payments to the IRS. I only became aware of the rejected transactions when the IRS informed me that my account had been frozen. ( Attachments B, C ) Earlier that day, I had received a brief voicemail from the American Express fraud department asking me to call them back ( XXXX XXXX  Eastern ). I called American Express customer service twice on the same day, XX/XX/XXXX, at XXXXXXXX XXXX Eastern and XXXXXXXX XXXX Eastern, but the fraud department did not pick up my transferred calls even though they were still open until XXXXXXXX XXXX Eastern. The fraud department only answered my call the next day on XX/XX/XXXX. During my call with the fraud department, they were satisfied that no fraud had occurred, and they unfroze my account. I was then able to re-initiate both tax payments to the IRS, and the transactions were successfully processed on the same day. ( Attachments D, E ) I have provided my American Express XX/XX/XXXX account statement showing my beginning balance, all of the transactions I just described, and my ending balance. ( Attachment F ) However, as a result of American Express 's decision to freeze my account and reject the IRS payments from XX/XX/XXXX, the IRS assessed me dishonored payment penalties ( aka " bad check penalties '' ) of {$1200.00} for the {$60000.00} rejected payment and {$490.00} for the {$24000.00} rejected payment. ( Attachments G, H ) After I submitted a request to remove the penalty due to reasonable cause, the IRS informed me that in order for my bad check penalties to be removed, I must submit a letter from American Express National Bank explaining the circumstances that caused the dishonored payments. ( Attachment I ) Over the past seven months, I have provided many other supporting documents to the IRS in an effort to have the penalties removed for reasonable cause, yet the IRS is still insisting that they need a letter of explanation from American Express. ( Attachment J ) I have also spent countless hours on the phone with the fraud department at American Express trying to obtain such a letter. While the American Express customer service and fraud department employees have been sympathetic, they were unable to provide me with a vetted letter that said my account was frozen due to fraud concerns. They informed me that any custom letter must be generated by the bank 's legal department. The legal department never provided a letter that I could submit to the IRS despite the fraud department requesting such a letter on my behalf.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation