Trying to battle with AMEX......

[Plantman]

Maybe someone out there has some suggestions for dealing with this situation.

In JAnuary of 2002, I cancelled my Amex Corp Card and paid the balance in full. I have statement copies telling me that my account a was no closed, please pay your final bill.

I had a still have in good standing an American Express Platinum card and it made no sense to have 2.

Anyway, without my knowledge, they approved a charge of 149.99 in August of 2002, 7 months after the account was closed. I had moved and never received a bill.

Recently, I obtained a free copy of my credit report and found the 149.99 shown as a charge off.

I have mailed them and have been told that I am responsible, even though the account was closed. That makes no sense at all. What if the charge had been 1459.00? or 14999.00? What the f*&% is going on here.

I have sent out another letter threatening to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau(I actually did yesterday) in the hopes I can come up with a resolution.

If I am a current member in good standing, doesn't it make sense that I would havepaid the 149.00 had I known about it?

Couldn't they have contacted me thru my other account that I have with them?

My friend suggested last night that I call up the Platinum card # and tell them I want to canel. When they ask why, I should explain the other situation in hopes that it miht inspire someone to take care of it.

Another friend suggests I just pay it and be done with it.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks

[84300DT]

i would cal Amex (corporate card division) and ask them outright how/why they can approve a charge on a closed account, and especially considering the charge wasn't made by you, but by some unknown thief. it is bad enough when someone else makes a charge on your account when it is open, let alone when it was closed for 7 months.
sounds like a big security gap at Amex to me. it should be a job for their fraud dept.

you are absolutely right in wondering what would happen if it was $14,900 instead of $149 as theoretically it could have been due Amex having no limits on their cards. i would ask them that too.

good luck / post back results.

[Plantman]

Amex's answer is that since it is so old, it is not being handled by them anymore. Their corporate card dept I mean.

There is a special dept that does research and they are the ones that are telling me that it is a valid charge.

The company that requested the charge(DAMARK) is currently under new management. They claim they cannot refund nor confirm charges older than 6 mos old.

According to AMEX, I bought something from them at some point.(Don't remember) and they say that once I purchase something from a company, they can call and request authorizations and they will be approved.

Can anyone say KY jelly? No offense meant, but I feel like I am getting screwed......

"According to AMEX, I bought something from them at some point.(Don't remember) and they say that once I purchase something from a company, they can call and request authorizations and they will be approved."


But I would think that if your account is closed that they at
least seek approval from you before paying anything.

Also why would that company wait more than 6 mo. to
present this?
Something smells funny.

Louis

[Plantman]

Originally Posted by mb123mercedes

"According to AMEX, I bought something from them at some point.(Don't remember) and they say that once I purchase something from a company, they can call and request authorizations and they will be approved."

But I would think that if your account is closed that they at
least seek approval from you before paying anything.

Louis

That is precisely my point! If that were the case, scam artists would have a field day, selling something to someone once, then billing over and over. And Amex would be on the hook....Makes no sense.

MAybe we have a forum member who works for them who could clear this up.

I've had a similar problem with AOL charging to cancelled credit cards....and still getting paid somehow, after an online complaint to my state attorney general and a carbon copy to them I was made a happy person and compensated for my time and severe emotional duress which spawned back spasm's rendering me unable to work..

You get the picture

I paid the bill before it went to collection though, save your credit ask questions later.

[LK1]

If it's already showing on your credit report as a charge-off it's too late to pay it in order to get it reversed. Once you pay it, it will still remain on your credit report for 7 years before it drops off. I would suggest legal representation and investigation into a class action suit with other's that may be in a similar boat.
I'm suprised as a platinum card member that Amex would think you don't have the resources to prosecute this case.

[JimSmith]

Plantman, (sorry LK1)

I have a corporate AMEX card that was issued to me after applying for it through the company that employs me, all for their convenience making travel arrangements, also through AMEX.

Well, I am one who pays the bills and doesn't really review them. I have had some difficulty with being reimbursed by my company timely and have had to front my travel money. When that happened I stopped using my AMEX corporate card and began to use a VISA card that gives me a $100 Home Depot Gift Card as a kickback for using their card after some number of charges. AMEX was giving the same kickback to my company, or something like it.

One day, I get a bill for AMEX with a couple thousand dollars for airfare. I did not use the card for airfare anymore, so I got suspicious and investigated. Two guys from my company, in another branch in Milwaukee, flew to Boston and back, and the AMEX travel department charged my card, not theirs. So I called AMEX the travel department and they said contact the AMEX corporate card account people. I started getting pissed off. I am now working for them to correct an error they made, for free.

The AMEX people act helpful but tell me they will send me an affadavit to fill out ensuring they have my signature on a paper declaring the charges were fraudulent. Without this paper they can do nothing. I get more pissed. Pretty soon, I have the head of the Corporate Account Management on the phone and I tell them they will have to contact the weenie at the AMEX travel agency with the ticket numbers and names of the people who flew on the tickets charged to my account to get their money. I am not paying and I am not working for them for nothing. I have already solved the crime, it is all within AMEX and therefore should be an internal issue. They tell me the travel guys are not the same as the corporate credit card guys and I tell them they both use the same logo, the same advertising themes and present themselves as an integrated service.

Anyway, I ended up getting them to get the travel guys on the phone with me and they ended up resolving it. But it took about 8 months. I do not use the AMEX service at all anymore and I get the company travel weenie pissed off at me every month because I ignore the mandate to use the card and the travel service. I figure they owe me a few thousand dollars at my rate for finding and getting them to resolve a problem. Until AMEX compensates me I will never use them again.

I suggest you get the head cheese on the phone. Make it clear it was their problem and they have harmed you with their negligence. The fact that they have pawned off the investigation to an incompetent (for $150 they are not going to spend any of their own resources - strong arming you with a credit report notation to pay up was free from them, as it was likely a keystroke by a clerk that ok'd the action) outsourced agent is not your fault. They need to make you whole again, and take whatever action is needed to fix your credit report, and eat the money.

The stakes with these guys are big. They will not respond easily, but they will end up responding before dealing with a potential class action suit because they do this all the time. Jim

[mplafleur]

Write your credit reporting company and ask they remove the offending item from your credit report.

[LK1]

I agree. The only way to get them to do something about this is to make it potentially too painful for them to ignore. I always try to go as high up the food chain as possible. I would call the corporate office for the president of Amex, you'll get through to his secretary. Explain that you're a platinum card member whose credit has been ruined by a clerical error on Amex's part and before you turn the case over to your lawyers you want to speak to the president to rectify it. MAKE SURE YOU GET THE NAME OF EVERYONE YOU TALK TO!!! The secretary will most likely connect you to the corporate counsel. Problem should go away or at least get some proper attention.

[Plantman]

LK1 wro Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: BOSTON
Posts: 394

If it's already showing on your credit report as a charge-off it's too late to pay it in order to get it reversed. Once you pay it, it will still remain on your credit report for 7 years before it drops off.
te:

Actually, any entry onto your credit report can be removed,altered or corrected. There has to be a justification for this of courde but it can and has happened.

I had a car loan years back that was reported incorrectly as being 90 days late on my credit report. I sent my bank copis of the checks and the corrected the entry.

The Fair credit reporting act states that any deragatory item will remain on your credit report for 7 years. This assumes that the item in question is valid of course.

[Plantman]

I will call the AMEX corporate card department tomorrow and see how high up the food chain I can go. I plan to send letters to everyone above a customer service clerk.

If this fails I will call the Platinum card dept and see if the threat of cancelling will spur some activity.

I called them the other day telling them I wanted to downgrade to a Gold or Green card because of the annual fee and they promptly waived it for this year. They might just want to keep my business.

[Plantman]

Originally Posted by mplafleur

Write your credit reporting company and ask they remove the offending item from your credit report.

I have done this. If AMEX contacts thme and verifies that the item is correct, it will not be removed.

The problem is that AMEX has buried it, because it's two years old, so they continue to report it to the credit bureaus as a valid debt because they approved the charge.

In order for then to report you as a charge off they must send you a written notice which you have 30 days to respond, did you recieve this and blow it off like many of us have because you knew it was incorrect?

Something doesn't make sense here.

Whomever put the charge off on your credit report request copies of all communication to you, and go from there you need facts before you blow your wad because it could be your fault, if it is your fault PM me and I will help you out I have a knack for busting those balls.

[Plantman]

Med Mech:

When I closed my account, I paid whatever balance was owed in full. I moved a couple of months after, say April - May of 2002.

Between the time I closed my corp card account and my recent viewing of my credit report, I was completely unaware of the charges.

HAd I known, I would have disputed it or paid it at the time to avoid this hassle, because I sure as hell have spent more that enough time writing letters and talking on the phone to justify paying the 149.99 and be done with it.

I never had any knowledge of the charge.

I am welcome to any tips btw.

Thanks