American Express Interest & Penalty Claim

chunky330

Hi,


6 months ago I instructed Amex over the phone to take the full payment from me monthly on any standing outstanding balance on my credit card (ie. To repay any balance immediately). For background: I use the card for convenience purchases only & to rack up AVIOS points etc...fortunately I don't need the credit. Whilst on my call with the Amex representative, they acknowledged my payment instruction; confirmed that it had been actioned and said that I didn't need to do anything further.


As I have electronic statements setup I have not received any correspondence from Amex for the past 6 months EXCEPT recently when.......SURPRISE!! :-


I received a letter saying I have gone over my limit and been charged penalties. On further investigation it turns out that Amex have not been taking monthly payment as I had instructed over the phone. As a result there is a nasty surprise waiting for me of about £10k overdue balance....PLUS interest PLUS penalties etc for the past 6 months.


My view is that the interest & penalties charged for the past 6 months (which I did not see because I wasn't reviewing my account) should be paid back to me because they did not act on my original clear instruction to repay my overdue balance in full each month and they had actually confirmed this had set this up.


Do I have grounds for an interest & penalties reclaim here?


Thoughts?


Thank you!

Penelopa.Pitstop

"which I did not see because I wasn't reviewing my account"

You can certainly complain but I doubt they will refund you all the interest since you never checked the account. You didn't notice that 10K is not taken from your bank account?

Usually the statement will mention something along the line: your payment will be taken by direct debit on xx/xx/xx. If it doesn't say this, then you are responsible for any payments.

I assume they also put non-payment markers on your credit history.

chunky330

Yup, hands up... I have a lot going on & let my admin slip for a few monts as I had tried to automate these paymenst etc. Lesson learnt I suppose. You will be surprised how quickly/easy it is to accumulate 10K over 6-8 months, especially if you are doing home improvements!


I was making payment to AMEX but it was setup to take minimum balance only. I had instructed the full balance to come off.


I call them yesterday & they stopped just short of acknowledging fault but implied it was a system error their end. They offered last months interest back but I have laid a formal complaint and I am pushing to get it all waived from the date I gave instruction.


Thanks for your comments. Lets see where I get to, I will let you know.

InsideInsurance

Pay my AmEx card off manually each month rather than by DD so cannot confirm their exact call script but never known a card issuer that doesnt say they've put through the instructions for the DD but you need to check the statements until it says the DD is active on them.

As others have said, just because you have electronic statements doesnt give you an excuse not to still be checking them. They still mail you monthly to advise that the statements been produced.

Penelopa.Pitstop

You can also setup weekly emails with balance update.

If you paid minimum payments, you shouldn't have black marks on credit file. What I meant about 10K, is that you didn't notice money are not disappearing from you account and going to card every month.

chunky330

Thanks.

American Express paid back all my interest and penalties on the basis that of my original instruction that they negligently did no action. They initially offered one months interest back but I politely declined & escalated this further. They went back through phone call records to validate my story.

It was actually a fairly straightforward process & they were very professional/reasonable in the end. I actually received an extra £50 on top of all my interest & penalty refunds for the inconvenience.

They could have been difficult about it. Lesson learnt for me going forward - assume nothing!

Very fair outcome.

vns

Seems fair they sorted you out. I wouldn't have settled for anything less.

planteria

InsideInsurance wrote: »

...never known a card issuer that doesnt say they've put through the instructions for the DD but you need to check the statements until it says the DD is active on them.

CapOne didn't say that to me when i set up my DD on the telephone yesterday. but i will check my statement when it arrives & ensure that it is being paid in full anyway.