Irresponsible Lending Complaint Against Amex – Draft Decision In

PanAction25

I raised a complaint against Amex for irresponsible lending, and the investigator has now issued their draft decision.

They concluded it wouldn’t be fair for Amex to refund all interest and charges dating back to September  2017. Instead, they’ve recommended that Amex:

• Refund all interest and charges from April 2019 onwards

• If Amex chooses to record negative information on my credit file, it should be backdated to April  2019

Additionally, the decision states:

If removing all interest, fees, and charges means there’s no longer an outstanding balance, then any surplus should be treated as overpayments and refunded to me, along with 8% simple interest on those overpayments.

The draft has now been sent to Amex. I’m currently waiting to see whether they accept the decision or escalate it to the Ombudsman for a final ruling.

Has anyone else had a similar experience with Amex or a case that went to the Ombudsman? Would be helpful to hear how it played out.

MyRealNameToo

PanAction25 said:

Has anyone else had a similar experience with Amex or a case that went to the Ombudsman? Would be helpful to hear how it played out.

Any case that goes to an ombudsman goes onto their website in an anonymised format so you can see other cases for yourself. Have you looked there?


Two such cases:
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN-4188028.pdf
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN-4201636.pdf

ManyWays

The problem is you dont see all the investigator decisions that Amex has accepted, so by only looking at the "difficult" cases you miss the common ones. 

Neither of "two such cases" are very similar at all, as this is a case when the lending decision was over 6 years ago and FOS seems to be suggesting a refund for the last 6 years.

PanAction25

PanAction25 said:

MyRealNameToo said:

PanAction25 said:

Has anyone else had a similar experience with Amex or a case that went to the Ombudsman? Would be helpful to hear how it played out.

Any case that goes to an ombudsman goes onto their website in an anonymised format so you can see other cases for yourself. Have you looked there?


Two such cases:
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN-4188028.pdf
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN-4201636.pdf

I have checked those cases but I just wanted to gauge the likelihood of Amex appealing the investigator’s draft decision.   The investigator looked at account from 2017 (more than 6 years ago) but decided that it’s not fair to ask Amex to refund all interest given the facts of the case. But it would be fair for Amex to refund from 2019 onwards. 

The draft decision in my case is a 6 page document. I never missed any payments from 2017 until February 2025 so it looks like I might be getting missed payments recorded from 2025 onwards removed. 

I have checked those cases but I just wanted to gauge the likelihood of Amex appealing the investigator’s draft decision.   The investigator looked at account from 2017 (more than 6 years ago) but decided that it’s not fair to ask Amex to refund all interest given the facts of the case. But it would be fair for Amex to refund from 2019 onwards. 

The draft decision in my case is a 6 page document. I never missed any payments from 2017 until February 2025 so it looks like I might be getting missed payments recorded from 2025 onwards removed.