American Express Membership Rewards - New AMEX policy for disputes?

I had to make two disputes on my Platinum Delta card recently. On both disputes, the customer service rep put the disputed amounts in "suspension" instead of issuing a temporary credit. Although you are not required to pay amounts in suspensions, these amounts do not lower the your balance on your account as temprorary credits do.

Has this happened to anybody else? Which card were you disputing on?

seawolf,

The 'dispute/suspense' balance status is standard M.O. for Visa/MasterCard disputes. Amex must finally be able to handle credit card disputes differently than charge card disputes.

From my experience at the business end of Visa and MasterCard, some customers would dispute large charges in order to temporarily artificially inflate their credit line. The dispute/suspense bucket reduces exposure for the card company.

I've had 2-3 disputed charges on my lowly green card in the past month, and I was given a credit each time. Then, after their investigation, I receive a letter saying that the credit will remain on my account.

I've experienced the "suspension" nonsense too, and I don't like it. For one thing, when I view my bill on line it tells me the entire balance is due, including the disputed charges. Same if I go to pay the bill on line or by phone. Only when I examine the paper statement is there a note about the "suspended" amount and the lower amount due is reflected. AMEX is treading on thin ice on this one - if the charge is disputed they can't then go and tell you its due, but that's just what their on-line and pay by phone systems are doing! I'd love to opt for their on=line statement only, but I'm sure not going to do that when it doesn't reflected any billing disputes.

I have two Canadian cards, one MC and one Visa.

Each has a different way to handle disputes as discussed. Visa keeps the charge WITH interest. It will then remove all charges with interest later if investigated successfully (a lengthy 90 day process). They also expect payment or your account goes to delinquency during this period...

MasterCard removes it first then talks later.

It shows how your bank looks at its customers... guilty vs. innocent until proven otherwise.

It appears that Amex is shifting towards the "guilty until proven otherwise" crowd.

Yes, AMEX definetely is in the "guilty till proven innocent" crowd. Last year, they did not credit my account for a paymnet.My guess is the payment was credited to the wrong account and the other card "member" did not complain. I had to run through hoops along with my bank to get AMEX my bank's internal batch report(?) so they could find the
payment. I think they wanted someone else to do the research and spoonfeed them. I got the standard form letters and the feedback request letter. I did tell them what was on my mind. I have not heard from them. Maybe they will call one day...

[This message has been edited by MSP2000 (edited 02-19-2001).]

Originally posted by BeantownFlyer:
I've experienced the "suspension" nonsense too, and I don't like it. For one thing, when I view my bill on line it tells me the entire balance is due, including the disputed charges. Same if I go to pay the bill on line or by phone. Only when I examine the paper statement is there a note about the "suspended" amount and the lower amount due is reflected. AMEX is treading on thin ice on this one - if the charge is disputed they can't then go and tell you its due, but that's just what their on-line and pay by phone systems are doing! I'd love to opt for their on=line statement only, but I'm sure not going to do that when it doesn't reflected any billing disputes.

Which card were you using? An credit (Optima) or charge (Personal/Gold/Platinum) card? It seems like for credit cards, they suspend, for charge cards, they issue temprorary credits.

Charge - so the charge vs. credit distinction is not what is driving them. Oh, and I've had an account for almost 20 years, always pay timely, and charge in excess of 100K annually - so I'm a "good" customer.