American Express Membership Rewards - Fee Free Plat GONE WRONG!

The CSR and the Membership Consultants both told me they refused to waive my Platinum Card fee after I saw it appear on my 4th billing cycle ( 3-4 months?) after I had the Platinum Card. Is this fair?

I spoke to a rep in January who offered me the card, with both the CSR and another representative on the line with me in the process of upgrading my card and giving me a fee free first year, thus cancelling my Gold card (they said they cannot upgrade it and had to reissue) so i let them because hey ti was a good deal.

Fast forward today to the $395 charge, called membership consultants and downgraded the card to a Gold Memership Rewards for fee free first year, gratefully under my AMEX Plat account number.

This sucks and I was wonderng if there was any other recourse. If not doesnt the AMX Plat work the same as the AMEX gold if they are both teh same account number? Basically use the Plat while online/satemnt will show Gold?

On the other hand i foudn their customer service to be very nice, partially why I couldnt say I wanted to speak toa supervisor, but I may if it comes to it. Does anyone know if a supervisor is able to waive the fee, from what they said it was extremely rare that I had gotten a Platinum card waived at all, used 3 months then charged fee.... :confused:

This sucks and I was wonderng if there was any other recourse. If not doesnt the AMX Plat work the same as the AMEX gold if they are both teh same account number? Basically use the Plat while online/satemnt will show Gold?

On the other hand i foudn their customer service to be very nice, partially why I couldnt say I wanted to speak toa supervisor, but I may if it comes to it. Does anyone know if a supervisor is able to waive the fee, from what they said it was extremely rare that I had gotten a Platinum card waived at all, used 3 months then charged fee.... :confused:

Yes, your account number should stay the same when you do upgrades/downgrades between the same line of cards. They most certainly do have the ability to waive the fee. I'd try calling back a couple more times and getting a different answer hopefully.

If that doesn't work, you could try to open a dispute with Amex on the membership fee. I actually did this and got the fee refunded after I'd failed going through the regular channels. (Same situation, was supposed to be first year free on an Amex Gold but I got charged.)

Oh, and my usual advice... try going for the Amex Business Platinum instead if you want a Platinum charge card. $300 instead of $395, and pretty much the same features except no everyday double points. Also the OPEN small business customer care has been far better to me than regular consumer customer care. Of course, you can get a business card by declaring yourself as a sole proprietorship without incorporating or anything.

Yes, your account number should stay the same when you do upgrades/downgrades between the same line of cards. They most certainly do have the ability to waive the fee. I'd try calling back a couple more times and getting a different answer hopefully.

If that doesn't work, you could try to open a dispute with Amex on the membership fee. I actually did this and got the fee refunded after I'd failed going through the regular channels. (Same situation, was supposed to be first year free on an Amex Gold but I got charged.)

Oh, and my usual advice... try going for the Amex Business Platinum instead if you want a Platinum charge card. $300 instead of $395, and pretty much the same features except no everyday double points. Also the OPEN small business customer care has been far better to me than regular consumer customer care. Of course, you can get a business card by declaring yourself as a sole proprietorship without incorporating or anything.


aren't there tax ramnifications, or the great probability of getting your card closed, when amex requests your business financials?

I'm not even touching their business cards haha. I jus want a personal one with membership rewards.

TO the credit of AMEX< they are having a supervisor retrace my call and to whoever CSR I spoke with and also jus ofund a prorated fee hidden in my statement for the months I used it to from January till February.

:mad:

The CSR and the Membership Consultants both told me they refused to waive my Platinum Card fee after I saw it appear on my 4th billing cycle ( 3-4 months?) after I had the Platinum Card. Is this fair?

I spoke to a rep in January who offered me the card, with both the CSR and another representative on the line with me in the process of upgrading my card and giving me a fee free first year, thus cancelling my Gold card (they said they cannot upgrade it and had to reissue) so i let them because hey ti was a good deal.

Fast forward today to the $395 charge, called membership consultants and downgraded the card to a Gold Memership Rewards for fee free first year, gratefully under my AMEX Plat account number.

This sucks and I was wonderng if there was any other recourse. If not doesnt the AMX Plat work the same as the AMEX gold if they are both teh same account number? Basically use the Plat while online/satemnt will show Gold?

On the other hand i foudn their customer service to be very nice, partially why I couldnt say I wanted to speak toa supervisor, but I may if it comes to it. Does anyone know if a supervisor is able to waive the fee, from what they said it was extremely rare that I had gotten a Platinum card waived at all, used 3 months then charged fee.... :confused:

Be careful trying to use the PLAT instead of the GOLD even with the same account number: The card security ID is probably different (the small four digit number written on top right of the account number on front of the card).

I had this issue when I was upgraded from GOLD PLUS to PLAT. After receiving the PLAT card, I left it at home and traveled with my GOLD instead. When I try to use the GOLD card, it was denied.