Fabo.sk

high risk brand =/= luxury brand.

A luxury brand is almost always high risk, but in this case, I'd expect it's more about them big Holden V8s.,

bostontraveler

Also can just be high theft rates as is the case with Acura and Dodge. Two cars I would never want to steal myself! :-)

carnarvon

The regulatory body ACPR has just made public that they have fined Amex France 2,000,000 € for, among other things, failing to comply with their duty of surveillance regarding money laundering.

The main grievance was that they allowed their customers to settle their monthly statements by third party bank transfers from France and abroad, as well as card payments not even in the name of the Amex card holder. Another grievance is that they improperly subcontracted internal audit procedures.

The control took place in 2019 and Amex said they would not appeal the ruling. (Source : Les Echos, Money Vox and the ACPR websites).

This is the reason for the suspension and cancellation of thousand of cards in March and April of this year.

The level of incompetence in handling this issue on the part of Amex management beggars belief.

After an an audit of payments in January and February 2021, they indiscriminately applied the same treatment to all card members.

They did not treat differently the card holders who were obviously abusing the system (different payments from different sources) and the ones who would simply make a transfer from the same French account in the name of the cardholder's company, month after month, year on year, with the odd small amount by a 90 yo family member.

After submitting their customers to an unacceptable blackmail ("until you answer our questions, your card will remain suspended"), they cancelled thousands of cards.

I suspect they subcontracted this mani pulite blitz, which would explain the lack of fine tuning in the process.

The other puzzling thing is that the fine is for past irregularities.

Why bother submitting their customers in 2021 with insane questionnaires and requests when even if you answered, they would not allow any longer third party payments anyway.

Why not simply advising their customers that the practice was not allowed any longer?

carnarvon

Did you notice that there is a € 150 excess (franchise) / car accident with French Amex?

Used not to be the case (or my memory has started to betray me?).

lynxy

It's new, since April....

maalloc

For travellers based in France: Amex Gold offers 5% cashback on airfrance.fr/klm.fr issued tickets until Sept 13th.

Just got an email with a broken registration link, but the offer does appear when logging in on americanexpress.com .

Brendan88

I have been having issues with the customer service at AMEX over 2 things:
- Unable to remove a extra card holder (gold)
- unable to get the platinum for 2 assigned.

I am a FB platinum card holder and a AMEX FB platinum card holder.

The first issue should be something very simples, removing an extra card holder. But strangely isnt. I have contacted them over 5 times for this issue and every time I am told the card will be removed from my account. Once I also received a letter that the extra card will be cancelled after 30 days but it still isn't. And I keep getting messages that the extra card holder must identify himself, which is not possible as that card holder has passed away, also the reason why I wanted to cancel is hard.

Second issue is going on for years now. In July 2019 I requested to change plat for 2 cardholder (from my brother to my wife). First had to change the extra AMEX platinum card to my wife then was told iI had to wait a little less than a year until my brothers FB qualification period had ended. So I waited a year and requested in July 2020 to give my wife the FB Plat status. Dont remember the outcome of that, only that she did not yet receive the status but due to Covid she was not travelling at the time so I did not pursuit it again. Now since May this year i have spoken to AMEX every 1 or 2 weeks. They keep emailing FB to give my wife the Plat status. Some times FB sends a respons to me, some times to Amex almost always with the reply that FB sees a Amex FB gold card in her account and not a Plat card. Even though she does have a plat card. AMEX said they cannot call FB. And if I call FB Im told AMEX needs to send them the request and that they cant help me.
AMEX has recently compensated me with 50% rebate on the annual card fees. And I was told they are now near to solving it as there was a difference in my wifes personal address between AMEX and FB and that they have corrected that. I think AMEX has promised me over 7 times they would call me back on a specific date but only once they actually did that. The last agent told me she would call me back last week Tuesday and from then on every 2 business days. Not once has she called me.

Has anyone experienced the same or have any advice? I think the only solution would be to cancel the AMEX card and after some time request the card again under a new agreement.

flying_blue_white_red

Same issue here, still waiting for plat for 2 requested in May for my wife .

Interesting, can this be a real reason?

Gajan

I recently applied for the FB Platinum Amex (NL) in order to get the Platinum for 2 for a friend. They said it would take 2 weeks to upgrade her status after the request was done and it was sorted.

Before I was able to call FB in order to have them speed up the request, that did not seem possible nowadays.

One change is however, that only once per year you can change who receives the Platinum for 2 benefit; before - in theory - there was no writer rule (which is what the other posters have also understood from Amex).

Brendan88

Thats what I tried 2 years ago, my brothers qualification period ended on 31 June 2019, on the 3rd of July I changed it over to my wife. After a few weeks I was told that I had to wait a year until the qualification period passed.
BTW my brother still is platinum but due to the Covid extensions he did not drop (and is even building up PFL years). I am told that is not the reason why my wife is not yet platinum.

I dont think the address is the issue either, in her FB account it shows her benefits of having a Amex FB gold card which should be a platinum card. If it was the address why would they think she even has a Amex card.

carnarvon

Is your brother counting on the Plat years he got through you?

If so, tell him they don't count for PFL.

Masterfrog

They just launched 3 new Accor VISA cards on the French market : https://all.accor.com/loyalty-progra...index.fr.shtml

No FX fees for payments (finally!), free to withdraw in many ATMs, clearer perks for travelers, Accor points for every purchase and cheaper than Amex for a card accepted in more places.

They really needed that kind of competition. Time to wake up Amex.

fifty_two

i wouldnt be so excited about it , based on first feedbacks i read , but as you mentionned its good they choose visa instead of MC or amex

plus its not really direct competition for amex . It would be good if they decide to compete for FB customers , by signing a deal with AFKL but we know it wont happen soon unless a new player come and break the statusquo of this oligopoly

lynxy

May I ask where you found those feedbacks? I'm interested to see them

fifty_two

FlyerTalk ALL section = https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/acco...isa-cards.html

LoyaltyLobby = https://loyaltylobby.com/2021/08/10/...celed-account/ and https://loyaltylobby.com/2021/09/14/...ast-fb-credit/