AMEX Bonvoy Brilliant "forfeited" points!?
 

WHAT is the deal with this? I saw I had like 16,000 forfeited points because I paid my bill ~2 weeks after the billing period ended (simply forgot). So I pay the full bill...I pay the "late fee" then they want to charge another fee on top to "reinstate" the points you earned? This is nonsense. Shouldn't the late fee be the penalty?

No, these are separate. One is an automatic penalty if you fail to pay as required. $35 is optional reinstatement fee. It's all here:

https://www.americanexpress.com/cont...03-28-2019.pdf

You'd think so, but the obstinate woman on the phone was not very understanding. If extorting me $35 is the hill AMEX wants to die on, perhaps I should reconsider our 15+ year relationship and move my business elsewhere.

Or perhaps you should enable one of the automatic payments options as a failsafe.

No thanks.

Is $35 the "hill you want to die on".....??? AMEX didn't screw this up - you missed the payment, right?

At just one cent per point, 16,000 points is $160. So, yeah, I think so.

I paid my bill the first few days of the month in full. This charge posted in the middle of the month, that billing cycle closed around 17th of the month. I paid my bill again in full in beginning of the next month, less than 1mo after the charge posted AND paid the late fee they hit me with. Does it not seem objectively stupid that I have 1. paid all the $ owed on my bill, 2. paid the late fee and still they want to charge me ANOTHER fee for points I already "earned" with the spend? If I had a bill that was outstanding for months or something i'd understand, but this is just dumb and you'd think any customer service agent would be like "OK, we'll waive the fee this time but please make sure to pay on time!" Like I said, if AMEX wants to ruin a 15+ year relationship over $35 they're welcome to. I've shifted most of my spend to Chase, I'm happy to bring the rest over. Shouldn't the "penalty" for late payment be the late fee? Not late fee + another BS fee?

I'm sorry but we're just numbers to Amex and basically all credit card companies... even if you spend millions a year they're probably not going to notice that you moved over to chase... just saying, lol. Its a lame rule, but in this game we basically need to pay by the rules to maximize our points.... the only loyalty to Amex (or any cc company) is whoever that gives the best bonus spend, and then the card gets switched out, lol.

Maybe they'll give you a courtesy waive or two. Or you can send it as a "reader mistake story" to one of the bloggers for a chance to win a gift card haha.

I get that we're all numbers, I think the main thing is the policy itself bothers me. If you want to withold the points pending the bill and late fee being paid that's fine, but charging another fee on top of that just feels petty and like they're trying to take advantage of their customers.

Why not? A good thing to do, even if you don't plan to use it, is to enable autopay for at least the minimum payment. Only if you make no payment yourself will the autopay do anything, but in that case, it will save you from the late payment fee, losing your points, and potentially getting kicked up to the penalty APR. I can see why some people don't feel comfortable with autopay for the entire balance, as they may be carrying a balance on an ongoing basis, or occasionally don't have the full amount that is due. But I can't think of a good reason to not have a minimum-payment autopay enabled, even if you don't plan to use it (unless your finances are such that you think you may not be able to make even the minimum payment on time, but then you probably have much larger issues).

I don't like autopay because I like to review my bill and make sure that I actually charged everything on there. More than a few times/year there are discrepancies and it's a lot easier to have the charge removed before you pay the bill, than to pay then try to claw back $ after the fact. I always pay my balance in full.

Except when you forgot. Setting up autopay does not preclude reviewing charges or paying manually. It prevents the problem which occured, and does not create any other problem.

You can still review your bill and make disputes. I do it all the time and have auto-pay enabled.