mia

Thread closed until badAmex returns to provide an update.

badAmex

Update: I filed a BBB complaint and in Amex's response they documented they only refunded me less than 35% of the annual fees, and included a check for less than $240, I guess as some sort of consolation. What irks me the most is that I also paid the massive initiation fees (for myself and AU's that they cancelled), doesn't seem right to pay a big initiation fee if they can just cancel you and keep the money.

All my Amex accounts were paid in full and in good standing for over 20 years. The one AU that has ties to the cannabis business apparently kept all his LLC's separate from his personal business, so no connection there, and he still has his own personal Amex account while I am banned and couldn't even be added as an AU to my parent's Amex account (and they are old school Amex customers).

Looks like the next step is to file a claim with this form and hope to get some resolution via arbitration, or perhaps even an answer.

If there are lawyers out there who want to take my case, I'd be glad to share half the proceeds with you!

All advice welcome.

Happy to answer any questions, here's some responses to some of the feedback:

I am not hiding anything, happy to share more information, only wish to guard both my privacy and that of my AU's.

I specifically asked Amex if I could do this, multiple times, was told verbally I could do this and also had their customer service reply via messaging that this was acceptable. They could have warned me not to have AU's pay directly (but they had been for almost 15 years, so why is it suddenly an issue?).

I was doing most my personal spend on cards that had better points/miles values. All they had to do is ask me, I would have just used my Amex instead of other cards if I needed to. I wasn't opening other credit card accounts much either, had the cards I needed and didn't have the time for the points/miles sign up bonus efforts I had more time to do in my youth.

If they had offered me this opportunity, I would have done it. By this time, I had already cancelled most my AU's anyway.

rajuabju

You filed a BBB complained almost 2 years later? Or was the complaint filed with the BBB filed a while back? And you are only now thinking of retaining a lawyer?

If you've let all this time elapse from escalating the issue, why is that? I certainly would have been more aggressive if I had a similar experience. Years ago, my wife had 250k MR clawed back from AMEX in a situation I thought was totally unfair and unjust. I fought AMEX and threatened litigation, was able to settle for return of her points, return of her AF, able to redeem (transfer) all her MR (600k+ at that time), in exchange for then closing the account. She was blacklisted from AMEX for 7ish years (this was agreed to in advance, in writing) which I didnt care anymore since she had pretty much had every AMEX card/bonus of interest to us, and we also had moved onto Chase for primary relationship at that time and I retained my Biz Plats, etc. But certainly, I didnt allow any significant time to go by before threats of escalation, etc.

mia

How many additional cardholders did you have on the account? Were all of them personally known to you for some years before you gave them cards on your account?

jerry a. laska

So I guess the attorney you retained in 2022 declined to take your case?

badAmex

Correct. Perhaps a fatal error. I have filed several complaints with the BBB along the way, and the CFPB. I had contacted an attorney recommended here in the forums who had the exact experience and success with Amex. We were going back and forth with for some months that had some health issues, then family issues, then went dark. That ate up almost a year. I've also been doing a lot of other things as well, this hasn't been top of mind. No excuse, your observation is correct. I've found some time and thought I'd try to tackle this properly again.

7 (grandfathered in). Yes, relatives and personal friends for quite some time. Close enough that I knew their specific financial situations and knew I could trust them with my perfect credit (never missed a payment in my life, always paid in full, etc.)

He went dark. He was going to take it on contingency. I don't really want to pour more money into going after Goliath. However, arbitration seems like a potential route.

hhdl

That would seem to indicate that Mr. Darr, Esq., after you presumably shared more than you have here (for understandable privacy reasons) and his consulting of relevant statutes and rulings (or at least the Cliffs notes thereof) led to the conclusion that the chance of prevailing and recovering costs was not favorable.

How interested is your AU in pursuing this, since it's likely their dealings that are the trigger?

badAmex

If your presumption is correct, he didn't share anything of the sort with me, just stopped responding. Would have been nice if he said that to me, as I would have understood and not delayed and emailed him every two months asking if he was still interested. I'm not sure what else I shared with him that's more than here besides exact numbers and specifics.

Like I did for the card, they'd prefer for me to do the work.

Eujeanie

I'm pretty naive, so please help me understand. I have exactly one AU on my cards, my husband, and he is on mine.

Why would you have 7 AU's? Are these people unable to get their own cards due to bad credit? Wouldn't that be a bit cautionary to you? Otherwise why would they not want to earn their own points/cash back on their own cards and instead let you reap the benefits of their spend?

Again, sorry if I sound like a moron but I'm truly mystified.

badAmex

Fair question. Simple answer: wealthy family members and close friends who wanted the benefits of the card (it used to have better benefits, the US Airways status used to get me upgraded 90% of the time). Once you have it, it's easy to feel trapped and feel like you don't want to waste the initiation fee (sunk-cost fallacy).

Eujeanie

So you were theoretically depriving Amex of potentially 7 more annual fees every year? And they decided they didn't like that?

notquiteaff

IANAL, but did you have a signed representation agreement with this lawyer, or was it more informal? If he was your lawyer and then just stopped responding, I would file a complaint with the bar association.

mia

Inasmuch as Centurion is an "invitation only" product I doubt that this would be the concern.

The primary cardholder is responsible for the entire debt. Receiving direct payment from additional cardholders might trigger an analysis to see if the primary cardholder's verified income could support the combined level of spending across all eight cards.

Eujeanie

Right, that's why I said "theoretically" and "potentially". But if it's "invitation only" why would Amex want to extend the cachet (of having and using the card) to 7 people who were not "invited"?

mia

American Express collects a substantial annual fee for each additional card, they collect transaction fees when the card is used, and they sell access to cardholders to advertisers.