Earlier this year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau launched a complaint portal for people with credit card-related issues. Banks and card companies are not obliged to provide a happy ending to the complainant, but they are obliged to reply in a timely manner. And even with the bar lowered that much, Bank of America still manages to disappoint. [More]
american express
American Express To Pay Out $85 Million To Customers For Variety Of Consumer Violations
By 10.1.12
American Express is feeling the sting of an $112.5 million spanking from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, following an investigation that found that three subsidiaries of the credit card company had violated several consumer rights, from misleading ads to age discrimination to unlawful late fees. [More]
Update On Woman Sent To Jail For Using Gift Cards At Best Buy
By 2.4.10 — Updated: 3.13.15
Last month, New York City’s NY1 news channel produced a news segment on the woman who was arrested for paying with AMEX gift cards at a Best Buy. If you read our earlier post with Ilona’s email, you already know most of the basics, but you can see the problematic gift cards and hear Ilona describe the experience in her own words. It turns out that after she was released, she went back to Best Buy for either a refund or the DVD player, but had to leave without either one–she was told she’d have to contact American Express to resolve the problem. [More]
AmEx Denies Existence Of A Store Blacklist, Will Slash Your Credit Whenever They Want
By 1.31.09 — Updated: 11.1.12
Despite sending customers letter saying otherwise, American Express now insists that it never blacklisted cardholders based on where they shopped. Those notes explaining that “other customers who have used their card at establishments where you recently shopped have a poor repayment history with American Express?” Whoops! Just a big misunderstanding! Not unlike the comment they gave to ABC explaining that “shopping patterns” were used as a “contributing factor” in slashing credit lines, a statement AmEx later retracted. So what’s really going on? Let’s explore…
