American Express Gift Cards Reviews

Do not BUY American Express Gcards!! Purchased American Express Gcards to two different stores. Walgreens. It says activated but once you check the balance it is empty. Someone had used it, at Apple location in Dedham MA. I called Walgreens, nothing they can do about it because I authorized the purchase, yes because I pay for the card. Advised to contact Amex. After 5 or 6 times calling and being put on hold and get hang up, finally spoke to a supervisor who says nothing she can do because it is treated as cash and advised to call the merchant. Called Apple store where the card was used. Advised to contact the police and file a report. Police cannot give me my money back.

I ordered gift cards for my employees for their hard work through a busy season. I chose to make personalized cards because I figured they would've more appreciated. It took quite a while to finish the order and thanks to a website error, I had to do it over again from scratch. After I re-completed making their cards, the order went through with my confirmation email. About a week passed and I got a shipping notification that also said that part of my order "could not be processed". It also said that I should direct my questions to the 800 number. I called and went through the computer prompts and was put on hold. A person came to the line asked me for my order number and when I gave it to him, he hung up. Oooo-k then. I call back go through the prompts and this time after holding, it goes straight to hanging up on me. Same thing for a third time.

They don't let you check the balance on your card, with the website having an 'unknown error' for the past 5 years. Once you are down to the last 4 dollars on your card it will automatically decline for anything, even if it's under that amount.

Purchased digital gift card through Amex, Never even used it. Tried checking balance about two hours later after making the gift card purchase and receiving e-gift card. Was NOT able to check online Or on the phone. Keep getting disconnected every time I would call. Decided to track down CS email and emailed a few hours after that and no response. After 5 phone calls to amex and getting disconnected, they confirm the e-gift card was stolen and purchased made at Apple then informed me to contact Apple. I asked, "How am I supposed to ask Apple to look into it without having ANYTHING for them to reference?!" Their response was "I could provide you with the amount and date." That's not helpful whatsoever since I know the date and amount since I purchased the e-gift card myself and tried to inquire about the balance. Their "LOST OR STOLEN CARD? CONTACT US" is just false sense of security.

I bought American Express Cards that had no money on because they had already been scanned and used. I have 7 American Express Gift Cards that never had any money on them and they were used to scam me.

Do not buy Amex gift cards!!! I wish I could give negative stars. My son got one as a gift for Christmas. We tried to activate by calling the number on the back of the card and received an error message from Amex. Waited 48 minutes to speak with someone who inevitably could not help. They said we have to have the receipt and go to the store where it was purchased to activate it. They do not activate by simply calling the number in the card. You have to activate from the store you purchased it from and the family member who gifted it to us is not in the same city as us. So they told us there is nothing they can do. Worst experience ever just to try to activate a $25 gift card my baby got for Christmas. Absolutely ridiculous, I will never purchase anything from them, give your business to Visa, I’ve never had an issue activating Visa gift cards.

This card is a scam. I was given several gift cards and when I went to use them the balance had been used up. Don't quite know how since I had never use them before. Try using their website...BOY DOES THAT SUCK!!! Then trying calling, phone numbers change constantly, so what is on the card is different from the website, etc. Then when you call you're given a different number. If you want to piss off someone give them a pre-paid AMEX card, otherwise give them something else!

I am also the victim of a scam, of the 4 gift cards, I still have 2 have been compromised and used, and as others have stated AMEX will do nothing to protect the card holder. - they say 'it's treated as cash. 'OMG.

Someone gave me a prepaid $25 American Express gift card, I love these prepaid gift cards since you can use them on almost anything or just about anywhere. About two months ago I made a purchase for about $22 - $23 on eBay. I usually either donate the remaining couple of dollars and cents to a GoFundMe or to someone's PayPal if I use their website or servers for gaming. Last night I went to check the balance so I could make a small donation and spend the remainder. The first site wouldn't work and directed me to another American Express gift card balance page, which also did not work. It sent me to yet another page and it said the security code was invalid. I was able to go through my eBay account and check my purchase history and determine that I spent $22.16 on the purchase I used the American Express gift card for, which left a $2.84 balance on the card.

This gift card is great if you want to lose on the full amount of money allotted to the gift card. Expect to at least waste a full dollar. Making this gift dumb and pointless. Actual 50 dollars is better than pretend 50 dollars. You can not actually lose due to some unexplainable issue from customer service. Waste of time. Waste of money. There are better gift cards that do not rob you.

Was given an Am Express gift card from Hunter Douglass window treatments. Used the card at Eastern Serenity jewelry catalog out of New Mexico. A week later went back to Eastern Serenity to use the rest of the gift card. Couldn’t use it. Checked out my balance on gift card had only .79 cents left. There were 4 charges on my gift card. Called Eastern Serenity to notify them couldn’t or wouldn’t help me. Called Am Express, didn’t care. Never ever buy gift cards from American Express! This company is useless!

I received a $25 and a $50 gift card from my boss as a reward and was able to check the balances on both cards online after multiple attempts with a buggy website. After issues with not being to access the full balance of the card due to a 10 cent authorization payment for online purchases, I was finally able to use $24.90 of the $25 card. However the website no longer works for the $50 card, and their customer service line claims that the card was never activated and has zero money on it so I cannot check the balance. I was able to check my balance a week earlier and had $50, where did it go? - Into a scam. Do not purchase these cards.

Purchased a gift card on Dec. 9th and never received it. I could not get a person on the phone to find out what happened to the card. Finally called the credit card company I used to purchase the card and they were able to get someone on the phone who told me they would open up a case and within 6 days someone would contact me and then send me the card. This means I will not have the card for Christmas. This is the last time I will purchase an Amex gift card. Avoid them like the plaque. I'm not sure why American Express continues to do business with the company that is handling their gift cards. They should be embarrassed by the amount of poor reviews they receive!

Avoid American Express gift cards like the plague. I purchased several dozen gift cards for my employees to distribute as Christmas bonuses. The cards were received from AMEX in sealed envelopes, and this is how they were distributed to employees... in the same, sealed envelope. Employees went to use the cards and learned that the cards were "compromised" (that's AMEX's word for it). Now, AMEX is doing very little to help. It is obvious that the "compromise" occurred at the point of origin (shipment). I am out THOUSANDS of dollars. I have pissed off employees. Can anyone recommend a good class action attorney to haul AMEX into court? Fraud! Fraud! Fraud!

DO NOT BUY Amex Gift Cards. Amex takes NO responsibility for fraud. Numbers for my card were used to make 18 transactions for a total of over $1,000. (The card did not leave my home.) American Express takes NO RESPONSIBILITY for this and will not refund the $1,000+!!! Their policy is I have to deal with the merchants, but they cannot provide contact information, or any information beyond the day time and amount. Their lapse in security becomes YOUR PROBLEM. Give people cash, or a check... Otherwise, the money can be stolen remotely and you will have no recourse. Amex allowed fraudulent transactions to take place and does not take responsibility or provide enough information for you to try and attempt to get the money back from the merchant. How this is legal, I cannot understand.

Of course your well-meaning family member wants to get a gift card for your kids. They never expire, so when you finally get around to checking a balance, surprise! You can’t do it online. So you call AMEX and are told, no problem to use it on Amazon. Except you have to buy an Amazon card with it first. And you have to use the chat help to figure out how to do that on Amazon. And only one of three cards work. So you go on chat again and get told it’s a security issue and that will take 72 hours. So you escalate and an Amazon human on the telephone tells you it was declined. Yeah, duh? She tells you to enter it again so you do.

I received 4 of these cards from a well-meaning relative. Unfortunately, these cards cannot be used online. I called gift card customer service and was told the cards read as "anonymous" to online retailers, so they have the right to decline the card. Unlike other gift cards (Visa, etc.) these cannot be registered online. When processing online transactions, merchants verify the card is connected to a valid name and mailing address; that's why other gift cards are useable for online purchases and bill-paying.

I bought a few of these cards to give to my employees and clients as gifts. As I tried to use one of them to test them, the card number had been compromised and instead of getting the face value, I only got a fraction. Someone had stolen the card number from the issuer and used it. Neither American Express nor the issuer wanted to compensate me for the loss. These cards are issued by a third party that wanted nothing to do with the problem and neither did American Express.

I purchased a $300 Amex gift card from THEIR website (not a 3rd party). I had it shipped to ME. I received the card. I went to use it about a month later. Doesn’t work. I tried to check balance online. Didn’t work. I called-they said “someone named Krista called last week and said their card was stolen.” I said how is that possible when I PURCHASED THE CARD and I still have the physical card in my possession. They asked that I send in a copy of my gift card, photo ID and receipt of purchase. I sent ALL the information requested and they said it would take 3 days. It has been over 2 weeks-the aknowledge they have received all of my information and requested documents and all they can say is “we are so sorry but because a replacement was sent out to Krista we cannot send you one.” So even though the card is mine and paid for by me, They never requested a copy of the card from her or her receipt but they sent a thief my $300 gift card.

We used to buy gift cards for our employees. Cards go "inactive" way before expiration date. It is a MESS to get them reissued. We had a few reissued and the new cards went inactive within a short period. Called again -- after holding and being transferred to someone who could help, was disconnected. Had to start from the beginning...again. Embarrassing to distribute cards that are inactive when we just received them. Will NEVER EVER buy them again.

I received a $200 prepaid gift card from work for 'AMEX Rewards'. I tried to load it into Amazon for the full balance and it was denied. I tried a 1 more time and again it was declined. The information input to create the pending 10 cent transactions obviously mean everything matched. I check the AMEX rewards gift card balance and it was automatically deducting it from my balance despite it being pending. I tried a third time for a balance of $199.70 accounting for the fact that this was my third attempt (10 cents) minus 20 cents for the other pending transactions. It finally went through and not denied.

I received an American Express gift card as part of a rebate on a purchased product. When I attempted to use the gift card for an online purchase, which was for the value of the gift card, the transaction was refused. I attempted two more times and was refused each time. My call to American Express Customer Service was terrible due to the spotty and noisy line. I could barely understand the customer rep, but what I could piece together was that a 10¢ transaction fee is assessed for an online purchase. However, I was assured that after the transaction cleared, the 10¢ would be credited back to the card. Since I tried to use the balance on the card, and the 10¢ fee the card was added to amount of the purchase, the card was declined, thereby creating another 10¢ fee for each time the card was declined.

My name is Giorgio **. I live in Fairfield CT and work in Manhattan. My complaint is most people are unaware of using gift cards. Most importantly, they are just like cash. If you use it to purchase something online and get hacked, nobody can help. Amex or their third-party firm says sorry. A few months ago, I received a gift card from a company. I started to use it to purchase some items on Amazon and local stores around town. Yesterday I wanted to buy another item on Amazon and realized I no longer have a balance. I logged on to Amex Gift Card balance and somebody used the card to purchase computer equipment in the UK. I WAS FURIOUS. I called the number on the back of the card. Waited 1.5 hours before I was able to speak with a representative.

Attempted to order a gift card delivered to my daughter in CO. Everything was fine until checkout. They would not take my billing information because I could not enter my state (Hawaii). The list of states went from Georgia to Idaho. They blamed it on my browser which seems stupid. The list is wrong. I am an AMEX cardholder since 77, I have previously ordered AMEX Gift Cards without issue. There was no problem with entering the shipping address only the billing address cannot work without Hawaii on their list of states! Extremely frustrating. Forcing me to use Amazon instead. I've learned my lesson. No more AMEX Gift Cards!

I have been trying to reach the customer service of the gift card department for weeks. I can’t get anyone. Made some transactions and it stated pending. After days the money was returned without the transaction going through. Very disappointing. Can’t get anyone to help me. Also the card just expired with money on it and I can’t through to renew it.

Obviously Amex information can be easily accessed when you use it online on some websites. If someone gets this information - you are completely out of luck. The money is gone. You have no recourse. Amex does not stand behind their product. I would never purchases this for myself. I will recommend my company to stop using these gift cards and make sure that from now on anyone and everyone who mentions gift cards to rely this stories BUYER BEWARE. It's not worth the chance of this happening to you. There are other gift cards out there.

All information found online about "American Express® Reward Card Cardholder Agreement" says: ---- Begin Quote ---- FUNDS DO NOT EXPIRE The funds on the Card do not expire. VALID THRU DATE The "valid thru" date on the front of the Card is the date through which your physical plastic card may be used. This date is required to process transactions at merchants that request a plastic expiration date. Even if the "valid thru" date has passed on the Card, its Available Balance remains unchanged and intact. If an Available Balance remains on the Card after the "valid thru" date, call 1-800-297-7327 to obtain a replacement Card or for instructions on how to redeem the Available Balance. ---- End Quote ----

I gave a $100 prepaid gift card to my 15-year-old niece in Laguna Niguel, CA. She purchased an item on Amazon for $23 dollars. She then tried to use her card to purchase lunch and it was denied. My sister called customer service and was told that there were no funds remaining on the account. Knowing that there should be a balance of $77, she asked for the purchase history and was told the card was used last in LONDON. They simply claimed they were not responsible for fraud and we should have read the fine print. Period. American Express has fraud protection for their credit card customers, but will not write off $77 for obvious fraud.

I purchased a gift card for $100 on December 19th. When trying to use the card on January 12th the card had a balance of 10 cents. Two purchases had been made. The purchases were in two different states, nowhere near where I live. Upon calling American Express I was informed they do not "allow" disputes on fraudulent charges as other cards do. Buyer beware.

My 12 year old daughter received a $100 American Express gift card from my parents on Christmas Day. She opened it and attempted to use it today 12/29/2019 and it showed having only $1.73 on it. We went online and checked it and it shows being purchased on Dec 20th and being used on Dec 22nd ($98.27). Once again we did not receive the card until Christmas Day and it was sealed with no visible numbers. I’m not sure how it’s possible to steal money off a sealed card, but beware.

Everyone, beware! I purchased 2 - $100.00 American Express Gift cards from American Express for Christmas. I received the Fed Ex unopened, but when I opened the Fed Ex envelope both gift card envelopes were open. I did not think anything of it until the gift recipient called me yesterday to say he charged $36.34 on the card and they told him the card had a balance of 10 cents. When I went online to look at the card, I discovered that charges of $63.56 had already been made on the card with Amazon on December 21, 22, before they were given as a gift on December 25.

I received the generous gift of a $500 Amex gift card from my friends. I tried the phone number on the actual back of the card to activate 5 times and as soon as the automated system transfers me to activate it hangs up. I tried going online to americangiftcard.com/balance and it says the website is "momentarily unavailable; we apologize for any inconvenience; please try again later" It is not late or a weekend; it is a weekday at 1:00pm. If it were not such a generous gift that I actually need, I would toss it in the trash.

Purchased a gift cards totally $400 on 12/17/19. It's now 11/19 6:30 pm and they still haven't shipped the card. Paid to get card 3 to 4 days. Call spoke to employee #** to cancel cause they will ship 12/20. Not sure why it takes three day to ship. This will be a sad Christmas. Don't buy this gift cards.

Ordered an AMEX gift card on Dec. 2, standard shipping of 5-6 business days. Needed it by Dec. 16. To date not received. Called to get information, but customer service could do little but confirm they have the order and it was sent by US Post on Dec. 5. No tracking number available and there is little I could do but wait until the end of the day before taking further action. Delays are very normal with AMEX, which is why I ordered early. But this is the last time I will buy one online. Delivery is too unreliable and customer service has poor record keeping. Highly recommend others avoid ever buying an AMEX gift card in the future.

The $2/month fee that I was unaware of ate up the balance of a nice reward. No wonder I haven't used American Express Services for about 30 years...something always lurks under the surface of what you think is happening.

Some time ago I got a gift card from my company. Even though I used it from time to time and the card had almost a year before it expired American Express claimed the card was not being used and turned the money over to the state. When I called the call center I was told that only the person who purchased the gift card could challenge this. When I asked why it was done I was given misinformation that American Express is required to do this. When I pushed for more info the call center rep was only able to repeat himself. I acknowledged that it was his job to stick to the script and asked to speak to a manager as it seemed like the rep could not do more. I was told I could request a manager to call me back within a few days but would not be allowed to speak to a manager at that time. I would avoid gift cards from this company.

Had a $75 discrepancy issue with my gift card which was issued by Delta for an overbooked flight, and tried to contact American Express, since I have a long history as a cardholder I expected good service. WRONG. Apparently Amex outsources their gift card division to a foreign company because I was directed to call the number on the back of the card and reached someone who barely spoke English and was horrible at listening as well, they could only read from a script and not address my issue at all. American Express should be ashamed of the horrible level of service displayed by this vendor under their good name. Worst customer service EVER.

Suddenlink sent me an Amex reward card for being a valued member. Card was issued on 9/28/2019. Got my card, went online to register it, and everything looked good. Went to use it, DECLINED. Checked balance, $1. Saw that the card was used in California, draining the balance to the $1. Called the customer support number and was told there's nothing they can do, that I should just ask Suddenlink for another one. Absolutely zero concern for security, what kind of company is this?! ZERO STARS.

Never buy one of these cards. Amex completely disregards the expiration date on the card and at some arbitrary point will drain the balance due to "inactivity". It happened to me with a $500 gift card that had several years left before it expired. Their customer service department is terrible and just gives you the runaround.

I bought over 80 cards different denominations. 5 months later found out most of them were used, and no credit left. Gift card department is horrible, no support at all. And American Express does not protect us against fraud although I bought them through American Express. Very sad and disappointed at American Express. Shame on them..

After reading all the poor reviews from AMEX gift card, I wanted to share my experiences here with you guys on https://www.amexgiftcard.com/. Honestly, this website or company is a joke. I feel this is an entirely different company than Amex credit card department. I literally, tried 10 times, purchasing gift cards from them, but kept getting error messages, saying the data I entered is incorrect. Guys, and ladies, seriously, DO NOT EVEN TRY to purchase anything on this website, it will not go through. Stop wasting your time. For one time, I thought it's because I have been trying to purchase over $8,400 in gift cards, then I tried it with only 2 cards, same, nothing will go through, don't even bother.

Received a $100 AX Gift Card years ago. The front of the card still clearly says, "Valid Thru 09/20". It's May of 2019 and the I tried to use the card for the first time and surprise, not valid any longer. I called and they said due to inactivity it was drained. What? It's a year and a half until the Valid Thru date! They refused to re-issue a card. Deceptive and fraudulent. Never buy a gift card from these scammers!

We were send a $1,000 Amex Gift Card from Delta for staying off an overbooked flight and waiting until the next day to fly home. Our cards came in the mail and we kept track of all of our spendings on it. One was spent down to .29 cents, I saved mine at $362.00 to use in March when family was coming to town for four weeks. I was going to not bring what happened into the equation, as I hate to use this as a "crutch", but it is a fact and relevant to the situation.

I received an e-mail from American Express offering to defray the $3.95 fee when I purchased a gift card. I entered in all the information (several times). But, each time the system would not let me enter the info to check out. Have had an Amex card for over 40 years. So disappointed I cannot use it to purchase Gift Cards. WHAT'S HAPPENING TO AMERICAN EXPRESS? I am use to it being extremely reliable.

I have 3 $25 AX Prepaid Gift Cards my Company gave me for Rewards. Gave one to Employee yesterday. Rejected at Pizza Shop. I called AX and said they need reissued and the only person that can do that is the buyer whose name is "John". Would not give me the last name. I have no idea what "John" in a 3,500 employee company. Talked to some guy from/in a foreign country. Said there was nothing he could do. His shift supervisor said the same. THIS IS JUST BAIT AND SWITCH THEFT!!!! NOT good until January 2023.

I had $100 gift card that I got from Sprint. I forgot to use them because I was kept on using my credit and debit card. After few months then I checked the balance, it came out 0. I called them and they said they have deducted the Maintenance fee. Seriously, what kind of maintenance was needed on the prepaid gift cards. I need my money back..

According to AmEx, it was used by someone in Omaha, NE for medical purposes. I live in NY and was never in Nebraska. It was sealed in original packaging the day I went to use it. How could that be???

I have an Amex Credit Card, and charge almost a million dollars a year. Every year I need gift cards for a trade show that I go to. Every year they cancel my order, never inform me, and cause serious harm. This year they cancelled my $30,000 order, that I placed on my cc, and never informed me. Took hours on the phone. They claimed they contacted me, which they never did. Caused serious impairment to my business. I would NEVER waste your time with them. As an Amex Credit Card user, I feel like they could care less. They don't realize that I now will never be using my Amex card. They have lost a customer all because of their awful service. DON'T USE THEM.

I got an American Express gift card as an incentive for taking a later flight with an airline. I used it to buy shoes and then needed to return them. I returned them and they said I have no balance on the gift card as it expired. The gift card listed the month and not the day they expire. My question would be how could they even refund it if it expired. Ridiculous! So basically they took my money and didn't tell me. Thanks... Will be cancelling my credit card too.

I just got off the phone with what they call the Prepaid Resolution department and came away as unsatisfied as I could possibly be. I used the remaining balance of $147.19 on my American Express Gift Card to make a purchase at Home Depot and then ended up taking the items back. Home Depot threw out the card at the time of purchase since it was now empty (don't ever do that). I took the items back and Home Depot could only credit the card I used.

I bought two $100 gift cards from Target on November 21st. The both cards a insufficiently funded. I went to Target and they told me that I need to contact American Express. I contacted Amex and their customer service is horrible. It's been 3 months and they are not helping me. Now I lost my $200 for nothing. They are the worst company and this is my worst gift card purchase EVER.

I received a $100 Amex gift card and when I went to use it a couple of months later, it only had a balance of $45.01. I called and was told there was a charge from Paypal for a money order. I never used the card! It sat in a safe in my office!! Amex security sucks and gift cards are worse than cash because they can steal its value while the card is in your safe! Zero stars.

I received an American Express $50 dollar gift card that stated it expired in 04/23 (the year I'm writing this is 2019). Went to use it and it didn't work. When I called the company, they stated they charged the card a monthly fee of $2 after issuance. WHAT?!! !Then the card actually expired approximately 2 years after issuance and not 2023. Like throwing your money away! DO NOT BUY OR SUPPORT AMERICAN EXPRESS!!! They are thieves.

Received my $200 gift card in December. Tried to use it on two occasions in January at merchants and they had no luck running the card. Went to the website to check remaining value: $2.46. Card had been used at a Walgreens in latter December in a city that I don't live. Card has never been out of my possession. No remedy so will send it back to AMEX and they can buy a candy bar. Security of these cards has been compromised at the source.

My mother bought a $25 dollar gift card plus $4 for card. So $29 dollars. Get the card today on Christmas and try to activate it, it sends me to a man who says that the card has zero dollars because it did not load right. But the receipt says she paid 29 dollars. Great company... NOT. I will never buy from this company again, ripping little kids off. How dare you.

I've never had any luck with these cards. The first time I tried to use them was at an online cigar vendor while I was deployed to Afghanistan (back in 2012). The vendor processed the order, then advised after the fact that they couldn't ship to my APO address. When I contact AMEX about it, I was unable to get a refund. I don't recall what hoops they wanted me to jump through - I didn't have time to sit on the phone, dig through receipts and jump through hoops because, as I said, I was deployed to Afghanistan. That's the story of the first $100, down the toilet.

My daughter was saving her gift cards to buy a special gift. I was with her and when she swiped her American Express card it showed zero balance. I called the number on the back and they confirmed that the dollars were used to pay the monthly fees. This is beyond comprehension. American Express stole money from a child. I went on the American Express website to write a complaint and was not able to. This company should be put on the biggest loser list for stealing money from pre-purchased gift cards. If you ever receive one use it immediately and please do not support a company that practices such terrible customer care. It is so sad.

Purchased the White Metal Gift Card, thinking it was metal. I have a Rose Gold metal card, referenced in the same way. These are not made of metal. They are made of the same cheap material that all their other gift cards are made of. These specifically state they come with a gold envelope, whereas the others don't. And these cost many more member points (more so than the same gift card amount with different design) next to it. In fact... all other gift cards with different design cost the same points as each other for same amount, except this one.

I have been ordering gift cards from American Express for my employees at Christmas for the past 20 years. Up until this year it has been a relatively smooth process. However, this year I found out that their gift card division was outsourced/sold to another company which explains the massive problems and negative reviews. I ordered gift cards more than a week ago for my employees' Christmas presents. I received no communication whatsoever from the company and when I called they told me it would be at least another 5 to 10 business days to ship. They also wanted all my sensitive information including Social Security numbers and tax ID numbers from my business.

Call them and tried to repackage into correct gift card envelopes. They never called me back - called again. They were absolutely unaccommodating - wanted a full refund on 60 gift card about 10k. They wanted I should actually read every card # off. Ridiculous. Extremely disappointed. NEVER AGAIN will order from them.

American Express gift cards - BEWARE!!! $3.00 fee per month, my 3 $50.00 cards are now worthless. Never again using any American Express product. And of course, when you call them, you will be talking to someone from another country with a phony made-up name.

I needed a gift card to make a purchase online (didn’t want to use my debit card). Purchased a card at Walmart. Tried to use the card, it wouldn’t work. Called the 800 number. They didn’t show a balance on the card. But I was charged and it showed on my receipt. They said, I have to fax all sorts of information... So now I have to pay more for copies and fax, Went to Walmart, they do not stand behind them. What does that tell you? I will go send the fax tomorrow! I work too hard to just hand 40.00 over to them! I called American Express 3 times, sounded like they were in India and hard to understand. Need a gift card, don’t get a American Express!!!! I can’t believe Walmart would sell this crap!!!

Beware of American Express gift/rebate cards. After 7 months of non-use, they will charge a $2.00 monthly "processing fee" and drain the card. My personal experience was with two rebate cards that I had been saving to use for a specific purchase. You can imagine my surprise when both cards were empty, completely drained by monthly fees for doing exactly nothing. I look forward to cancelling my American Express card next month. It won't get me the funds I'm entitled to, but American Express won't be getting any benefit from any of my future purchases.

You can't use them anywhere online, if you try to call their customer support they just tell you the card is active and you have to find somewhere that accepts Amex gift cards. I have to wonder how many people get these things and they sit unused or get thrown away because it's too much hassle.

I lost my American Express gift card that I purchased from Home Depot. The representative from Home Depot gave me the receipt and looked up my card number. I called Amex and have emailed, scanned, and mailed via post office and American Express lie and states they have not received my information. This is fraud and I am reporting this to the authorities.

I misplaced 2 $500 AMEX prepaid cards. Balances were at $470 each approx. on them. Called Customer Svcs and they verified my info, canceled the cards, and said they will replace. Received letter asking for driver license and proof address, which I complied. Another letter arrived-more info needed. Says send receipt and copy of packaging. I had only 1 pkg, and receipts faded, but I had dates of purchase, location, and approximate balances for them. I waited almost 3 weeks for response, which then response was left on voicemail and incomprehensible, as I have hearing impairment. Every request/letter I sent stated "email or mail only" and why. I assumed all was OK because I heard "will send card" and Fax...

Last year in January 17, I received an AE gift card in the amount of $500. It was hacked in May 2017, card was used in the California and I am in the East Coast and we called AE and they started an investigation. Months went by and Kept checking on it and got the same answer that they were still working on it and it was document as per their customer service investigator. All the times I called I could barely hear them (their phone lines are a joke). I was using a landline phone. In the end I was told by their Customer service supervisor in India that they could not do anything about.

Unbelievably bad product! So many problems! Customer service center is not in USA. Agents have unintelligible accents. First agent I spoke to hung up on me. Website to check card balance does not work. I tried three different browsers and every time the site says invalid captcha. American Express just does not care about the customer.

I received 2 gift cards last year at Christmas. I have $4 left on one and $6 left on the other. I called Amex to ask if I could transfer the balances to one card. Was told “Oh these are in Canadian funds. I can’t combine them”. I asked if they could combine US funds - YES!!! Don’t buy Amex gift cards!

Never ever buy gift cards from American Express and if you buy or get one as gift keep all the documentation who gave you, where you bought, when you bought and make sure to ask person who gave you the card as gift if he bought the card and take the receipt from the person for the proof. Once you lose the card then don't ever think of contacting customer care, they have bunch of ** who don't understand what the gift cards are and they ask the documents you cannot provide so that they can have the money. I really caution whoever is planning to buy the cards never ever buy the American Express cards. One of the worst Customer Care and they may even call you that you stole the card and you are trying to deactivate the card. They don't even have common sense that if someone steals or finds a card they will go use it and they don't report them.

My 70 -year-old mother bought a gift card from Target so that she could use it later to buy groceries. When she went to go buy groceries the store charged her twice for the groceries. When she called American Express gift card they told her that it was the store's problem not theirs. When my mom called the store they told her that it was American Express's problem and she would have to call them. I just don’t understand why people are accountable for their actions. Why there’s no good customer service anymore. I wish people still cared about the consumer.

I received an American Express gift card through winning a contest at work. I used the card 3 times and each time, the balance was taken out twice, so when I should have had money left on the card, I had a negative balance. I decided to call the company only to find there is no way to get a live person on the phone for a gift card. Needless to say, I will never buy or use one of these again!

I have a warning for anyone who has an American Express Gift Card and wants to use it in a restaurant. When you use the card, even if you write zero for a tip and give a cash tip, the card will automatically take off 20% for a tip. When I called American Express they said it was not them but the restaurant's system. However when I called the restaurants they were clueless about this, because nothing prompted them to include the tip, and she saw I wrote zero for a tip and that's what she put in. So yes, maybe the restaurant gets an extra 20% added to the bill, but it is not seen by the server. I will never use one of these cards in a restaurant again.

I received a $50 American Express Serve gift card and never activated it (although they say I did) and every month they took out $4.95 so by the time I realized to use it there was only $18.54 left on the card. How can a huge company like AX take money from you for a piece of plastic. I want the world to know they are ripping us off by taking money for our card. Give cash as a present or gift NOT gift cards. I will cancel my AX card and never do business with them again. Hopefully you will too.

Completely dissatisfied! Like most hardworking New Yorkers, the day before payday can be tight on funds. I tried to use this card at a 7-Eleven to buy milk and ketchup and it was denied. Then I tried to use it 2 more times while being coached by Amex customer service and it was denied both times. Amex c/s said it was a faulty machine in the store. 7-Eleven doesn't seem to have any issues with Visa gift cards. Maybe Amex needs to take notes from Visa. Full of shame like I did something wrong, I had left the store with my tail between my legs. How embarrassing. I was looked at like a fool in the store and the man who couldn't provide for his family when I got home. Thanks for nothing!

My husband received a few of these cards as a bonus from his work. We decided to use them to take a trip so made flight reservations. Issues we faced: 1) No one (airline, Expedia, even Amex travel) could take multiple forms of payment so we could not use these unless the charge was less than the card value (i.e couldn't reserve $1200 flight because card value was only $1000). 2) We had to split out our reservations so each family member was on its own reservation so that it was < the value of the card (kids not on our same reservation).

If you ever lose an American Express GIFT card, don't ever expect a replacement! I have been asked to fax over proof of residency, my State ID, and proof of purchase so I can get a replacement. I am fine with the first two requests, but as defined in the definition of GIFT, I have no proof of purchase as the card was given to me for Christmas by my employer! This has been such a horrible experience! They are thieves! When a company can clearly see there were no purchases made on a Gift Card that has been reported as lost but still refuses to just send a replacement, they're thieves!! They make it difficult to get a replacement because they know after a while, no one will want to deal with jumping through their hoops anymore! I will NEVER recommend them for Gift Cards! RECEIVING THIS GIFT CARD HAS BEEN THE WORST EXPERIENCE EVER! #scam #scammers #thieves

Sprint gave me an AMERICAN EXPRESS gift card. As I always use credit cards, I forgot about the gift card. When I went to use the $50 gift card, it had no balance as American Express decided to zero out the balance with monthly FEES.

Steer clear... Although they advertise that the card is replaceable if lost or stolen, actually the only way that you can get replacement card is if you have the original receipt of the gift card purchase. So if you received the card as a gift without the purchase receipt, don’t lose it, you won’t be able to replace it. It’s unfortunate — I had a $100 card that I made a coffee purchase on and then lost. As instructed, I faxed in a copy of complete explanation, the original wrapper of the card, and a copy of utility bill, driver’s license... everything they asked for — an 11 page fax! Their only response was to mail me a form letter telling me they couldn’t replace the card because I didn’t send the original purchase receipt of the card and no matter how much I try to tell them I never had the purchase receipt because I didn’t purchase the card, it was a GIFT, there is nothing they would do and I’m out $100. What a freaking scam.

I can't use an ATM to get my money and they say there is really no way I can get it. I feel like this is a scam. PLEASE PEOPLE NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO DON'T BUY AN AMERICAN EXPRESS CARD.

There is not a reliable way of checking your balance online. The online balance check page does not work and it is very tedious. The captcha is terrible and hardly works. If you do happen to make it pass the captcha it will either tell you that the number is incorrect or that the page is unavailable at the moment. I’ve gotten different brands of gift cards. So far AmEx is most difficult.

I received a prepaid reward card from AmEx for going to a 5 hour Club Wyndham timeshare presentation. Every time I tried to use it, it didn't work. I was told that I probably tried to use it at a gas station and that that would not work. That by trying to use it at a gas station, it was put on hold and to wait a few weeks and try again. This kept happening until it expired. Now I definitely can't use it, and AmEx just said "tough luck." What a horrible company!

I got an American Express gift card for my birthday last month. I tried to use it at Sam's gas station in Charleston on the 4th. I entered the card, it asked for a zip code and then it said the card was invalid. I did it twice and each time it said invalid. I called Amex to inquire about my balance and it said I had 0 dollars. I had not used the card and I knew I had 25.00 but for some reason or another, I now have 0 dollars and no gas. How is this possible? I was told I need to wait several days to see if I get the money refunded. This literally stinks and unfair to all the customers who had gift cards from Amex. Never again!

I bought a American Express gift card for $50. That problem is that when you buy the card, nowhere on the card states that after purchase the gift card you have to wait 30 minutes to 4 hours in order to use the card, this is false advertisement! I called customer service only for them to tell me that they can do anything about it and that I should read the terms and condition. The problem with that is in order for you to read the terms and condition you have to buy the gift card since in the package it come with but by then it's too late, they can't return it. No refunds. Now I have to wait. Never will buy their product and I'll will make sure every person I know knows that scam.

I had two $500 AMEX gift cards drained before I even opened their packages. I contacted AMEX who said they wouldn't reimburse the fraudulent charges and told me to contact the merchants. Not a good sign. So I contacted the merchants who then told me to contact AMEX. Big help. They did say transactions were made by contactless payment like Apple Pay with the card's number stored, not with the physical card itself. I relayed this info to AMEX who insisted the physical card was used so they still wouldn't reimburse the nearly $1000 that was stolen. They did however offer to reimburse the $20 that was left. Thanks AMEX.

Okay, so never try to use an Amex Gift card at a gas station pump. I knew I had around 40 dollars left. I went to the gas station and it declined the card. I called later only to find out it was a 0 balance! So I tracked my purchases because I knew I had not used it all. Fast forward, I called Amex. The rep said nothing to me until I kept pushing about where my funds went. Lo and behold he finally told me that when I tried to use it at the gas station and it declined it, they sucked the balance out into a "hold account". Those funds are not available. I have to wait 8 business days for the money to be put back on my card for use.

AM Ex gift card is a ripoff. After having no issues with their gift cards in years, I had a declined purchase three times last week and the requirement to give my money back onto the card if it don't go through which didn't. I checked the purchase and all four items have been declined. No order and it says it would refund the money. It's been 8 plus days and no refund. Do not go with them. They are a ripoff and do not do as they say they do when they said they would refund your money on a declined purchase and said it would return to the card in 7 days. Such liars and thieves and will never deal with them again.

Don't buy this card, save your money. THIS IS SEVERE HORSE **. I went to go buy a watch that was $140.83 on Amazon and they took my money out of my account and Amazon "claims they don't have it." SO MY 140 DOLLARS IS FLOATING IN LIMBO SOMEWHERE ON THE PLANET.

Be aware - to use your Amex gift card on Amazon. You must convert it to an Amazon e-gift card first. When you do that Amazon puts a $1 hold on the card. So, if you have a $50 Amex card, you can only convert $49 to an Amazon e-gift card. They are counting on either 1) you give up trying to use the card ("I can't use this at the grocery store, gas station, the restaurant or even Amazon!") or 2) at least they'll skim that $1 that they can keep if you do figure out how to use it. You can probably get that $1 back at some point - but who has the time and energy to waste on that. Very sneaky. Stick with good old cash or check.

We received 7 Amex gift cards for the holidays and two birthdays in December 2016. One card didn't work, won't scan, yet when I call had $75 on it as it should. More than 30 minutes on the phone with them they said they would send a new one. I get two letters in the mail saying they won't replace without the gift receive. The gifts were from someone with an Amex card, but he does not have the receipts as he gave out gift cards to all of his nieces and nephews, not just our kids. My daughter is now out the $75. I WILL NEVER BUY AMEX GIFT CARDS and will tell all I know not to as well. They now made the card inactive so that we can't even use it online without the defective scanning strip. Disgraceful!

These cards seem like a nice gift, but have so much conflicting instructions and restrictions they often end up worthless. A card is labeled 'Funds do not expire' yet they also have an expiry date on them. They are supposedly subject to the federal credit card act (that puts clear, concrete terms on when they can expire, and when they can begin charging service fees) but speaking to AmEx customer service you would swear no such laws ever existed, since they insist the funds have expired and nothing can be done (even when you point out the clear conflict with existing federal and state law, I.e. a card less than 12 months old that has 'expired').

I have received at least 20 Amex gift cards this year. I have had problems with at least half of them! What a pain! Recently one of them was not working, I called Amex and literally was on the phone with a rep. who insisted it was valid. So frustrating, I know how to use a gift card and until I got her to send me another one was so exhausting. I received the new one today (had to wait 2 weeks) with the remaining balance from the card that didn't work. This one doesn't work either!!! I've had it, please do yourself a favor, buy Visa gift cards, so much easier to deal with!

I went to use the gift card and it was declined. Standing there with an arm full of items. Felt like a jerk. I called the number on the card and it's all automated. Can't get the card to work. IT'S USELESS. DON'T be FOOLED into giving one. YOU might as well throw in the garbage which is where this one is going.

I purchased a nice gift card for the Grove shopping center in Los Angeles for my sister. It was her birthday on 11/23. The first transaction declined my credit card. My bank picked it up as fraud and I didn't know about it until it was too late. (That was my fault for not seeing the AMEX email that it was declined for potential fraud). I reordered the gift card on 11/23, knowing it would be slightly late. Shipping does not usually take the full 10 days to ship. Most companies just say that for safety purposes. Of course though for AMEX that's their slow turnaround and you shouldn't expect anything better!

On leaving a health organisation, a whole range of people including children raised £50 for an Amex gift card as part of my leaving gift. We managed to use it at our local supermarket to spend £25 nearly two years ago, and after that it has been declined at Argos, Homebase, Pizza Express and Sainsbury's. I tried to use it on ebay and Amazon and often with great difficulty. The reasons provided by Amex Customer Service - I use the term loosely - is that the merchant is not on line.

I received 2 American Express gift cards for $500.00 each. I had no problem with the 1st but the 2nd I used in 2 places and now it isn't being accepted. Nor is it accepted online. I tried several times to call the # on the card but I can't get a live person and continually get hung up on.

I tried 4 times with 4 calls to customer support to order a $3,000 gift card and kept getting an error message "Unable to complete your order please call **" and when I called they said the error was on Chase's end but Chase had no record of the purchase so I finally had to give up. Glad I did after reading these reviews, yikes!

Ok, so I just got a $250 Amex gift card (2 days ago) and I made 2 online purchases this morning, one of which is still pending on confirmation for a (1) business day. Fast forward to later in the evening, and now I'm @ home trying to order supplements online from a naturalist Canadian health store and for some reason my card isn't being accepted, no matter how much I re-enter the card info.

I redeemed miles for a $250 American Express Gift card under the understanding that I could use it online, specifically with PayPal. However, I have not been able to link the card to my PayPal account. I have been on the phone for at least 4 hours between AE and PP. Then I tried to use it a Canadian website, same thing. The error message says that the card was declined by the issuer.

This seems to be an inside job from the reviews I'm reading on this site and other sites. I had this SERVE card for 2 years with no problem that I noticed. Well last Friday I received my direct deposit and almost immediately all of my $461 were person to person debited. Called AMEX serve immediately and they started what they call a fraud investigation and I would receive a call in 48 hours. Never received the call. I then received an email saying I violated their service agreement and my account has been permanently closed!! WTF!?

I have found this card cannot be used at 99% of the places that I normally use - gas stations, grocery stores, department stores, etc. Additionally, I was unable to get cash from the card at numerous ATM machines. This card created so many inconveniences and wasted time and driving all over the place. It's even difficult trying to find business that accept this card through an on-line search. Never again.

I purchased a $75.00 prepaid American Express gift card for my son. When my son tried to use the card he was told by the cashier that the card was never activated when purchased. I have been in contact with Amex numerous times to resolve this situation. Each time I have been in contact Amex has thwarted my efforts to recoup my money. I sent Amex clear photocopies of the gift card and receipts. Several times they claimed the copies were illegible. I followed up with very clear color copies included in the attached documentation. Amex is giving me the big runaround after attempting to recoup my money. Please help. I have exhausted my options with Amex. I have uploaded documentation and receipts.

So I bought a $250 gift card to pay for my house rents because apparently I had issues with my credit card at the time. And I turned out paying to the bad guys who started by debiting $20 when I discovered and called customer service to have my card blocked to prevent access to my card which I was assured. Only then did I seat back to relax when I checked 3 days later and discovered more money had been taken out to the point of a negative balance as the lady (with a horrible accent) I spoke to didn't do anything to prevent access to card which I was totally shocked and dismayed at such a lack in work ethics and record irresponsibility of AMEX.

This is literally the 2nd AMEX gift card that I have received in the last 5 years that I cannot use. I called up 2 months ago because this last one expired. The person on the phone said - "yes there is $100 still on the card. Fax us the front and back of the card along with your driver's license and they will issue you a new gift card." 2 months later, NOTHING BACK! So I call again - 877 axp gift. They are now telling me the card was never funded!! Do you really think someone just gave me a gift card and didn't fund it? This is the absolute worst department to deal with. I will NEVER buy another gift card from AMEX ever again. I am so disgusted. This is total FRAUD!!

I would not even rate them with one star. They are pretty bad at helping customers. They don't have a standard answer, kept giving me different answers each time. Hold times were long but I am pretty sure they don't know what they are doing over there. I lost my gift card without even opening the package and they kept insisting that I need to have the package in order for them to look up the card number. Then they said the receipt with which the card was purchased would suffice. I gave them all the numbers on the receipt but they couldn't find any information. They apparently don't know what number to look for exactly. They did not even provide any case number but asked for it when I called in for update.

I placed an order online for some items and used my $3000 American Express gift card. The order didn't go through because the shoes I wanted were sold out. Nordstrom wrote an immediate email to me telling me the shoes I wanted were sold out. However when I went to use the gift card for another purchase 3 days later the website is saying "0" balance. American Express is "holding" the money for the order. When you call the number on the gift card you reach someone in India. My calls to representatives for the Platinum and Gold cards (both of which we have) were not helpful. They tell you, "You can only call India." NO one from American Express in the US backs these cards. If you want to lose money- buy a gift card. Don't do it! They do not refund money.

I got an American Express gift card for $100 as a holiday gift. I tried to use it to make a purchase online (a donation), and the first purchase on PayPal went off just fine. However, there was a $1 service charge put in which I then had to look up online what that meant (it would be helpful if there was an explanation of that on the Amex website). According to what I found online it appeared the charge would eventually clear. So then I tried to use the rest of the balance on another website (another donation) and it was denied. However, the amount I tried to charge was on the card, so my balance was now 0$ but none of the money went where it was supposed to, now it was just in holding. It took about a week and a half for it to clear. Then I tried the purchase again with no luck. I even tried doing one less dollar to account for the 1$ service fee. No luck.

I had 6.34 dollars on the card. I went to put it towards a payment and they wouldn't let the payment go through. Then they charged me a dollar every time I tried to have the payment go through. I will never get another American Express Gift Card. I want them to return the money they took from the card.

I purchased 8 American Express Gift Cards at CVS. After giving these out as gifts I was notified by a recipient that the card was declined. I checked all 8 of the cards on Amex Gift Card website and only 3 of the 8 were showing activated. I immediately contacted Amex Gift Card customer service. Was told I could not return the non-activated cards to CVS and that I would have to fax a copy of front/back of each card -- my receipt, copy of my driver license and a detail of what had occurred. Was told by a supervisor that after this info was reviewed that the cards would then be activated within 24 hours. After 48 hours and the cards still not showing activated. I called again and was told that my copy of DL was not readable. No one had bothered to call me and tell me this. I had to call them.

I received a $250 Amex Gift Card from my work. I let it sit for about 5 months in the packaging along with the gift receipt. When the holidays came up I decided it was time to use it. I go to use it at a local store and it shows the balance is only $52. I immediately call Amex Gift Card customer service and am connected to someone in another country whom I can barely understand. It's obvious the customer service representatives (I have spoken to several during my still ongoing ordeal), read from some sort of script and are only allowed to say about 10 different responses. Completely useless. Anyhow, during my conversation it was revealed my card was used by a known fraudulent merchant that they have had issues with in the past.

Never buy these cards. Like others have said they start charging maintenance fees and will eat your entire balance over time. Because you know, they have to send magic elves to come polish the cards for you at night.

I was gifted two $500 American Express Gift Cards for a house warming present to help with some home improvement. I opened one of the cards and used it. No problem to purchase some painting supplies from Lowes for $115. The card didn't get used for a while and sat in my room with the other gift card still in the package. 2 months later, I tried to used the gift card today and found that it had a balance of $0. Looked into it and saw there was a transaction from "BARNES BROTHERS PRODUCT 28 FAIRMONT S CAMBRIDGE 840 - Partial Purchase", which I did not make.

Got a gift card for a client, it was hacked and AMEX knows it was fraud. They told me they were aware of a security breach, but still needed me to send 5 documents. One of the 5 were a copy of the receipt, which I told them I did not have. So they said they would be fine with a credit card receipt from my credit provider. 15 days later I am told they need the copy of the receipt from the original purchase. Told them I did not have it and they are telling me tough **. I don't understand how you can make your clients take a financial hit when you could not put the right security measures in place.

I am a new Sprint customer. I made the switch from AT&T on September 26, 2015 based on the promotion. The promotion was "payoff" of any termination fee to be incurred. During October, I relocated BUT I made the change in Sprint system. However, American Express maintained the old address (which have new people in the home) but I notified them on November 11 of the address change. The card was to be received between the dates of November 10-13. Anyhow, I spoke with a supervisor at American Express on November 11 who promised to REISSUE the card and send it via UPS. I called AE on November 24 for a status.

I rec'd 2 gift cards from my employer and when I tried to use them in Curacao they were not accepted. Since I had to activate them I was concerned about them and sure enough when I checked the balance not even 30 days later there had been 2 debts already taken one for $1 and then for $399.00. I was horrified so I called American Express and was told the payments were pending for 8 days. I explained these were not my purchases and please stop this transaction from taking place. I was told I would have to handle this from the vendor which was non profit organization I had never heard of. Foundation for the Global.

I've always liked the idea of a gift card over cash and so I tried to order a generous gift card for a star employee for her wedding, paying a little extra for next-day delivery in time for the wedding and honeymoon. After I ordered it (and charged it to my business platinum card) I read some pretty bad reviews here and was concerned that my employee might 1) lose it and not be able to replace it; or 2) be charged some kind of monthly fee. I had also not realized that the card cannot be used outside of the US and because this was a wedding gift where it might logically be used on the honeymoon (outside of US), I had second thoughts.

These cards are a rip off. I was given two cards - $700 total. They sat in my cabinet for 9 months. When I went to use them, they were with a balance of zero. Amex allowed a third party to register them. Who knew you had to do this? Their response was better luck next time.

First off, this is a gift card from American Express... a company that is known for their customer service which is the reason I choose them. Secondly, their customer service for gift cards is overseas and their representatives read from a script and are incompetent. They can barely handle simple questions on their own. I use the word "they" because it was not the first time I encountered this with American Express and secondary services. Also, they have "American" in their name and they outsource to India? Just a thought..

Lost my Amex gift card a little over a week ago. They asked me for the number, I did not know it. Piece of advice is write the card number down when you get it or take a picture with your smartphone to avoid the mess. Luckily I had the casing, it came in so I still had hope. However, what a long arduous process it is to get a replacement sent. They need to research (and all their customer service people have a thick foreign accent). Meanwhile I faxed my license, utility bill and the case it came in. Guess I will follow up in a few days to see if there is any hope. Should not take this long. Yes it was my fault that I lost it, but wow, what an annoying process this is.

Rec'd a gift card after joining Sprint 2 years ago. Card had a date that we have not arrived at so I put in my wallet and saved. Went to use it the other day and it had $0 balance. Got on line and found out over the last two years they have deducted $3 a month for service fees because I did not use it. The date on the front said it still was good. In small print on the back it states the $3 charge stipulation. God Bless America and its new way of ripping people off. They got $50 from Sprint and $50 from me. And thanks for the customer service rep located in God knows where who knew 4 English words. You certainly have covered all base for screwing people.

I bought a prepaid American Express card at Walmart. When I got home I went to register it and it made me provide picture proof of a social security number and driver's license. I called them and the first time they said they would bypass it and transfer us and never put us through. The second time they said there was nothing that they could do.

VERY ANGRY: First off, I bought the card to pay my monthly Virgin Mobile $35 fee, it didn't work. I spent a long time on the phone with Virgin Mobile, but guess what, the guy talking to me was awesome. He gave me a one time only free month for all the issues this stupid AMEX gift card was giving me. He said "so go try to spend it somewhere else (these cards are non-returnable/refundable.)" Fine, so I lost a set of cosmetic teeth I previously got from IMAKO. These are great, very great temporary solution to teeth issues. Anyways, since they cost $34.95, I thought perfect I'll just get online like I did the first time and order them using this gift card. I clicked the tag for gift cards, entered the AMEX info. It looked like it was trying to process but then would just stop and I'm looking at the same screen. I continue to hit "proceed" or "continue" to get my payment to go through. Eventually I got a message saying something to the effect, this is working.

On 15 June 2015 Sprint approval for two $350 dollars AmEx cards that AmEx claims was mailed on 20 June 2015 yet never received. Today 20 July 2015, I get phone call from Sprint executive Dianah, asking if my re-issued cards had come - no I reply. And called AmEx who inform me the cards are not even scheduled to be mailed until after 4 August 2015 - well beyond Sprint's false advertising of 15 days after approval to receive these cards - NOR does Sprint admit to knowing the restrictions and usage fees attached to these cards. Email me for federal court case number as I did file it as class action suit due to nearly 4000 complaints online about Sprint and American Express. 350 thus far have joined in the suit.

I was just about to purchase $2500 worth of gift cards for gifts when I read the reviews on the American Express Gift Cards. I am so happy to have found this site. I feel as if I just dodged a bullet! Thank you ConsumerAffairs.

I purchased a $100 Amex gift card for a friend. I made the purchase at the local post office. When my friend tried to make a purchase, she was told the card had not been properly activate at the post office, although it says "activated" on my receipt. I contacted the PO and they supposedly would take care of it. I had to fax them receipt, front/back image of Amex card, driver license. Weeks passed with no progress with Amex. I contact the customer service number on the back of the card and Amex told me they have no record of any kind about this card number. I faxed them the documents myself - multiple times. Each time Amex claims to never have gotten any documents.

It's a long drawn-out story but to sum it up, my experience mirrors those of everyone else regarding the Amex Prepaid Gift Cards. They get declined at most places. Even when declined, the funds are still taken (or "held temporarily") from the card, which makes no sense. I have yet to get back a $21 DECLINED amount. When used at a gas station on an outside gas pump, all of your funds will be depleted immediately and held for up to 8 business days. It took 4 for the balance from that to return to my card. I had simply gotten $15 in gas and the remaining funds were then held for 4 days. Sometimes they don't even return those funds, unless you complain. And don't get me started on the "customer service" over in India.

I had a $200 gift card from AmEx. I bought a car battery and discarded the AmEx as it no longer had balance. Lo and behold I had to return the battery and Autozone credited the card I no longer had. I thought, "Well, it's a good thing I registered it! They'll have my info and issue a replacement." Boy, was I wrong. I have logged in 21 hours of phone time, driven to fax machines, drove to store to get receipt, called, faxed, wrote. And I still don't have my money. They say they didn't get the fax. They say my "issue" number doesn't exist. They say my driver's license was too blurry. I give them the name of the supervisor I spoke to and they say, "We do not have a ** here in the company."

We received a $100 gift card from our neighbor as a thank you for some things my husband had done for them. We put it on the side for a few months and decided to use it today. We were told by the cashier that only $50.00 was available???? I called American Express and they told me a purchase was made last month for $49.75. She gave me the name and number of the company (which I never heard of) and told me to contact them for satisfaction. They are not going to care -- they got their money. Can't figure out how this has happened since the card has been in my house in the original packaging and no one has touched it since we received it. Just another ripoff.

I purchased a Boost cell phone that came with a mail-in rebate offer. I did all that was required and sent the form off 19 March 2015 before the 31 March deadline. After many attempts to track the status I was passed from Boost who made the offer, to Sprint who owns Boost, to Amex who actually is sending the mail and rebate gift card. Boost and Sprint have given me confirmation numbers and supervisor have promised it's on way. It was actually processed thru Boost on April 27, 2015. Yet to this day, 31 May 2015, Amex rebate dept. says they have no record of anything and keep sending me back to Boost and Sprint.

I didn't want to write this because I'm going to get furious again just thinking about it. But they need another person coming forward. This has got to be illegal. My mom's cousin in MA bought me a $25 gift card (with OUTRAGEOUS "purchase charge" of $5, mind you) at a Walgreens near Boston, MA in December as a graduation gift. I didn't send out announcements, I didn't ask for any gifts, she is absolutely not made of money, and she did this because she's the sweetest old lady in the world. She made sure to send the card along with a gift receipt from Walgreens, because she "had heard that sometimes gift cards might not get loaded properly". When you're right, you're right.

I made an account here only to review this one product. The thought behind the card was nice but the product was horrible. My friends bought this for me as a thank you. The fees behind the card are staggering: $7 per transaction. This means that I tried to find a large purchase that would use the whole card in one transaction. I can't imagine the utility of a $20 gift card. After making a botched attempt to use it online and having my purchase canceled American Express not only kept the transaction fee but multiplied it by multiple factors. I was on with customer support for a long time but the person was very difficult to understand and I was basically told "too bad." I now have no products and my $100 gift card is now worth $38.

My husband gave me this card as a present for Christmas. I saved the card to use it later. When I decided to use it, somebody had made a purchase with my card. When I called the American Express Gift Card, they said they couldn't do anything, and told me I would need to call the store of the purchase to fix my problem. Either they are selling repeated gift cards, or it is very easy to get the numbers and make purchases considering that the purchase and the physical card is in two different states!

6 weeks. 11 phone calls. 162 minutes. 2 required documents. 5 representatives. 1 supervisor. That is the statistical representation of what it takes to process a gift card replacement; not to mention tons of patience. After having used an AMEX gift card to make a purchase online; the product malfunctioned and had to be returned. The vendor initiated a refund and the system automatically placed the funds back on the gift cards. By this point the gift cards had already been disposed of.

We decided to use two brand new American Express gift cards to pay for a visit to a restaurant while on vacation. The waitress came back and said that the cards were denied. She tried a second time, just to return with the same news. Four days later, I checked the website to find out the status of the cards to determine whether we still had the original card amount. According to the website, the card has $0.00 balance. After a week, I finally called Am Ex to find out what was going on. I spoke with someone who clearly could not answer any of my questions if they were not part of his script. He told me that there is a hold placed on the card for eight days! I asked to speak with someone about this, and he simply repeated that there is no balance on the card, and we have to wait eight days. I will NEVER buy an American Express gift card. And as soon as the hold is taken off the one I have now, I will use it (hopefully) quickly and get rid of it!

In short; I have been an American Express Prepaid Card Holder for 4 years now. Most recently, I called customer service to try to load funds via direct deposit (I am self employed). The male customer service rep (who barely spoke English), would not give me the information needed and INSISTED that I switch to a SERVE card. When I stuck to my guns and refused he raised his voice and refused to give me the information I needed for direct deposit; later fumbling and saying "UMMM you cannot get direct deposit because you are self employed." Nowhere in the terms of agreement was that ever stipulated. Furthermore, he sounded shocked that I was self employed. When I asked to participate in the survey... he promptly disconnected the call. I asked where he was from and he responded INDIA. Well maybe next go round, I will do business with a card company that values the American customer.

Received a gift card again from my workplace - these cards suck. Every place I've stop to use it decline it. It will only work at large department stores. Not your local gas station. Also went to a caf. Didn't work. Make sure you have back up money if you're going to use this card. Good luck.

I received an "e" card from American Express as a gift Feb. 2014. I have been unable to use this card with any "e" merchants to date. This "e" card can only be used online as payment to an American Co. Every time I try to use it it fails. I have contacted American Express customer service at least 6 times. Each time I contacted them by phone I've been on hold an unreasonably long time because no one seems to be able to connect the proper dept to help me. They have admitted that the "e" cards were discontinued due to problems with them.

It is so frustrating and basically (I think) against the law. My friend bought me a card so I can drive out to visit over the Holidays (for gas etc). It was a "gift' a year in advance, something to look forward to! I finally get ready for the trip, go online to check my balance --- $14.00... what? Find out they have been taking out "service fees" the whole time. So basically they drained the account. IT WAS PAID FOR. YOU GOT THE MONEY - you should not be able to bait and switch. THEY SHOULD NEVER EXPIRE OR HAVE A MONTHLY FEE. IT'S NOT A CREDIT CARD. I AM SO ANGRY! Seriously need some sort of class action or something (but then only the lawyers make out) phooey. DON'T BUY!!!!!!!!!

I purchased something at an office store using my gift card for partial payment of the product. I noticed after the transaction that they had overcharged me and asked them to correct the price. They refunded my gift card and my reg. credit card and redid the entire purchase. Guess what, even though the full amount was put back on the gift card the card showed a "0" balance. I called the 800# and spoke to Martha (very hard to understand) and she said it will take 8 calendar days to put the refund back on the card. I then asked for a supervisor, waited 20 minutes and got Gordon who told me the same thing. Not the service I have come to expect from AMEX. I ended up paying the whole thing on my reg CC - not my plan and will now hope that I get the balance put back on the card which I can’t use to pay my credit card!

My daughter received Amex gift card ($50) for her 16th b-day. Her wallet (with card) was subsequently stolen. We reported it immediately - card still had full value. We save all requested info and were told replacement would be sent. It was not. Called Amex - whoops error - they had failed to process request. "No worries," they said, "card now on the way." Weeks pass. No card. Then letter. No card until we send our purchase receipt. Call - Amex needs receipt for cards with over $200. "But ours is $50," we remind. "This case needs receipt." "What case?" No answer, then "the team decided you need receipt." We ask how do we produce receipt if it was a gift? Too bad. No receipt. No replacement. So now have had to ask family of daughter's friend to search for receipt from months ago... Amex staff - clueless, rude, dismissive...

Never buy American Express gift cards! I purchased a gift card to make an online order of an auto part. The parts company has a cutoff time for overnight shipping of 10am. I purchased the card at 9:30am and tried to make the order shortly after and it was declined. When I called American Express they told me that there is a delay of 1 hour after purchase before the card is activated. There was nothing on the card packaging to indicate this fact and I was not informed of this at the register. The only information on the outside of the package is, "Card has no value until purchased at checkstand". Because of this delay, I had to pay for a freight upgrade to get the part in time. Shame on American Express for deceptive practices.

I made a hot topic order, was never to be charged and was charged extra on my card for an out of stock item. After waiting past the amount of time I was supposed to, charge remained on my card. Finally hot topic sent me something else to fix the situation.

If you are reading this, let me tell you at the outset, do NOT use AmEx for your gift card needs. There are much better gift service out there. I personally have used giftcards.com that allow you to get custom gift cards, VISA and others and I have been very satisfied with their service. Now, let me tell you about my experience with AmEx. First of all, they do not have a local US based customer service team (at least it seems so to me). So, I ordered a custom AmEx gift card on phone by calling the customer service.

On after American Express is fraudmas Eve, I purchased a 50.00 gift card for my son for Christmas at Walgreens. A few days later while taking his girlfriend to breakfast he calls to tell me his card declined twice. We called the 800 # on the card just for the rep to say "you have a zero balance"! So I asked, what do I need to do? They replied with, "It's Walgreen's fault they did not put the money on your card." So of course I go up to Walgreens for them to tell me it's American Expresses fault as the money was put on the card.

I bought a gift using an AMEX gift card for $50.00. The store destroyed the card since it had a zero balance when the purchase was made. I later returned the gift and the store credited AMEX for the amount. However, AMEX will not issue me a new card...even though I have all the receipts showing the original purchase, the store credit for the return (with the AMEX credit) and the store Manager's information. I'm getting a run around from the AMEX representatives in India that process the complaints. Does anyone have a suggestion on how to resolve this?

I recently purchased a $50 AMEX gift card at Walgreens. When I went to make an online purchase 10 minutes after it was DECLINED. I called customer service (which was not helpful at all), they explained the funds are held for 70 minutes after purchase before being used. I was furious to find out because it does not state on the package or in the terms of agreement that this would be a stipulation. I know from other gift card purchases with Visa and Greendot that this occurs because it would be stated on the receipt or the the gift card packaging itself. It should be defined BEFORE purchase, not after when you need to use the card. SO now I having to wait an entire hour and ten minutes just to use this card. And on top of it all customer service is unfriendly and not useful at all to activate the card through their end. Never again will I purchase or use a card from American Express! What a total disappointment.

I receive an American Express Prepaid card, was given to me through a rebate deal. They charged you service fee after a certain month if you still have a balance on their card, which is stupid to begin with as it is a gift card and it should not expire or be charged for not using it quick enough. Anyhow, they charged me this fee before it was supposed to be charged! I called them and the person I spoke with, "Daisy", indicated that they will reversed the transaction within 2-3 business days. I asked for a confirmation number because I know some BS would occur and I would not receive the reversal.

I ordered a gift card of $200 to be sent to my son in Seattle. I had to call a couple of times because AMEX did not send me any notices nor did they charge my account. So I called AMEX only to speak with reps who do not understand English. After I spoke with 3 different reps, I was finally told that UPS dropped it off on the porch of my son's house. He DOESN'T have a porch! They stuck the card in the door and it luckily blew away to the flower patch next to the house.

I'll admit this is originally my fault, although really poor customer service is why I am writing this. I received a $200 American Express gift card for Christmas last year. I made a couple of purchases on it and received errors both times resulting in pending charges that reduced my balance both times. The first time, the total was over $100, so I couldn't even try the purchase again because of insufficient "remaining" balance.

I recently received a $10 Amex gift card as a rebate on a computer peripheral purchase. When I tried to cash it at Walmart, it was rejected. I phoned Amex and was told that I have to pay the outstanding amount first before using the card. Nobody knows that! I was told that I would have to deal with it at Walmart and have them reverse the transaction. For $10 I am not going to bother but I will NEVER purchase another item which has Amex gift card as a rebate.

I bought 2 $100 American Express gift cards at Target on 8/28/14, gave them as gifts the next day. When the recipient tried to use them, she couldn't. The cards were given back to me. I went to Target to discover the cause, was told they weren't entered properly, although I had the receipt, but no refund. Called the customer service no, turned case over to PRT Resolution Team; faxed them copies of the cards, front & back, my store receipt, my driver's license. Called a week later, DL unclear, faxed again. Called 2 weeks later, still not clear, faxed a 4"x6" copy of license. Called today, said my address was a business address (do have a home-based business), didn't receive lge copy of license, so how could they look up my address? They wanted a phone bill for proof of address, I said “enough!” I want cards activated, or money back. Manager will call today, doubt it. Will never buy another Amex gift card!

For my birthday, I received an American Express Prepaid Gift Card with a value of $100. I planned to buy Listia Credits (Listia is a website like eBay but you buy items with credits). I bought a $40 set of credits and a $20 set of credits. I attempted to buy another $40 set because I still had $40 on my card, but it said that it was denied by the cardholder. I then checked my balance and it said I had only $34 on my card! THEY CHARGE YOU 1 dollar for every time you try to buy an item! I tried 6 times in total, and now I cannot buy the item! Nice to ruin a birthday American Express... REALLY NICE.

We had 27 charges in one day at Exxonmobile in Florida (we live in California). These are not our charges. It put the card in negative and when calling the 866 # told had to put more funds to get out of negative. We only discovered this fraud on checking our balance on November 10, 2014 to make sure everything was okay. To our shock it was not. We were told 4 different times that an email form to dispute these charges will be coming. Two weeks later - still no email. We thought we better send in writing that we dispute these charges. Sent UPS next day air (costing us $37). We have a signed copy that they received this.

Received gift card branded American Express value 25.00 exp 06/20. Tried to use 11/07/14 and no value shown on card. So I called American Express and was advised 2.00 per month service fee used all the value of my card. I was not aware fees were permitted on gift cards so I was surprised when the agent I talked to just said, "Too bad that's the way it is." I won't be using any rebates showing American Express and encourage others also not to use this company's products.

I am filing this complaint against American Express Bluebird prepaid card. I have been dealing with the company on a refund that there seem to be a delay in. I filed a dispute with the card company on 7/27/14 and here it is 10/6/14 and still have not been reimbursed. The company have given me (4) four different days that I should receive a refund and every time there is an excuse. I feel that everyone needs to know about this company and something needs to be done about their business practices.

These cards are a joke. Never again will I buy one. Says can't be used to order outside of US and even when I did order in the US it still kept costing me a dollar for card to get declined.

I gave my rebate card to my mom and she misplaced after she try to use it and didn't have the balance on the card. When I found out, the card have been taking out fee but didn't have the message in spanish. My mother is no bilingual. She lost that money for something she didn't know.

I got one of these cards for my birthday with a balance of $100 in the beginning. Great. I went on Storenvy and bought items I have been planning to get and it went through easily, and I had $18.50 left on my card. So I decided to go on a different shop and buy some supplies I needed, and the overall total was $18.45. But guess what? It didn't go through. I tried it again and again, removing one item from my list each time, because surely it couldn't be the card. I had a window open on my computer that showed how much money was left on the card and it still said $18.50, so I reloaded it and re-entered my information. And would you guess?! It said I had $13.45 left on my card.

I've used prepaid gift cards to purchase things online for years now (mostly Visa and MasterCard) and have never had any problems. I recently made the mistake of purchasing a AE gift card for $135 with the intention of purchasing some shoes. I've done this many times before and the process is easy, efficient, and simple. BUT NOT WITH AMERICAN ** EXPRESS. First my payment was declined from one website. Okay, that's weird, maybe it's just an anomaly. I try another website but the payment is declined because my billing address doesn't match the address on the gift card.

I purchased a $100 Amex gift card from Walmart.com for my mother. When she went to use it @ Walmart (already at the till of course), she was told that it hadn't been activated through Amex & to call them. I called. They needed lots of information faxed to them. I faxed it and they never returned my money.

I ordered a $100 gift card thru AMEX and chose "overnight shipping" for $9.99, purchased on 6/12/14 for a total of $113.90. After purchasing I realized I put the wrong first name on the card and I immediately called customer service to fix. After being transferred 3x I was finally told 20 minutes later that it was already processed. The card arrived exactly one week later on the 19th. I disputed the overnight charge and they told me that it was purchased on the 18th and delivered on the 19th. I disputed again and asked that they check their call history records to verify. They then said I was never charged $9.99 for shipping. Why the heck was that option there? So, $13.90 in "order fees". And when you try to go back and read the notification of your dispute a second time... it disappears! Slippery and dishonest. Never again!

American Express gift card logo is--- Better than money.

I bought the gift card and when I came to use it but when the merchant passed it through an error message came. We called the customer service line and the amount processed that came "invalid" was in fact debited. I asked the customer service lady and she told me that there must be a mistake with the store's system. She assured me that the money will be back in the card within 8 business days. I tried to give it a try with the remainder of the balance but when I came to use it the second time it also came as "invalid". Horrible experience. I bought Visa Gift Card before and never had this problem.

I placed an order for 5 American Express gift cards and discovered that I forgot to use a coupon code. I immediately called AE within 5 minutes but the agent said there was no way to reapply the coupon. I requested cancelling the order, but after putting me on hold for 5 minutes, he said the order has already been processed and there was no way to cancel it. I told him that two days ago I placed an order for American Express gift cards and it took them 2 days to decline the order (and that was the reason I reordered), so how could the order be processed within 5 minutes this time.

I purchased 4 cards for Easter gifts for grandchildren and their parents. I watched Walmart cashier activate each card, sent them to NJ. Received text that one card was not activated according to number my daughter called. I called with the info on Sunday and guy stated that dept is on MST & I must call tomorrow between 11 am and 9 pm. I did and spoke to 1 guy who stated I must go to Walmart and have them look up info as it wasn't activated. I drove to Walmart and I got the receipt showing it was activated!

AmEx don't have any way to find out that they delivered card to the person or not. They can only tell you that they shipped it or not and balance. The only way to find out is to ask the receiver. I ordered a gift card as wedding gift for my friend. Now when I want to know whether she received my surprise gift or not, I have to call her only. There is no way American Express tell me that she received my card or not. It's really bad, now I have to call her and find out and by any chance if it was not delivered, it gave bad impression of me. (Seems I am making excuses and giving late) :( AmEx will not give any information about to whom it delivered to. Had bad experience. Also when I purchased the gift card through my AmEx card it was decline. Waste of time, will never use this service again.

When I attempted to use an American Express gift card at check-out, the card was declined. When I called American Express I was told that since the balance of the bill was in excess of the amount of the gift card, I had to pay the balance first. How can I pay the balance due if I do not know the value of the gift card? Further, even though the card was declined, the amount of the gift card was removed and I now have to wait 8 days before the amount is returned to the card. DO NOT GIVE AMERICAN EXPRESS GIFT CARDS!

My husband received a American Express gift card from a friend. The card was declined at any location I tried to used it. When I called the customer service they've told me that the card is not activated and there's nothing they can do about it until I send them the receipt with a set of documentation about myself. Well, I don't have the receipt since it was a gift card. Never buy Amex gift cards, they are a complete joke. Now, that I read about other customers' experience with these gift cards, I'm not at all surprised, and definitely convinced about never purchasing Amex cards.

I received a rebate from MSI in way of an Amex prepaid reward card for $10. What I did not know is that after six months a $2 per month fee is charged so the card went to zero in nine months! I am to say the least pissed off and will never do business with MSI or American Express ever again. DONE

I had received an AmEx gift card, a year or so ago, amount $300, expiration 12/14. This last weekend, it was rejected in a restaurant in Malibu. Fortunately, I had a real credit card and paid the bill. I called the AmEx gift help line today, after multiple holds and talking to three reps, up to the highest supervisor I was able to reach, and 40 frustrating minutes, the answer was - that The card had not been properly scanned when issued, and that if needed to contact the person(s) who gave me the card to get the purchaser receipt.

American Express is making BOOKOO bucks off of undetecting Americans. Also, raking it in while not giving Americans the merchandise enclosed in prepaid money cards ... After purchasing a 60-dollar prepaid debit card, from yes, the UNITED STATES POST OFFICE, I attempted to use this card on a purchase for 50 dollars. It was denied and after calling the number on the back of the card... what was learned is that THERE IS NO WAY AT ALL TO GET MY MONEY FOR AT LEAST 10 more days (even the UNITED STATES post office, who has made themselves a representative of this company can not return money THAT BELONGS TO ME!). THIS IS AN OUTRAGE! It is theft. It is embezzlement !!!! They took my money under false pretenses, gained control of that money and are not giving my money back to me.... and contacted the resolution service at American Express (no respect for this company anymore, therefore, the "a" in American Express is non-deserving of a capital letter).

Please, please, don't buy anybody an AMEX gift card. You've just given money to American Express, and the card holder will probably not be able to use it. I received one as a gift last week. I tried to use it online, and it was rejected by the card issuer. So I decided I would charge the card through PayPal, so I could access the funds online. PayPal said that the card issuer rejected the transaction, so instead PayPal charged me $1.00 for every time I ran the card, meaning that now there's only $47 on the card instead of $50. Ridiculous. So I tried to call the customer service hotline at 877-297-4438, and got an automated response. There was no way to talk to a real human being about this card. This is the worst gift card I've ever seen. This isn't a gift, it's a bad joke.

I was presented a $100 Amex gift card. When I tried to use it, it was declined. After calling Amex India I was told that the card belonged to someone else. I was instructed to fax the front and back of the card, my driver license, and purchase receipt to the Amex prepaid resolution team. After more than a month, I received a new card. It was also declined when I tried to use it. I called customer service in India again and was told that the card did not belong to me. After a great deal of time they told me that a new card had been mailed to me the day before. That did not sound right. It was a lie.

Lost AMEX Gcard $200: We had the GC number on Receipt. Called number. Had unused card. Put on hold, 2 hours with 3 different agents that did not speak good English. Tell us 3 different ways on how to get a new card issued. They asked for Personal identifying information like SS number and copy of license to be faxed to them. Spoke to top Manager who took down name and info and promised a new card in 10 days (10/14). Never received card or acknowledgement of request. Called back 11/8 and more of the same. The service center doesn't know what they are doing. They don't speak English and are not from this country. You get several different ways on how to resolve but nothing happens. This is ridiculous! AMEX is supposed to stand for professional, security, American company that you can rely on. I think not! Word to the wise don't buy these cards.

Got hit with a possible fraud. At my store, the customer used an AMEX gift card to purchase items. Two months later, I get several letters in the mail that this sale is under investigation. Merchant services and American Express refuse to provide any information on this matter. A call to Merchant Services results repeating the "case number" several times followed by being placed on hold for 20 minutes. They can not even tell me what is going on except threatening letters that they will charge back the sale if I do not respond to their request to fax the sales slips (which I have done already after each request). This whole thing feels like a scam that American Express themselves is behind and I will no longer accept any American Express products at all. Shame on you the way this is being handled.

I received an $80 rebate from Hankook Tires. They no longer issue checks for refunds; instead, they sent an AMEX Gift Card. It stated that it didn't need to be activated and was ready to be used. I attempted to use it at a local gas station. You can't use them at the pump; you have to tell the cashier how much money is on the card and they will use it like a credit card. Well the card was declined! I called the customer service to get a balance and it reported a 0 balance on the card! I requested to talk to a rep. The customer service rep was hard to understand, AMEX obviously outsources their customer service responsibilities to India. I was told that the card was used at the gas station. I told the rep that it was declined. He stated that if there was nothing charged to the card they will refund the money; however, the funds are frozen for 7-10 days.

Around Aug. 13, 2013 I purchased a gift card to pay for my birthday gift. I read the instructions and it said no activation needed and the card was ready for use. I made an online purchase and the company declined the order saying the addresses didn't match. Shortly later I noticed the money had been taking off my card, immediately I called American Express and was informed in order to make an online or phone order the card would have to be registered. I asked him how would I have known that? The customer service rep asked me to make a conference call to the company. I told him that I didn't have 3 way and was unable to make the call. At that point and time he stated he couldn't make an outgoing calls, their phones only accepted incoming calls. He also told me my money would be on my card within 24 hr.

A customer used one of these cards which did not swipe and American Express charges additional fees for cards that will not swipe. Read the fine print with these guys and know what you're getting into. This customer got away with $400 of our lowest profit margin merchandise and because of fees and "non swipe fees" (can you believe this is legal!?) got one over on us and we either lost money on the sale or barely broke even (I didn't run the numbers yet but because the card did not swipe, the fee doubles. Are you serious?!). Never again, I'm through taking Amex it's for suckers.

The English of customer service agents is very, very poor. They are only authorized to apologize. Can’t help but apologize. I was told 9 different lies: (1) I was told because my gift card was suspended that a refund would not go on it. I did not contact the merchant in time and they processed it on the gift card. And yes, it went back on the gift card; (2) the gift card is still suspended. I cannot use my money. I was told that it will be refunded to the merchant as there was no matching transaction amount. What does the amount have to do with anything? If I buy three things and return 2 of them, there is no matching amount for that return either; (3) I was told the merchant had to request the transaction to be reversed; (4) I was told that it will be automatically reversed; (5) I was told that both 4 & 5 would be done in 3-5 business days; (6) I was told an email had to be sent to get the authorization and I need to call back every day for up to 14 days for my money to be un-suspended on my gift card; (7, 8, and 9) are a combination of all the above and now the guy on the phone from India said it is too late for anything to be done today.

On May 2, 2013, I called customer service and explained that I had received a $500 AmEx gift card and would like to have a check for cash instead of the card. "No problem," said the AmEx representative, "Your check will be sent by US mail within 20 days." I was told the card was locked and could not be used, and I was given a reference number (which is standard operating procedure for refunds according to the rep). On May 27, I called to check on the status of the check and was first told that there was no record of my call. I gave the representative (who spoke very poor English) my reference number, and was then told that because I was the recipient, not the purchaser, I could not get my funds in a check. If AmEx knew that there would be no check and also had my contact information, why didn't they give me the courtesy of a phone call?

These cards are not beneficial to consumers in any way. They only benefit American Express. I'm in college and my parents bought me four cards when I started college. I was using them to pay my prepaid mobile phone, so I knew exactly how much was being charged and how much was left. On my last payment, the card declined because after 6 months, they charged a $2 service fee every month so I was already $4 short and I only had the card for eight months. I need to find a way to convert the value on the last two remaining cards. Don't buy these cards. The service fee makes these cards a rip off. Also, be aware of the security issues that others on ConsumerAffairs.com have encountered.

My husband and I regularly purchase Am Ex Gift cards for our children and grandchildren but those days are over. I purchased 2 $100 Am Ex gift cards for my daughter-in-law on 2/15/13 and gave them to her the next day. When she went to use them in March, she was told that both had been spent on 2/26/13 in Tampa on gas and at a 7-Eleven. The cards never left the envelope or her purse until March and she lives 100 of miles from Tampa, Florida. When she called Am Ex to complain, she was told, "Too bad, someone pent them.” She finally had to tell us and we called American Express and they could clearly see that I bought them with my Am Ex at Publix on 2/15/13 along with the dates of the transaction of the expenditures in Tampa on 2/26/13.

A friend gave me an American Express gift card for my birthday. But when I tried to use it, of course it didn't work. When I called the number, a call center told me I couldn't use the gift card unless I had a purchase receipt. When I explained it was a gift and my friend didn't have the receipt, they told me I had to go through an extensive process to be able to use the card.

This is twice that I have had a perfectly valid American Express gift card refused. There's always some excuse: "The manager has to approve gift cards, and he's not here now." "We can't accept the full value of the card. It's our policy." I recommend avoiding these cards. They are close to useless.

Just to preface, I have been using prepaid gift cards (Visa, MasterCard, One, Greendot) online for many, many years. Yes, I have occasionally had a problem here and there over the years of using them. Most of the time, the problem is their website going down or reacting slowly, causing me to have to wait a day or less to be able to register my card so I can use it online (I buy these pre-paid cards solely for online use). The worst previous incident I've ever had was a month ago when I purchased a MasterCard prepaid card and the card number was different than what was displayed on the receipt (they should be the same ending numbers). A quick call to MC and they had me up and running with the card working in less than 5 minutes. I've never had a prepaid card not work on the internet until today with the American Express gift card I bought locally a couple days ago.

I ordered an AMEX gift card to be shipped to a friend, to arrive as an anniversary gift on their vacation. The card arrived late, which was not AMEX's fault. Since it went to a hotel, I was worried it would not get to them. So I called AMEX, asked them to cancel it and give me a refund to my AMEX card that I purchased it on. They told me it would take 15 days. After 30 days, the refund had not shown up. I have now made 5 calls and no one seems to be able to assist me. I have grown so frustrated that I have cancelled my AMEX card, which I have had since 1995.

I wanted to get gift cards for my employees for the New Year. Fist order was ordered online and processed. The next day, I got an e-mail that it wasn't processed (so that put the delivery off to after the New Year). Second order was made over the phone, processed, and 30 minutes later wasn't processed. On third order, I insisted on speaking to the manager. The order was processed and delivered. Next week, another delivery! Oops! Okay. I called customer service, which took three calls to get through. I got hung up on and was disconnected (and they didn't call me back!). I finally got it canceled after fighting with rep (who was very difficult to understand as well as all the previous reps. They have very heavy accents.) to get her to understand their mistake. Next year, for Visa gift cards, no more AmEx. I would have let AmEx know of this, but they don't have any e-mail contact on their site! Their loss.

Don't buy an American Express Gift Card! When you use your credit card to purchase American Express Gift cards, the transaction is considered a cash advance! Therefore, you are charged an advance transaction fee plus interest begins to accumulate from the moment of your purchase. If you go to a store and buy their gift card, using Target stores as an example, that is a purchase and there is no advance transaction fee, not to mention the upfront fee that American Express charges you to initially buy their gift card.

I bought a card for my husband. He is a truck driver. I thought it was a good idea. The advertisements said there is a good alternative on prepaid cards without any credit score. I loaded money and the next week tried to transfer money from my account. Loss Prevention locked the card. He called the next day and was waiting for one hour and fifteen minutes. They did not resolve the problem. They said I needed to get another card in order to transfer money to him. I went to Walmart, bought another card, registered and started to transfer money to his card. Everything was okay.

I "won" a $200 American Express gift several weeks ago. These cards supposedly could be used at any merchant who accepts American Express credit cards, including online retailers. Since most retailers don't accept American Express cards, when I finally found an online retailer accepting them, I tried to use it on a $137.87 purchase. The purchase was declined so I used one of my credit cards to complete the transaction. Thinking I still had $200 available to use, I attempted once again to make a purchase online - this time $89. The charge appeared to go through.

The fact that Amex can actually get away with gouging their customers $75 and even $300 a year for holding one of these things is really puzzling. Low self-esteem? If you need one of these things to feel important, you had better get some help. First off, merchants are loathe to accept them. Why? Because they're sick of being ripped off too. Most importantly, never use one of these lousy cards on the Internet. Contrary to popular belief, if your account number falls into the wrong hands and you dispute the charge, Amex will always "resolve" the dispute in favor of the scammer - 99% of the time - always. In fact, I have no doubt that if you were a victim of a mugger or kidnapper who accepted Amex from their victims and you disputed the charge on the card - you would lose with Amex. They would make sure you paid.

I have $25.00 in American Express gift card. I bought an item on eBay by using American Express gift card. After I check on my balance in American Express gift card, I lost $4.00; but the item only cost one dollar. And they wrote "PayPal Inc Mark - Purchase with AVS" purchase one dollar. I want to know what they are doing. Can someone help me? Thank you.

They have the worst customer phone service ever! I never have problems with Visa, as a person that uses gift cards all the time! Do not use American Express! I got hung up on over 9 times (1-866-207-7970).

I ordered a custom photo gift card on 10/14. I paid extra for 2-day shipping. I received an "approval" email the next day. I was concerned as they took a whole day to approve my order and it was not yet being processed. I called and the person told me I can expect it to be delivered on Thursday, 10/18. I checked my mail today (10/18) and it was not there. I am concerned because I leave for an out-of-state stay (where I needed the gift card as a present). I called them for an update. I was informed it was still processing. I mentioned how I was told I would receive it today and she confirmed that she sees the notes that I was told this, but it was wrong information. I asked if there is any way to get it shipped to me for Monday the latest at a different address since I need it on Tuesday (10/23). I was told no.

A company that I worked for had given rewards for extra services. When I redeemed the rewards, I asked for Home Depot gift cards - three cards totaling $225. I received the envelopes and put them aside, thinking they were Home Depot gift cards. When I opened the envelopes, sixteen months later, I found American Express Corporate Rewards cards that had expired three months earlier. Contacting American Express only verified that, due to expiration, all funds had been taken to cover "maintenance fees." $14.00 a month for "maintenance fees" is excessive when compared to other cards, and I consider it usury or outright theft.

My wife purchased a $1,000 gift card online to be delivered by United Parcel Service. The card never came, AMEX denied all responsibility and admitted the card had been used and all the value was gone. Then attempting to get satisfaction from American Express, she was basically told tough luck. Again, we never received the card. How a company such as AMEX can get away with leaving my wife out $1,000, I will never understand. But telephone complaints have not worked and a snail mail to American Express customer service has gone unanswered after more than a month. They are no better than any internet scam run by organized crime. They are thieves.

I was given a $100 gift card. When I went to use the gift card at a gas station, I had only used 37 dollars. The gas station took all hundred dollars off. When I called American Express, instead of them talking to the merchant, the first person put me on hold for over 45 minutes. Their reasoning was it was not their fault and there was nothing they could do. The second person that claimed to be a supervisor was extremely condescending. Both persons that I talked to were extremely rude and unprofessional. I asked the supervisor if there was anything he was willing to do to help me out and his answer was to apologize and that I didn't deserve anything for the person's mistreatment of my complaint.

I received the card as a gift and tried to use it to make a purchase which was over the amount of the card, expecting to pay the balance with my regular credit card. It was denied but the balance on the card was removed to zero. I contacted Amex and they spoke to the merchant and the balance was put back or supposedly so. I paid with my regular credit card to get my items. I went to use the card a week later and it was denied again. I called Amex again and they told me that the first transaction had the funds to the original merchant. My receipt clearly shows that the original purchase was paid by my regular credit card which the merchant confirmed.

I have received several American Express gift cards throughout the years and have discovered that after activating the card, you must use the card in its entirety once you have made a purchase with it. What I have experienced several times with these cards is whatever the remaining balance is on the gift card, somehow gets "suspended" by American Express. When I contacted customer service, I was told that the card has a remaining balance but is suspended. When I inquire on what basis the card is suspended, they cannot provide me with the reason. What seems to be happening is randomly, American Express suspends the balance remaining on customers' cards for no apparent reason! Fraud! Fraud! Fraud! How does the Better Business Bureau allow this? They are outright stealing money from consumers daily! I would love to start a class action suit against American Express and put an end to this scam and make them responsible to repay all the consumers they have ripped off!

I purchased a gift card to use for eBay, I got home and no money is on the card. So I called the number on the back to see what’s going on because I had just purchased and it wasn’t making sense to me why it wasn’t working. They handled the situation as if they didn’t care and I’m supposed to be ok with waiting 10 days to get my money. They weren’t helpful at all. I will never deal with American Express again.