American Express Black Card Reviews

In total, between three businesses and my personal accounts, I have 12 credit cards and do business with 8 different banks and credit unions. I had three AMEX credit cards. Now I'm down to two, soon to be just my personal, and, maybe, none if AMEX doesn't start acting like a respectable company again. In the past 20 years, I cannot recall any major issue I had with any of my VISA, MASTERCARD, or DISCOVER accounts. I had to dispute a few charges a handful of times out of the thousands of transactions I did, but they were all quickly rectified by the credit card company.

However, from May of 2020 to March of 2021, I had four issues with business American Express cards, in particular, their Amazon Business card and their Bonvoy Marriott card, ranging from them protecting unethical businesses, I proved, through email evidence, had charged me unjustified fees for services not rendered to cutting my business credit lines from $65,000 to less than $9,000 because they felt that 'I was living off my credit cards' to rewards points being all screwed up. After calling and emailing numerous times unsuccessfully, I filed a formal complaint via email and through the website, left a negative review on several websites, and then, for good measure, sent a certified letter to their corporate office just to make certain somebody over there knew how ** I was. I even called my attorney.

I was called a few days later by an "Executive Assistant" Naomi C., who explained that she had received my letter and would be looking into the matters. After a few weeks of sporadic contact, Ms. C. finally called me Christmas Eve morning to give me triple bad news. She was obviously annoyed to be working Christmas Eve and made several comments that were eyebrow-raising, my three favorites were; one, that the unethical companies I was disputing were also defined as "American Express clients" because they initiated the non-fraudulent transactions through my credit card. Two, that I looked to be "Living off my credit cards". And, three, that she was looking forward to going on a vacation through January 5th as soon as she finished my file along with some others.

The only good piece of advice Ms. C. gave me is that I could combine the credit limits of my now two practically worthless business cards. Unfortunately, a few months later, another rep I dealt with for that, instead of combining the accounts and then closing them, simply closed one account and didn’t do the transfer at all. A few week later, when I called again, I was then told by a third rep that it wasn’t that rep's fault, but my fault because I didn’t ensure the account remained open until after the transfer was completed. Hmmm… am I supposed to be psychic and a babysitter as an AMEX customer? When you specifically tell someone not to close an account until after the transfer has been completed and they acknowledge you then ignore your request behind your back, how am I reasonably at fault?

Whoever from American Express who may be reading this, here's my response to Ms. C’s eyebrow raising remarks: Your "other clients" are criminals that wrongfully charged me $2,000.00 for services that were not rendered, I'm not "Living off my credit cards" (especially NOT your company’s anymore), in fact, I paid them all down to zero last month (Closing one of yours, which another rep screwed up the credit transfer for so I lost the remaining 9K of credit) and currently have a credit score over 800 and, I hope Ms. C. enjoyed her holiday vacation because she put an unnecessary damper on mine by calling Christmas Eve with no good news (Shame on American Express for making non-essential employees work holidays).

Furthermore, I wrote Ms. C. an email last week to update her and pass on some much-needed guidance to this company. I received no response. Apparently certified mail to one of the company executives is the only thing that's taken seriously over there and, even then, an executive will not be calling to apologize for multiple screw ups on a business account, they’ll cowardly pass that duty on to someone who’s obviously already overworked, overwhelmed, and, possibly, unqualified to be interacting with the public.

WARNING: For anyone reading this, the "business guarantee" American Express champions on so much advertising that they will fight on your behalf when a vendor mischarges you, well, I didn't see that at all. I saw the opposite. Furthermore, their interest rates are ridiculous, their rewards points incentives are shrinking rapidly, their grace periods between payments is a joke at about three weeks, and their customer service… well, quite frankly, their customer service I rate a 2 out of 10. American Express, do you want to fix this?!

James

Today on my bill I see a rebill for half the amount...over $1000. The furniture company says they’re charging re-stocking and delivery. I’m sorry, not when you scammed me! I called Amex and told them, "I kept you updated all along". They said yeah, but they responded with a policy of restocking fees! This bed has a picture online of being 68 inches high and holding 250 lbs. The beds that came were toddler sized. False advertising, internet scam, whatever you want to label it, those people don’t get to charge me over $1000 for lying! I have nothing of theirs but one big fat hassle and two months of my boys sleeping on mattresses on the floor waiting for Toddler size beds? I am Amex’s Customer. They are supposed to ‘have my back’ and offer me protection against internet fraud and scams and bad deals. That’s why I use a credit card in the first place. I won’t be using this one any longer.

July 14 2016, called AMEX. Told them I want to do a balance transfer from my Helzberg/Cap One for $1000 + a $30 dollar fee. July 16 2016, approved my AMEX, in writing via USPS mail. July 18 through 30th, no payment to Helzberg/Cap One posted. Called AMEX three times between those 3 dates, and Cap One. Everyone gives me the ol', "It can take up to 10 business days." July 27 2016, AMEX shows a balance of $1,030. August 11 2016, No payment made to Helzberg/Cap One.

So now I am going to get some of you together and we will ask Senator Elizabeth Warren to open a Senate hearing and drag Diego Paul Fabara's little butt down to the Senate floor and drill the truth as to why this particular section of AMEX has much higher profit margins than any other secured type debit prepaid than any other competitor in its FIELD. We will also join together as a CLASS ACTION AGAINST DIEGO's (named personally) entire Supervisory Board of this POS company for an undisclosed 9 figure sum of reward.

They expect me to pay off $100,000 in full in 1 month. Since they cancelled my business cards which I used regularly to pay for advertising to make money with my business, it’s impossible for me to pay off all my AMEX cards in full in 30 days. In my business, I have to spend money to make money. American Express (OPEN) ruined my business and my income. I am the only bread winner in our family. Thank you American Express!

We were kept in the same mutual funds although we emphasized to our Financial Planner on several occasions that we could not afford the continuing decline in our portfolio. We were assured that the funds would be moved to safer investments. We discussed with our Financial Planner using the annuity in our Universal Life policy to pay the premiums. He assured us that this would be all right, but he failed to advise us of the negative implications of using the annuity funds in this manner. If we had understood this, we would have continued to pay the premiums out of pocket to avoid the increased premiums in future years.

The annuity balance in our Universal Life policy decreased from $94,736 to $24,930 -- a 74% loss. Today, while talking to our new American Express Financial Planner for our Universal Life policy, we learned that the annuity funds inside this policy could have been moved to the fixed account where they would have earned a guaranteed 4.5%, and we could have used dollar cost averaging.

Steve W, our previous American Express Financial Advisor never offered this option to protect our funds. If he had, we could have protected our funds and assured some growth. In regard to our annuities, IRAs, and ROTHs outside the Universal Life policy, we also learned today that our previous Financial Planner could have moved these funds to guaranteed 4% fixed accounts. We were never given this option to save our portfolio.

In a desperate effort to salvage what was left of our retirement funds, we decided to remove them from American Express. To add insult to injury, American Express slapped us with $1,250 in termination fees. We are being punished for trying to salvage what little we have remaining for our retirement.

We trusted American Express and even refinanced our home upon the advice of our previous Certified Financial Planner, so we would have additional funds to add to our portfolio. He is well aware that we are in our mid 50s and can ill afford to lose our retirement funds -- we told him this over and over again. In desperation, we consulted with Financial Planners from two other firms, and the first thing they both said was that we were in too volatile a mix of mutual funds for people our age.

We also know now that other mutual funds were available but never presented to us. Why did our Financial Planner do this? Was there a conflict of interest? He was not looking out for our interests. Perhaps the American Express fee schedule has something to do with it. We don't have the means of exploring the benefits to American Express and our Certified Financial Planner for his course of action, since compensation between American Express and our Certified Financial Planner does not appear on our statements.

The customer services reps change their statements frequently, are vague and express lack of knowledge about everything. Once the rep said the funds will be returned to me due course, a few minutes later he said he has no idea what would happen since he can't bring up my record.

It seems the bank has no record of what checks are cashed in by them, and poor management of correlation between new account applications and initial deposit checks. I have been instructed to mail a copy of the check to a PO Box in West Viginia, and 'that would help expedite the matters. I am in the process of obtaining a copy of the check.

My concern is that even when I have presented a copy of the check I might have problems getting my funds since these guys apparently don't keep any records. The response of this bank to my various calls has been perfunctory and dismissive. This is a very agonizing experience since $5000 is my hard earned savings and means a lot me.