Finance Charges Allayed due to fault in American Express Auto-Pay System

By: sok

In June, 2009, I changed the setting of the Auto-Pay on my American Express account from making the minimum payment to paying the entire statement balance. When I received my bill for the month of June, I was shocked to see a string of finance charges and late fees because the American Express Auto-Pay system had not paid the account in June.

On July 22, I called customer service, who explained that the American Express computer system does not make any payments for 30 days after changes are made to the Auto-Pay setting. However, no such warning had appeared when I had made those changes; hence, I had naturally expected Auto-Pay to pay the bill. When I complained about the circumstances, the customer service representative credited me for the finance charges and late fees that had been assessed as a result of the nonpayment, which was the result of Auto-Pay. I paid off the entire bill on that date.

On seeing my July bill, I was shocked that finance charges of $39.10 were charged to my account on July 29, despite the fact that I had paid off the entire bill in July. According to the customer service supervisor, this charge was still being accrued from the non-payment of the June bill (because Auto-Pay did not pay it). He refused to credit my account for the finance charge.

Given that this finance charge was accrued because Auto-Pay did not pay any of the bill in June (despite my having set it up to pay the minimum amount previously), and charges related to this problem had been taken off the account, I find it absurd and unfair that I am being charged this finance charge.