I lost my job, and did not have the cash flow needed to pay off a remaining $1,500 balance on my Green Amex Card. Each Month it was overdue, Amex charged me another $50, which is nearly a 40% annualized interest rate. The top interest charge for any Amex card is 28%, and the top rate allowed in my State is 30%. During the second Month I asked Amex to transfer my balance from "Green" into another minimum balance paying interest charging card such as "Blue" or "Clear" or "Gold" and they refused to do so.By the third Month Amex delegated my debt to Nationwide Credit. Their representative who inherited my account demanded I pay the entire amount off within 90 days or he would ruin my 700 score credit rating. (when in fact all he could have done at that point was resell my debt at 10 cents on the dollar to yet another collection agency.) I told him I could pay $200 per Month (well above the minimum balance payment on a normal interest charging credit card) until the balance was done, but he warned me that would still not be good enough. I proceeded to pay $200 against my Amex balance on time each Month, yet instead of freezing my balance, they kept increasing it yet another $50 each time. Finally by the third Month I managed to borrow from a friend, and pay off this debt. During this 2-3 Month period I was called by Nationwide Credit on a daily basis, even though I had already laid out my situation with them, and was making a good faith effort to pay my balance off. As of this writing, my Amex Card account was terminated, so I can't get a new valid Amex Card, nor have I gotten any reassurances from either party that they did not already damage my credit rating, despite the fact that I paid it off in full within the requested period. I post this experience, so those going through a similar problem might better know what you can expect. During the 25 years I've used this Amex Green card, I easily charged and paid off nearly half a Million dollars in personal and business reimbursed expenses, which Amex makes 4% on top of their annual fee. Yet after all that for a measly $1,500 - which I was trying to pay off; they hired Nationwide to make me into a nervous wreck.
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