I have held an American Express card for thirty (30) years and have never had a problem because the procedure was simple: Charges are to be paid upon receipt of a monthly statement IN FULL.
Six months ago I received an "offer" from AMEX to enroll in an "extended payment plan." In retrospect, I can see that I interpreted the plan incorrectly: I thought that when I wanted an amount of over $300.00 to be placed on extended payment I should call AMEX.
Instead, any time a charge of over $300 appeared, AMEX would AUTOMATICALLY defer this amount and charge additional interest. The monthly account summary, that used to be easy to recap has now become impossible to understand.
This is definitely a "caveat emptor" - buyers need to beware!!!
From not paying any interest charges on monthly statements, I'm now being billed interest on charges I didn't even want deferred to the extended payment option plan.
This is an underhanded way for the AMEX company to charge interest to cardholders and confuse the billing procedure.
I've requested this "extended payment option" be removed from my account and am told that until the balance is paid they cannot remove it.
Well, I don't know what the true balance is on my account since these unwarranted interest charges have been building up. Now I need to sit down and go through 6 months of statements to try and determine exactly what I owe to AMEX.
People DO NOT AUTHORIZE ANY EXTENDED PAYMENT OPTION PLAN, if like me you pay your monthly AMEX bills in full.
Apparently AMEX has found a way to make even their carholders who pay in full (without interest) now pay interest by offering nonsense just to charge interest.
Additionally, BUYER BEWARE - for AMEX "Membership Rewards" there is a "program fee" of $40.00 a year - just to be entitled to claim rewards via the internet instead of by phone.
Cardholders MUST EXAMINE their AMEX statements very carefully, because there are extra charges that pop up now and then.
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