Amex Sues Courtney Love Over Unpaid Centurion Bill

Absolutely nuts

Of all the finance companies AMEX is one I’d least like to tangle with as they are highly respected and a black mark from them is likely to irrepairably screw up your credit rating.

Of course, I’m speaking here as someone with an AMEX credit card on a decent UK salary rather than someone with more money than sense like this woman obviously has.

AMEX is in trouble. Yesterday my personal platinum was denied at a gas station. I phoned in only to have a rep from Amex demand an early payment with little explanation. After several minutes I was transfered to the credit department and spoke to a nice woman who informed me that even though I am in good standing it would be in my best interest to not scheduel future computer payments but rather make several payments during the month before the due date…huh…
After sending them 11k they un-froze my card. Keep in mind that I had already scheduled a payment for the 11k on the due date yet they still found it necessary to call me due early - very early. I am fortunate in that I spend what I can afford and the 11k was my nut and I can and did pay it early per their request. Now I am back to using my MasterCard World Elite which is co-branded with Saks and has no annual fee. Benefits are in line with the Platinum Card (companion air,lounge access,points,and a generous hotel program (like FHR). See ya Amex….

Forgive my ignorance but aren’t payments supposed to reach them before the due date?

Yes, not to go off the main topic here but I feel the frustration of the above poster (and countless personal friends whom this has happened to lately w/ AMEX). My main beef is that they [amex] froze one of my my cards recently and never contacted me prior to OR at the time of doing it. So, basically I tried using my card one night and it was flat out declined. Of course I called and found out why they did this; apparantly I was making higher charges than usual that month and they were concerned the charges might’ve been unauthorized and/or wreckless, which I didn’t have a problem with but not contacting me at the time was the problem… I eventually got a letter of explanation well after the incident. what also upsetted me was that I had an EXCELLENT history w/ amex prior to the incident. I have both a charge and credit card with them in which I always pay on-time, always in-full (charge card) and paid off exceptionally large charges w/ absolutely no problem… even Amex concurred with me when I mentioned that little bit of info to them.

That incident was one of the very few times where I was happy to use my alternative Visa card. I still use Amex as my primary card of choice for the usually exceptional and beneficial service, rewards and other little personal perks I get but now I know first-hand what can happen, even to a valued cardmember.

The solution? I’d say notify a cardmember immediately via phone or email that you are concerned w/ their spending activity and will be freezing their card, so it doesn’t come as a surprise when you’re trying to make a purchase. ;o)

P. S. Everyone knows Courtney Love is a mess. I would never issue her a card, let alone a centurion card, no matter what her finances and resources may consist of. Yikes.

Forgot to mention, once I called and found out why my card was frozen amex told me they could not unfreeze it until a payment was sent. Seems like they’re doing this quite often these days, to numerous cardholders.

And yes Mitch, payment is suppose to reach them before the due date but in my personal situation and from people I know, they’ve froze cards before a payment was ever even due.

Back to topic, I wonder if they will be cancelling Courtney’s accounts after all is settled in court? We might see her cards end up on eBay!!!

According to the folks over at TMZ, American Express is suing Courtney, 44, for unpaid charges and fees on three different cards. She allegedly owes $279,079.68 on her Centurion Card, $69,245.56 on her Gold Card, and $3,734.43 on her Platinum card.

Well…Having seen the news today it appears that not only are they hitting up good standing card members for early payment but also selling stock to pay back the TARP to our gov’t. Sadly I believe that this is only the beginning…Short the stock and enjoy the profits.

Amen to those who agree that AMEX should make some sort of outreach before freezing ones account. With a credit card it is simple - the limit is on my statement each month, stay below it and the card works…With Amex I pretty much have to guess whether or not the charge will be approved…Sadly it looks more and more like a pre-paid debit card with shrinking benefits…

Courtney doesnt have a black card, its only a gold…he centurion got CXLed a lllonnng time ago. lol

Amex is definitely in trouble. They froze all 4 of my cards today (centurion, small business plum, biz platinum and platinum) because my plum had a $250k balance. Now I charge ~$750k per month on that card alone and have always paid it early to get the 2% cash back. I have charged over $25,000,000 over the last 5 years (mostly business) and never paid a bill late. I’ve had much higher balances and never had a card frozen until today where I had an $8 godaddy charge declined on my centurion. I was told I had to get the plum balance under $200k. What a joke… I have sent them nearly $1,000,000 in the past month (all paid early and including $100,000 sent 3 days ago) and my accounts are frozen for $250k open??? Not even a courtesy call or email. Just a declined charge to let me know until I called. Sounds like they are in big trouble to me.

After thinking about any logical reasons as to why this is happening in such large numbers, I thought of a possibility. They [amex] are trying send out a message to us cardmembers that if we don’t have perfection w/ our card spending and credit scores that they will punish us by freezing accounts w/ absolutely no notice. Of course, not only would that requirement be generally impossible and unrealistic but cardmembers who are actually meeting those requirements are still having accounts frozen.

Oh well, Whatever their reasoning(s), it’s just a strange thing to do to valued cardmembers, even in a really bad economy; especially when many cardmembers’ networth and typical spending habits are not effected by the economy. What’s up AMEX?

Theres no message other than they are raising capital. Its that simple. They have tons of unsecured debt and a huge balloon (tarp) payment this week…Hitting up the cardmembers for early cash adds up if enough members pony up the dough…Get used to it, it aint spending patterns or credit worthiness issues, they are simply short on cash. Is there ever enough, really??
I know 3 people within the past week who have terminated at least one of their amex’s. Exponentially, thats pretty scary since membership dues makes up a significant part of their revenue stream. Not too mention that small business owners - like myself - have simply stopped accepting the card out of spite. I actually tell my customers what personally happened and they all seem to understand. Lets see, fewer members and less establishments willing to accept the card….Hmmmm…

Yeah, those are good points and observations, Seth. It’s just unbelievable that the practices (of freezing accounts and demanding early payment) has become so extremely commonplace w/ amex right now…
I literally laugh out loud now when I see an ad on t.v. for one of their card products. I feel bad for the person who picks up the phone and signs up for a new card. Even though I will say that my customer service on a basic scale i.e. wanting to know my current balance, questioning a charge, etc. has still been pretty good w/ Amex, up to date. :o)