AMEX user has his limit reduced for shopping at Walmart*?

[S.Taylor]

A short time ago, we took advantage of a really good balance transfer rate from Chase.
A couple of months later, they notified us that they were going to hit us with a $10/month fee, plus nearly triple our minimum monthly payment (from 2% to 5%). Utterly unmanageable. We called them up to ask whether they *wanted* us to declare bankruptcy or what. As it turns out, this was just an arm-twisting maneuver; they would keep our min. payment low and waive the monthly fee if we would surrender the promotional interest rate and go with 7.99%
Bastards.
I'll be so happy to get out from under their thumbs.

[volcs0]

Racer X wrote: I do that every time I travel outside my state. they call it a travel advisory. You specify the date range, and area of travel. The last thing I wanted was my card being declined in Budapest, and being stranded.

Yeah - we learned our lesson. When we went to Japan this year, I called twice to make sure they had us in the database.

[Undrpsi]

We have coorporate AMEX's and have had no problems with them. I do call when I am traveling (especially out of the country). I have had numerous calls to the extended warranty department with no problems. I have had issues with sellers and AMEX has handled them quickly (never to my detriment). I had a rental car accident (NOTE: read the fine print next time if you don't purchase their insurance..scary!). AMEX has rental car insurance automatically with business accounts. Budget was rubbing their chops about the car (first thing they said was "You didn't purchase our insurance...how are you going to handle this"). I called AMEX and gave them the info...done. I even called 2 weeks later just to make sure....covered. No cost to me or my company.

I think all credit lenders are just this side of the 'money-lenders in the temple' but have no complaints about AMEX's customer service.

Jay

volcs0 wrote:
When we would drive cross-country, we routinely would start to have our Amex denied, and we would have to call them and convince them that our card was not stolen. Now we've gotten in the habit of calling ahead and telling them our travel plans. A pain, but I guess that's the climate we live in now.

All in all, I've only had good customer service experiences with Amex. One time, I paid about 95% of our monthly balance, not realizing that the TOS specify that the interest would be calculated on the average daily balance for the whole month (so, I got changed the same interest as if I had paid 1% of my bill) - in other words, only paying 100% gets you off the hook for interest payments. I called them an complained about the charge (it was about $300, though it was clear in their TOS), and they removed it. There have been other little things - all of which we've had handled quickly and without problems. I hope their level of customer service does not decline (though sounds like it is from this story and other posters above).