I recently went through an interesting scenario with American Express. I have been a customer of theirs for 10 years now. I had a balance of $5,200 as of a few months ago. I contacted customer service to inquire about settlement options with my account. I have been out of full time work for over a year now and wanted to explore my options. This card is my only open credit card and I planned to keep it open after paying off the balance.
The customer service rep was very helpful. We spoke a few times over four days. He explained the process to me and told me I would need to apply for a settlement amount and he would let me know if I was approved or not. A few days later, after thinking the process through, I chose to continue paying down my full balance as that was the only correct solution, after all, I did charge the amount to my card, I do not expect someone else to pay my debt.
A day later, I received a notice in the mail that because I had applied for a settlement approval my card was canceled. Also, my interest rate went from 12.99% to 27.9%! I immediately contacted customer service again. Explaining I was not aware that by simply applying for a settlement my account would be closed. I was aware that if I accepted it that would be the case.
Long story short, after 10 years as a loyal customer, the door was slammed shut on me. I was current on my account, I was proactive in contacting them to discuss options. I did not accept the settlement, I am aggressively back to a debt snowball attacking this final credit card balance and will never look back. Adios American Express, thanks for nothing!
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