This post was contributed by reader ISAAC. If you’re interested in contributing, please contact ymlulu at uscreditcards101.com. Thank you all.

Background

Hi everyone, I’m ISAAC, and today I want to share an experience where AMEX denied part of my welcome bonus. In early January 2021, I applied for the AMEX Platinum Card. There was no pop-up, and I was approved smoothly. At the time, the welcome offer was 75,000 points + 10X at supermarkets and gas stations. After receiving the card, out of habit as someone who plays the points game, I specifically contacted AMEX online chat customer service, and the representative confirmed the welcome offer above.

After that, I put all kinds of spending on the card. Once I reached $5,000, I received the first part of the welcome bonus: 75,000 points. However, I never received the extra 10X points. When I checked Points Summary, I found that all supermarket and gas purchases were earning only 1X points, and the additional 9X never posted even once. Under normal circumstances, the extra 9X would post under a line item similar to 135,000_15,000, but no such entry ever appeared in my account.

Contacting AMEX Customer Service

So starting in March, I contacted customer service about 4 times through online chat and by phone. Each time, the representative said they would open a case, but I never received any follow-up, nor did the 9X ever post to my account.

CFPB Complaint

So at the end of June, I filed a complaint against AMEX through the CFPB and explained the full situation in detail. About 15 days later, I received a response from an AMEX specialist.

In the letter, this person insisted that I had received a pop-up during the application process and said that I was not eligible for any bonus. I’m certain that I did not, because I frequently follow credit card forums, have had my first AMEX card for almost 7 years, and understand their pop-up policy very well.

Filing CFPB and BBB Complaints Again

I wasn’t convinced, so I filed another CFPB complaint and also submitted a complaint through the BBB. This time I included evidence, such as a photo of the welcome offer at the time of application, screenshots of the online chat confirming the welcome offer after I received the card, and the response letter from the previous complaint. The main points were:

  • Describing what happened
  • Pointing out that there was no pop-up
  • Noting that I had already received the 75,000 points, which contradicts AMEX’s response letter
  • Concluding that there may be a hidden bug in AMEX’s system and asking AMEX to investigate
  • Stating that if AMEX did not take this seriously, I would file complaints for false advertising with the Maryland financial regulator and the state Attorney General’s office

About 10 days later, the same specialist responded to my second complaint.

In the second letter, he actually said that although I had received the 75,000 bonus, I was still not eligible for the extra 10X welcome bonus. That was unbelievably shameless. He also stated very firmly that even if I complained again, they would not respond, which was shocking to me.

Conclusion

To sum up this experience, in order to avoid being hurt by a bug in AMEX’s IT system, I recommend that everyone record their screen when applying for an AMEX card in the future. A screen recording is probably the strongest evidence. Previously, I complained about Target through the BBB and Synchrony Bank through the CFPB, and both issues were resolved very quickly. But clearly, these complaint channels do not work on AMEX; they will just choose to brush you off.

ymlulu’s Analysis

AMEX’s Basis for Denying the Bonus

First, based on the terms, AMEX does have the right to deny the bonus. In the application terms for almost all AMEX credit cards, there is language like this:

Welcome offer not available to applicants who have or have had this Card. We may also consider the number of American Express Cards you have opened and closed as well as other factors in making a decision on your welcome offer eligibility.

Of course, in most cases, if AMEX thinks you do not qualify for the welcome offer, it will show you a pop-up directly. If you still go ahead and apply, you are basically giving up the welcome offer.

But even if there is no pop-up, AMEX can still use the catch-all language in the terms above — “We may also consider the number of American Express Cards you have opened and closed as well as other factors in making a decision on your welcome offer eligibility.” — to cancel your welcome offer. Put simply, that sentence can be translated as: if AMEX decides you shouldn’t get the bonus, then you won’t get it, and the excuse will be the cards you opened and closed.

What May Really Have Happened

Back to this case, it seems AMEX may have linked it to the number of cards the author opened and closed. In its response to the first complaint, AMEX said the following:

However, after I asked the author about his credit history and card application history, I learned that he has more than 4 years of credit history in total, has not closed any AMEX cards in the past two years, and this was also his first time applying for the Platinum Card. Personally, I think that falls completely within the range of a normal applicant and should not have disqualified him from the welcome offer. Also, the author successfully received the 75,000-point bonus; the only part that was denied was the multiplier portion. Therefore, I suspect the response above was just an AMEX template reply. For complaints such as CFPB and BBB complaints, AMEX may simply respond with its broad application terms in order to reduce investigation costs. (It is also possible that they use this template for people with a high number of card applications.) The real situation may be that AMEX’s IT system is a bit of a mess and the extra multiplier simply failed to post (there have been similar cases before). Perhaps one day a few months later, the bug gets fixed and the points are awarded automatically. Or after a few months, one of the cases the author previously submitted finally gets resolved and the points are added manually.

Also, in a situation like this, I feel that if you got a lawyer involved, AMEX might end up paying quite a bit...

What Should We Do?

If, as I suspect, this was just an IT issue and AMEX gave a template response, then there really is not much we can do except wait. If you’re truly upset, I think small claims court might be worth a shot, since the cost for a large company to appear in court is still quite high.

Sigh. All I can say is that AMEX really seems to be getting worse year by year.