Complaint Review: American Express Bank FSB - Internet

In 2014, my mother and I opened an American Express Simply Cash for Business Card for our business.  The biggest mistake we made!   The card worked well until June of that year, when American Express pulled both our business card and my mother's Costco card, which she had since 2004.  They claim we were in breach of contract.  We then continued to make our minimum payments until January of 2015, when the minimum payments exceeded over 2,000 per month and we were not able to make these payments.

We then decided to take their offers for a hardship program which required automatic payments, which caused my checking accounts to be overdrawn.  We stopped the autopayments because of that.  By September of 2015, we received a call from an Ayshia Baig who was a collections mitigation agent working for American Express out of India.  They can't even hire Americans!   We weren't able to make the payments she was telling us we needed to make.  They want to monopolize all our money not thinking we have other obligations.  By November 2015, my mother fell down a whole flight of stairs which made it even more difficult to pay the debt down.  

By February 2016, Ayshia Baig's supervisor called me on a spoofed phone number.  He was a complete a*****e.  He was threatening and told us that he "would ruin our financial life."  By March 2016, I got a call from Stonegate, a collections agency subsidized by American Express.  This b***h would call my phone and my mother's phone every five minutes.  I finally told her to stop calling or I will go to the CFPB.  I was at a sales appointment in a customer's home when this rude b***h from Stonegate called me, costing me a large sale.  That was it!  I then filed a complaint to the CFPB against both American Express and Stonegate.  The calls stopped.

By April of 2016, American Express then hired American Recovery to call us.  They sent us a letter to our PO Box.  I then called the CFPB to keep them from calling us and have American Express to cease and decist with the calls and collections agencies.

In August 2016, coming back from physical therapy with my mother, we found a summons in our newspaper box delivered by the LaPorte County Sherriff's Office which stated we are being sued by American Express and they hired Lloyd & McDaniels PLC to represent them.  We then retained our attorney, who knows this firm and explained to us that they are difficult to deal with.

As par to our attorney's conversation prior to paying the retainer fee, we understood that my mother's pension was protected under Federal Law and no creditor can touch it.  We got a notice from my mother's bank that they will be holding her entire pension.

Cause of problem: American Express has a feature on their online banking site which allows you to check spending availibility.  This is a trap.  Like any startup, we could use the extra limit.  I was hesitant to use this feature, as it allows you to spend over the limit.  I called American Express and one of their Bangalor Bobs in India told us we could use this feature and pay the overage off when the billing cycle turns over. Several people from American Express have told me this and I did it in good faith.

American Express is a predatory lender, they use predatory law firms, like Lloyd & McDaniels, PLC to intimidate their victims.  My mother is 75 years old and in my view, preying on the elderly is a low thing to do.  I want to hear from everyone who has been ripped off by American Express and call for a mass petition to get this dirty company shut down.