The repercussions of a returned check with AMEX

Introduction

While on vacation, I had forgotten about an autopayment on my AMEX business SPG card.  It was a sizeable 5 figure balance too.  I came back on a Sunday and realized the payment was going to hit on Monday.  There was no way I was going to be able to get cash on time.  Even worse, I couldn’t stop the autopay in time either.  So I braced for the worst.

 

NSF Fees

Sure enough, come Monday, my bank hits me with a $25 NSF fee and then by Tuesday morning, AMEX slaps me with a $38 NSF fee.  The good news is that I was worried AMEX would try it again on Tuesday, which they didn’t.  They sent me an email on Tuesday saying that they would try again on Wednesday, so luckily, I was able to move money into that account and was able to make the payment on Wednesday.

 

Nastygram

A week later, I get a letter in the mail from AMEX in regards to my BUSINESS PLATINUM CARD, saying they were removing the Extended Pay Option from that account.  Then cited the reasons for it and it’s like a rap sheet (see pic below.)  My SPG Biz credit line used to be 25K, but I was always able to charge up to 50K just fine on the card.  After the nastygram, they stopped letting me charge after 30K.

 

Conclusion

While I’m happy they didn’t lower any of my CL’s or close any accounts, I am sad that they slashed my spending ability on my SPG BIZ card.  I’m also a bit happy they removed the Extended Pay option from my BIZ PLAT since I’m hoping they’ll target me down the road to sign up for it again for maybe another 10K MR bonus.  Plus, while untested, I think NOT having Extended Pay on my BIZ PLAT seems to give it more spending ability.  The question now is – what the heck is a “commercial credit score” from the “Small Business Financial Exchange” and how can I get that score?

 

5 comments on “The repercussions of a returned check with AMEX

  1. It happened on one of my wife’s account also. After that was denied for any AMEX credit card for about nine months. Approved for charge cards though

  2. I accidentally put in the wrong routing number for a new bank account to pay an Amex card and it came back as an improper account etc. no fees or anything but they wouldn’t let me sign up for new cards after that for like 3 months. And it was weeks before the payment was due so I just used an old account to pay a few days later so they still got their money on time.

    1. I thought about that, but I’ve dipped into that well already for this card…I think. I’ll have to double check.

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