A few months back I got an AMEX Card and arranged for payment by Direct Debit (DD) from a bank account held jointly with my wife. The timing of the setup meant that the first DD would go through about six weeks after the card was issued. On that date the AMEX website showed “Direct Debit Received - Thank You” and the correct amount.
After 5 days I noticed that the money had yet to be debited from the bank account and a few days later the AMEX statement showed “Returned Payment”.
I contacted AMEX to find out what was going on and I made an error with the BSB number. OK, “my bad” I thought - I accept that, but I then asked why:
Did the AMEX statement show “Direct Debit Received - Thank You”, when in fact it hadn’t? Their response was that this is an automatic message “as a courtesy to its customers”. Since when has lying to customers been an act of courtesy?
Didn’t AMEX check with the bank some six weeks beforehand that the BSB and A/C was invalid, to which they didn’t respond other than some prescribed blather.
So, at the end of the day, I incurred a small interest charge, which I’ll cop, but also a black mark on my record.
But my concerns are:
why AMEX can mislead its customers and imply that payment was received when it wasn’t, and then have the temerity and contempt to couch it as a “courtesy”?;
why they don’t check the validity of the BSB / A/C # at the time of application?
It seems common for direct debit software systems to send off a ‘thanks for the payment’ or ‘payment received’ at the same time as it queues the direct debit. I have Westpac cards direct debited to an ING account. At the close of business on the appointed day the Westpac card will show the payment has been made and creditied, but the debit does not show on my ING account for another 2 business days. If say I did not have sufficient funds in my ING account it would be 3 days before the Westpac card account backed out the payment, recomputed interest, and added a dishonour fee and an unknown gap before they reported the problem. I can only speculate on the timing of the dishonour process since it has not happened.
It seems they should do a $1 debit and credit to validate a new direct debit arrangement but Amex is not alone in setting up the debit but not validating it until the first real debit is due.
‘3’ in their instructions is Continue paying your bills as usual, until your Direct Debit is confirmed.
For clarity, did you receive that notification? If so, or even if not, you might ring Amex, explain your error and their omission, and ask for the fees to be withdrawn. Don’t expect them to volunteer it if they have not already. As for your ‘record’ you should also ask if and what they report when it happens on a first DD such as you experienced.
My old war story about Amex is not applicable to a direct debit problem but you might enjoy it anyway. I believe they have evolved but I still do not and would not have one.
I have had Amex cards for many years. In that time I have made a couple of errors involving payments that on each occasion I was unaware of until a fee had been applied. However on each occasion, upon paying the outstanding amount and explaining my error to Amex, they have withdrawn the fee.
