ON BUSINESS || I paid $499 for this service and it almost cost me my business reputation
It went from don’t do business without it to don’t do business with it.
Two months ago, I foresaw that I would be travelling more in the year ahead, so I started searching for credit cards that would be favourable to make my trips more enjoyable, plus earn some decent points and perks along the way.
Since the card would be under my business, the choices were more limited than personal credit card offerings. After comparing different credit cards for two weeks, I finally settled on the AMEX Business Platinum Card. The card offered an attractive deal for new users, provided access to airport lounges worldwide, and had a concierge team to assist with restaurant/hotel/flight bookings and more. These perks do not come cheap; depending on which region you are applying in, the annual fee in North America ranges between $499 to $699 per year.
Many people ask if it’s worth it. If you travel for work or pleasure with a companion four or more times per year, the lounge access fees already help to recoup the annual fee. You also get hotel upgrades if you book your accommodations with the card. For those who fly premium, it’s said that you get access to better prices for premium seats (I haven’t used this feature yet, so I can’t comment on it).
The application process was relatively painless. You went through the usual steps of providing your details, annual income, business income and other details. The approval was within minutes of me applying, and off we went. I started reallocating our marketing agency’s client advertising spend to the new card. Shortly after doing this in the first week after receiving the card, the customer service process turned upside down, backwards, and sideways—any way BUT the straightforward way I was expecting it to go by using a business credit card that touts itself as ‘don’t do business without it.’
Two separate surprises within the first month led to business interruptions that almost cost my business its reputation with my clients.
Storytime.
SURPRISE #1 || PRESSING PAUSE ON MY BUSINESS TO VERIFY BUSINESS DOCUMENTS
About two weeks after we started using the card, I got a notification that said our card was suspended until I contacted AMEX Customer Service. I had no idea what the issue was, and it was on a Friday near month's end when our client’s advertising costs would be charged to the card. Needless to say, this caused my anxiety to spike. For those reading this who also run a business, you would understand how difficult it is to allocate thirty minutes of your day to sit on the phone to talk to customer service.
“We have to verify your business documents.”
My heart sank to my stomach when I heard those words. This is because when companies ask for paperwork, it usually means it would take several days for them to review. I asked how long it would take them to review, and initially, I was given a timeframe of 48 hours.
After accounting for long weekends and other stat holidays, I see one month of operations as roughly 20 work days. This meant AMEX was going to put me out of business for two days so they could assess my company’s financial situation AFTER they approved and sent me the card. A better approach would have been to evaluate the applicant company before approving and sending the card. This way, the business interruption could have been avoided.
Business owners are busy attending to business matters every day, which is why they’re willing to pay a premium for things to work as expected.
I had to emphasize to the service representative that the suspension on the card wouldn’t be impacting just my business; it would be impacting all of my clients, who were counting on us to process the advertising costs. If we couldn’t pay for the ads, the ad accounts would be suspended from the failed transactions.
The Customer Service rep then offered to review the documents digitally if I sent them in within the hour and called them back to notify them when I uploaded the documents. This took an extra hour out of my day putting out other fires to put out this fire. Fortunately, I had a folder of most of the required legal documents. Still, this incident could have been avoided if the review process had been initiated before we started using the card.
After submitting documents online and spending more time calling them back, the card was reactivated in the afternoon. Still, the damage was already done by that time because I spent more than half my day worrying about whether my business would survive the day. My administrative team was also frantically working on switching over ad account payment details to our other business cards.
Business owners are willing to pay a premium to offload issues that are not core to their business; we expect things to work, not that we have to get involved in the troubleshooting.
SURPRISE #2 || CARD SUSPENDED DAYS AFTER RECEIVING THE FIRST STATEMENT
After we resolved the first surprise, a week passed by and our card was suspended again. The alert on my phone app showed that I had to call customer service again.
What usually happens after you receive your credit card statement? You have to pay the balance by the payment due date, usually 20 days from when the statement is issued. Not in this case. Our card was suspended again just days after we received our first statement from AMEX. On the call, the Customer Service representative said we had to pay off half of the balance on the statement to continue using the card.
There are several interesting things to note here. First, we were spending in the low five figures on the card for advertising costs, which aligns with how much we spent on our other credit cards. Secondly, the AMEX Platinum card has no preset spending limit. My interpretation of no preset limit would be that the card would at least have a spending limit comparable to our TD Visa company card. Thirdly, the statement’s payment due date is August 27th—twelve days from now.
So imagine my confusion when I was asked to call customer service to be told to pay off my balance because we had spent too much on the card. Is a new card user expected to know that no preset limit meant the card would be suspended at AMEX’s whim if they felt you were spending too much? Also, cash flow is an essential issue for a business. If payment is due days after I incurred it on the credit card and not by the payment due date listed on the monthly statement, why don’t I pay for it with debit or cash?
HOW CAN THE PROCESS BE IMPROVED?
I don’t like bringing a problem to the table without a potential solution. So how would I suggest AMEX refine its approval and onboarding process?
In hindsight, it would seem obvious to check a company’s financial statements and ability to pay for their expenses by asking businesses to submit the financial statements before activating the card. This way, there wouldn’t be a need for sudden business interruptions. I understand the marketing approach to make users perceive they were approved immediately for the card. “See?! Approval was quick and easy!” but skipping crucial steps in the review and approval process leads to business interruptions down the road that dampens what could have been a premium client onboarding experience.
How about for the card’s ‘no preset limit’ issue? This should also have been explained in the new user package. There were marketing leaflets included in the new user package highlighting the perks of the card, but none that defined what is meant by ‘no preset limit’. What level of spending would trigger a surprise card suspension? A premium product like AMEX shouldn’t leave these critical issues to assumptions.
I only found out that I should pay off some of the balance to bump up my preset limit when my card was suspended, and I had to call customer service again. My card still has no preset limit, so it’s anyone’s guess how much credit we have on the company card. I’m not sure why it’s set up this way, and why AMEX can’t just show the spending limit assigned to the card. If you show people the boundaries, we have peace of mind and stick to the spending power we have.
Would I recommend getting the AMEX Platinum card? While the perks are helpful, the new user onboarding process needs work. I expected a more organized and well-thought-out process from what is considered one of the most premium credit cards a business can get. I feel committed for the first year because I paid the $499 annual fee, but I’m already debating whether I want to renew next year.
