Refund on overpayment proving difficult to obtain! (American Express)

Member Name: ali o'mahony

Product:	American Express
Date:	26/07/07 (818 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: initial Nectar points offer

Disadvantages: limited use in shops, poor online account layout, refunds hard to obtain.

Great card for initial offer, but read on for a major problem I have had!

I signed up for online paying of statements, it states on the site that you can't make 2 payments to pay off your balance within 3 days. This was great to read when I stupidly couldn't remember if I had paid my balance off on 4th July when I looked 2 days later. So I paid the full amount (£263). Within a couple of days it was clear from my current account that I had indeed paid the full amount on 4th July as 2 payments of £263 had gone out.

Fair enough, partly my fault, rang customer services on 7th July to request one of the payments be returned. Mentioned the 'no 2 payments in 3 days' stated on site, was told that's no longer the case. It's now the 27th July, and the refund has still not arrived in my account, although it left AE 2 weeks ago. 3 phone calls to very pleasant and helpful people in, I think, India, repeating the same problem each time. Hard to make them understand the problem if it veers away from their script, and hard for me to understand softly but quickly spoken English as a second language. I am writing this whilst waiting for them to ring back.

Another point to note - I am not getting £263, I am getting the difference between that and my balance when I phoned for the refund - a bit unfair considering I had paid off the full amount needed (twice!) and the balance in question actually belongs to the NEXT statement period.

The online account facility is not clear to understand. No-where does it clearly state what you owe and when it needs to be paid by, or what you have paid and your balance. Morgan Stanley is excellent in comparism, and does not allow you to make payments over what you owe.

If you do get this card, use it for an initial offer, don't make more than one payment in error like I did as it's really hard to get the money back! When this is sorted I am closing the account immediately.

Summary: I paid my balance twice in error and no refund after 3 weeks.