The American Express Rant

Ms. Packratty started writing this while still on vacation and now that she has calmed down and edited it, she is about ready to send it to American Express. And Clark Howard. And a few newspapers ...

American Express advertises its prepaid card as “feels like membership”. I’m thinking not so much. Or at least a very third rate sort of membership.
Let me explain. While in the final stages of planning a long dreamed about trip to Rome, I saw their advertisement. Having pretty much given up on credit cards after a long siege of underemployment, I was thrilled at the idea of having the security and support of American Express on my trip by getting a prepaid card. I read the materials carefully and while the literature did say one could only make one free withdrawal of $200 in a week from an ATM, it did appear to allow more withdrawals for a fee per withdrawal. That was OK with me, because I really did not want to have to depend solely on cash and my Wells Fargo debit card. (BTW, Wells Fargo? So very sorry for doubting you. Really.)
Thankfully, I’ve got a streak of pessimism in my nature, because here is what happened when I arrived in Rome on February 15. Since I had prepared carefully for this trip, I had gotten 60 € in a TipPack from AAA. The exchange rate wasn’t fabulous, but the security of having some local cash in hand when I stepped off the plane was worth it (see streak of pessimism above). First, my luggage arrived promptly, customs was uninterested in me and I successfully purchased a 14€ ticket on the Leonardo Express train into the city (for what it’s worth, the Leonardo is a rare treat – smooth, quiet, clean and very fast). While I was waiting for the train, I found an ATM or bancomat for the Banco di Roma and neither machine liked my cards or was interested in speaking English, even though there was an English language option. It was before 8 a.m. local time and I decided to just try an ATM on the other end, because I needed 350€ to pay the landlord of the apartment I had rented when I arrived. Besides, I had another backup – I had a little more than $500 in US money tucked in my moneybelt (see streak of pessimism again).
Lo and behold, when I arrived at Rome’s Termini station, there were ATMs outside a branch bank with a nice sharp uniformed guard standing by. He invited me to put my luggage in the little foyer while I worked the machine. To my surprise, the American Express card, which had about $1,200 US loaded onto it, declined to give me so much as 100€, but the Wells Fargo debit card came through like a champion and let me withdraw about half of what I needed right away. A second try gave me a message that I could not make another withdrawal immediately. Knowing that I could change part of my dollars to make up the difference, I headed for the apartment where I was to meet my Italian landlord. On the way, I stopped at another bancomat and my Wells Fargo card again allowed me to withdraw cash – enough to pay the landlord and a bit more. Once I had met the landlord and unloaded my luggage, I walked back to the Termini Station, bought a weekly pass and headed for the American Express office in Piazza di Spagna.
Once there, I discovered what membership feels like – that is, the sort of membership you get with a prepaid card. What I got was someone dialing the international 800 number for me and connecting me to a partially fluent young woman somewhere on the Indian subcontinent who did not appear to know that Rome was not in the United States. She could not even look up the number of the Piazza di Spagna branch – a location that arguably has to be the most famous American Express office in the world. After putting me on hold multiple times, she informed me that although the literature did say additional withdrawals could be made with an added fee, that was not true. She also had no explanation why the card would not let me have even 100€, which is less than $200 even with fees. After extended periods on hold with increasingly dreadful hold music, she advised me that American Express would – out of the goodness of its heart – wire me $500 of my PREPAID money through Western Union. No, the American Express office I was sitting in couldn’t give me my money, I had to somehow identify a Western Union office to have it wired to. (Meanwhile, I observed a number of *real* card holders going up to the windows, brandishing their green, gold or black cards and getting helped.) It was feeling less and less like membership and more and more like a mistake.
Finally, one of the very ornamental and not very bilingual Italian young ladies swanning around the office managed to find the postal code for the Monti area where my apartment was located and a Western Union office was located. By the time I reached that location on Via Urbana, the Indian call center had gone offline and my next call was answered by a chipper young American fellow who got the money released to the Western Union office. However, he had no explanation for why the literature was in error or why my card would not work in an ATM at all.
One would think that a prepaid card where American Express already has the money and not merely an assurance of repayment would get nice service. Sadly, not so – and the absurd limits placed on the ATM withdrawal render this card considerably less useful for international travel than I had hoped. Granted, it’s worked adequately at restaurants and stores, but not being able to access those funds as cash is more than slightly annoying.
I would sincerely suggest that American Express do one of two things – either stop advertising that the prepaid card “feels like membership” OR live up to their advertising. They might also want to think long and hard about their ATM limits as well, since the traveler’s check appears to be as dead as the dodo. Furthermore, they might also want to make sure that their call center employees know what countries their offices are located in AND have a phone directory for those offices. Sadly, I can guess what they will probably do – nothing - while they lose the good will that they built up with a century of good service. Because once I have exhausted the funds on this card, it’s a pretty sure thing that I won’t be loading any more money onto it until I have some assurances that it will “feel like membership”. And even were I inclined to get a “real” credit card, my experience with American Express makes me far from thrilled with them.
Whoops, let’s revise that “working adequately. Two days before my departure while trying to ship 2 boxes of gifts home, American Express declined a 98€ charge when my card had between two and three times that amount available. I had to leave my packages, run to a bancomat and use my Wells Fargo debit card again. (Thank you, Wells Fargo, you saved my vacation more than twice over.) And of course, several rather nice places I wanted to dine at didn’t accept Amex anymore. One place said the fees were just too high compared to other cards. So there you have it. Want to have a card that’s seriously semi-useless for travel, with non-existent and/or abysmally ignorant offshore support (I guess the American part is a little misleading too) and no really completely bilingual person in the main office on a weekday in a city where at least a couple of million Americans probably visit in a year? Then definitely get an American Express prepaid. You’ll feel like something, but it won’t be membership.