Today I hate ...

... American Express.

Have you ever

In your life

Received a credit card bill that shows the past month's interest charges

EVEN THOUGH YOU PAID THE PREVIOUS BILL IN FULL?

When you pay a bill and the balance is zero after you pay it (assuming you paid on time), then the next bill should be zero, too.

But no: I paid the bill in full--I mean I paid the total balance showing on my statement--and the next month I get a bill for $42.05. The "recent activity" has just one item: $42.05 in interest. Um, interest on WHAT? My zero balance?

But here's the best part: The minimum balance due is $15.

So if you weren't paying attention, you might keep paying that bill for, oh I don't know, EVER? In fact, even if you paid the bill in full, wouldn't you have the accumulated interest on the interest to pay the next month? How would you ever pay that bill off?

I called them and got an extremely cheery woman who suffered my outrage like a saint. You have to pay your balance off two months in a row, she says, before they stop charging interest (this may be true--but it sure as hell doesn't sound right). "Let me explain how interest works," she tells me.

Let me explain, I said, that I know full well how interest works. Let me explain that American Express has a strong brand name--a company that has a reputation as being customer-centric and trustworthy. How many millions is it spending on its current ad campaign to bolster its image?

At a time where consumers aren't spending as much, it doesn't seem to be very smart to act so scummy. (Yeah, that's the only word I could think to describe it: scummy.)

BTW I thanked her for letting me rant and told her I know it is not personally her fault. But, I said, I wanted her to put two notes on my account: first, that I had been promised that if I paid this interest charge my next bill would have a zero balance and second, that I was very angry and wanted to state for the record that American Express is scummy.

It's a small consolation, but at she promised me she'd do both.

Edit: Apparently I am not alone. Check out this story on (and four pages of reactions from consumers with similar stories) on Consumerist.com