DRN-6217474

The complaint Mrs J is unhappy that American Express Services Europe Limited (“AmEx”) did not correctly apply or promptly resolve a payment made to her credit card account in 2022, which resulted in prolonged uncertainty and distress. Mrs J’s complaint is brought to this service by her daughter who is her authorised representative, whom I’ll refer to as ‘Mrs D’. What happened Mrs J holds an American Express credit card account. In December 2022, Mrs D contacted AmEx on her mother’s behalf to clear the remaining balance on the account. Mrs D explained that she did not have access to Mrs J’s account and wanted to make the payment herself. She was told that AmEx could not take a debit card payment over the phone and that she should instead make a bank transfer, using the credit card number as the reference. Mrs D then made a bank transfer of £107.48 from her own bank account. However, the payment was not applied to Mrs J’s credit card account. Around February 2023, Mrs D noticed that the account balance had not reduced as expected and contacted AmEx again. On that occasion, she was told that AmEx do not accept payments from third parties and that she would need to contact her bank to try to recall the funds. Mrs D contacted her bank and continued to pursue the matter over the following months, both with her bank and with AmEx. During this time, the funds were not applied to Mrs J’s account and were not returned to Mrs D. In June 2023, following further contact, AmEx identified that the money was being held in a suspense account and arranged for it to be returned to Mrs D. In May 2025, Mrs J raised a complaint with AmEx about what had happened. AmEx responded in June 2025, explaining that they could not locate a third-party payment made in 2022 and that no late payment fees had been charged on the account. However, they accepted that there may have been a shortfall in the information provided during the initial call in 2022 and credited £25 to Mrs J’s account as a gesture of goodwill. Mrs J wasn’t satisfied with AmEx’s response and so, through Mrs D, she referred her complaint to this service. One of our investigators looked at this complaint. They felt that the £25 gesture of goodwill AmEx had paid to Mrs J didn’t go far enough to recognise the worry Mrs J had felt during the time that Mrs D was trying to resolve the situation for her. Because of this, our investigator said that AmEx should pay a further £100 to Mrs J as compensation for that worry. Mrs J remained dissatisfied and delt that a larger payment of compensation was merited, so the matter was escalated to an ombudsman for a final decision. What I’ve decided – and why I’ve considered all the available evidence and arguments to decide what’s fair and reasonable

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in the circumstances of this complaint. The payment in question, made by Mrs D, was intended to clear or reduce Mrs J’s credit card balance. Although Mrs D undertook the practical steps to make the payment and to pursue the issue once it did not credit the account, the matter related to Mrs J’s own account and financial position. As such, until the funds were returned, I accept that there was ongoing uncertainty for Mrs J’s about whether the payment had been correctly received and applied. Because Mrs D undertook the payment and liaised with AmEx, I feel that she largely shielded Mrs J from the impact of what happened, which I feel limited the extent of the events on Mrs J. However, I’m mindful that Mrs J was unwell at the time and reliant on others to manage matters on her behalf. In those circumstances, I feel that uncertainty about her finances and the need to depend on her daughter to resolve the issue would reasonably have caused her worry and distress. It’s important to confirm that when assessing redress here, I’ve only taken into account the impact on Mrs J arising from the underlying service issue itself, and I haven’t considered any distress or inconvenience linked to how Mrs J’s complaint was later handled. This is because this service can only consider points of complaint about regulated financial matters, and how a business has handled a complaint is not itself a regulated financial matter. I’m also not able to consider the time, effort, or inconvenience experienced by Mrs D personally, as she isn’t the account holder and so isn’t an eligible complainant to this complaint. Taking everything into account, I feel that AmEx’s original £25 gesture of goodwill didn’t fully reflect the impact the situation had on Mrs J. Accordingly, I’ll be upholding this complaint in Mrs J’s favour and instructing AmEx to pay a further £100 to her. In arriving at this further £100 compensation amount I’ve considered the worry and uncertainty Mrs J experienced, particularly in light of her personal circumstances, while recognising that Mrs D’s involvement limited the extent of the impact on her. I’ve also considered the general framework this service uses when assessing compensation amounts, details of which are available on this service’s website. AmEx have already agreed to pay this further £100. I therefore direct that they should credit Mrs J’s AmEx account with the further £100 compensation accordingly. Finally, in recent correspondence, Mrs J and Mrs D have raised concerns about whether AmEx’s actions were discriminatory. But this service can only consider points of complaint that have previously been raised with the respondent business directly, such that the business has had a formal opportunity to consider and respond to those points. Accordingly, I haven’t considered this aspect of Mrs J’s dissatisfaction, because it hasn’t been directly raised with AmEx by Mrs J and didn’t form part of the complaint that was referred to us. If Mrs J would like to pursue this matter, she can raise a complaint with AmEx directly. After AmEx have had a formal opportunity to respond to that complaint, it may be the case that Mrs J has the right to refer that separate complaint to this service, should she still wish to do so at that time. Putting things right AmEx must pay a further £100 to Mrs J. My final decision Your text here

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Under the rules of the Financial Ombudsman Service, I’m required to ask Mrs J to accept or reject my decision before 25 May 2026. Paul Cooper Ombudsman

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