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Amex Bill Pay Cxl'd ?

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n777ua
Established Contributor

Amex Bill Pay Cxl'd ?

Received this in an email this morning.  I didn't even know I was signed up for Bill Pay, I'm certainly not using it.  Anyone else get this ? 

 

According to our records, you are currently enrolled in American Express Bill Pay®, an online service that allows you to schedule automatic, recurring and one-time payments to be billed to your American Express Card for things you pay for regularly like your cell phone or utilities bills. We want to let you know that as of January 31, 2012 we will no longer be offering this service. To help you make a smooth transition from using Bill Pay, we have listed below some questions and answers about this change.

 

Q: Will Payments I set up on American Express Bill Pay prior to January 31, 2012 still go through?
A: All automatic and one-time payments set up through American Express Bill Pay before January 31, 2012 will be processed and charged to your Card as usual. 

 

Q: What happens to my automatic payments after January 31, 2012?
A: Any automatic payments set up on American Express Bill Pay will continue to be charged to your Card. However, if you need to make any changes to your payment information after January 31, 2012, you will need to do so directly with your service providers. 

 

Q: Will there be any other changes?
A: You will not be able to access any of the American Express Bill Pay service features, such as bill payment history and payment alerts, after January 31, 2012. However, you will still have access to your payment history through your monthly statement and online year-end summary. You may also have access to payment history through your service providers.

 

Q: Can I still use my American Express Card to pay these bills?
A: Yes, you can still use your American Express Card to pay your bills by going directly to your service providers. For your convenience, American Express maintains a list of service providers who accept the Card to pay bills. Please click here to access this list.

 

We hope you found this information helpful. Thank you for using American Express Bill Pay. We look forward to continuing to serve you.  


Sincerely,

 

Edited to remove personal information - MarineVietVet,,myFICO moderator

President, US Consumer Card

About $215,000 total credit among 11 cards
Message 1 of 10
9 REPLIES 9
pizzadude
Credit Mentor

Re: Amex Bill Pay Cxl'd ?

That's interesting ~ I haven't heard of this and I'm not signed up for it either ( at least I don't think I am ). Do you think this was a service offered to enable you to bill things to AMEX when a company didnt take AMEX as a method of payment ? Don't know why this service would make sense otherwise when you can just arrange payment with each company...

March2010 FICO® ~ 695 TU, 653 EQ, 697 EX
Message 2 of 10
Walt_K
Senior Contributor

Re: Amex Bill Pay Cxl'd ?


@pizzadude wrote:
That's interesting ~ I haven't heard of this and I'm not signed up for it either ( at least I don't think I am ). Do you think this was a service offered to enable you to bill things to AMEX when a company didnt take AMEX as a method of payment ? Don't know why this service would make sense otherwise when you can just arrange payment with each company...

No.  It was just a way to set up your payments through Amex's site rather than through each individual company's site.  Similar to using your bank's bill pay feature rather than going to the site to set up payment.  I thought of it as a convenience type feature to be able to set up and manage all bills paid by Amex in one place. 

 

Here's my guess why it is being cancelled:  Companies like DirectTv would rather have traffic directed to their site in order to keep advertising revenue and have told Amex that they do not want Amex storing log-in credentials to their site.

 

Any other guesses?

 

I'll say this. I find the e-mail from Amex a little annoying because it doesn't explain the reason it is being terminated.  I know it says that my bills will continue to be paid, but I am just going to cancel everything out and set it up through the company itself so I don't have to worry about it.


Starting Score: ~500 (12/01/2008)
Current Score: EQ 681 (04/05/13); TU 98 728 (01/06/12), TU 08? 760 (provided by Barclay 1/2/14), TU 04 728 (lender pull 01/12/12); EX 742 (lender pull 01/12/12)
Goal Score: 720


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Message 3 of 10
pizzadude
Credit Mentor

Re: Amex Bill Pay Cxl'd ?

 

Ok, thanks for the info.  So if companies accepted AMEX, you could just schedule payments through AMEX's website at one time. 

 

I agree it is strange that they don't give any reason for cancelling the program.   I think your theory is a good one, makes sense to me.....

March2010 FICO® ~ 695 TU, 653 EQ, 697 EX
Message 4 of 10
steve23111
Frequent Contributor

Re: Amex Bill Pay Cxl'd ?

Many banks and some third-party services offered a bill pay system similar to the one AMEX is killing off, where your bills would be electronically aggregated into one place. I looked at the AMEX service a while back, but it supported so few billers and had such a convoluted setup process that it wasn't worth the hassle for me. I won't miss it.

Message 5 of 10
pizzadude
Credit Mentor

Re: Amex Bill Pay Cxl'd ?

Yeah, that's what I was wondering, so few utilities take AMEX. I can't pay for gas, electric, sewer, or water with AMEX. Perhaps they killed it off due to the small numbers of companies participating.

March2010 FICO® ~ 695 TU, 653 EQ, 697 EX
Message 6 of 10
steve23111
Frequent Contributor

Re: Amex Bill Pay Cxl'd ?


@pizzadude wrote:
Yeah, that's what I was wondering, so few utilities take AMEX. I can't pay for gas, electric, sewer, or water with AMEX. Perhaps they killed it off due to the small numbers of companies participating.

I've never really had a problem with a business not accepting AMEX. The issue at hand is the archaic, clunky nature of AMEX's bill pay service as compared to the multitude of other such systems out there. It just hasn't kept up with the times. Then again, how hard is it really to set up an automatic payment directly with the service provider anyway?

Message 7 of 10
sandsanta
Contributor

Re: Amex Bill Pay Cxl'd ?

If its BillPay like a normal bank's, then wouldn't it be registering as a cash advance type deal?

 

 


Message 8 of 10
Walt_K
Senior Contributor

Re: Amex Bill Pay Cxl'd ?


@sandsanta wrote:

If its BillPay like a normal bank's, then wouldn't it be registering as a cash advance type deal?

 

 


Like billpay in that you set it up through Amex rather than through the service provider.  The similarity doesn't go much further than that. 


Starting Score: ~500 (12/01/2008)
Current Score: EQ 681 (04/05/13); TU 98 728 (01/06/12), TU 08? 760 (provided by Barclay 1/2/14), TU 04 728 (lender pull 01/12/12); EX 742 (lender pull 01/12/12)
Goal Score: 720


Take the FICO Fitness Challenge
Message 9 of 10
MarineVietVet
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Amex Bill Pay Cxl'd ?

In case anyone wonders why all the preceeding posts have been edited the OP asked me to correct a typo in the title of the first post. That meant I needed to correct all of them.

 

Just a FYI.

Message 10 of 10
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