@atomicfront wrote:If American Express is overseas it is probably in the UK as most of the people I talk to sound like they have a British accent.
At the risk of derailing this thread, most calls for "lower tier" charge cards and revolvers are routed to India and the Philippines and most people in the world who speak English would not speak with one of many American or Canadian accents.
@Mrm-na wrote:
@K-in-Boston wrote:
I don't want it to sound like everyone is ganging up on you, but it sounds like AmEx approved the (likely $1) authorization charge that Apple put on the card to verify that it was a legitimate card, but then declined the larger charge later when Apple submitted it because you exceeded your internal NPSL limit for the month or moment. Neither Apple nor AmEx are really at fault here.I don't understand why retailers do that, especially with credit cards. What are they trying to accomplish? Is this supposed to make the customer think the retailer is being "nice", as if they're actually only going to get charged $1? Are they trying to help people run across the street and double dip on their limits, and pay them back really fast before the first transaction posts?
If I have a pending charge for $200, then that money is no longer available to me. I don't need the illusion that it's available when in fact it is not. Nor do I want to be surprised if there's a problem when they charge the real amount. The bottom line is that if there's a problem, I want to know now, not later. In my mind that's the whole point of preauthorization.
The only explanation I can think of is the situation I used to run into with debit cards at a local gas station. They'd authorize the debit at $75, even though the purchase was in fact much less than that, and the hold would not be released until it expired several days later. That was very annoying when I had limited funds on that card.
But the solution to that problem is to not keep holds beyond when they are needed. Promptly charge the correct amount and release the hold (or alternatively, reauthorize for the correct amount) as soon as they know the total - ie 5 minutes later when I'm done pumping gas. Just set the correct holds properly and promptly and then there's no issues. I don't see the point of this $1 thing. Maybe I'm missing something.
I blame the retailer. If they had authorized the correct amount, it would have been accepted or declined immediately based on the correct amount, saving the customer the annoyance of it being declined 2 days later.
The reason retailers do this is to ensure they will get paid.
At a self-service gas pump, with a debit card, setting the $75 preauthorization covers them. With a CC, the $1 ensures they have a valid card.
They don't know how much your fill will be, whether .5 gallon, 10 gallons or 35, so they have to wait before sending the actual charge through. If they did not preauthorize (get a deposit) you can bet certain people would figure out how to rush the transaction, use a dummy card, get some gas and drive away without the station being able to complete the actual charge.
Merchants do it this way because it makes business sense, reduces cost to the consumer (not necessary to have an attendant for each transaction) and ensures the merchant is paid.
@Anonymous wrote:Also, I did not rush to spend 5k to meet the bonus. I had to spend that much anyways and I normally run 3-6k each month. It's normal spending.
I'm in that same boat, where essentially everything but loan payments go on my cards every month and I've operated that way for many years. Sign-up bonuses are easy since I just switch my spending for a few weeks rather than needing to figure out how to spend to meet a deadline. There was a lot going on in this thread quickly, so I'm not sure if you saw my question concerning your other Amex account, but for the sake of a data point do you mind letting us know how long you've had that one and how you've used it? That one had me curious since while there were valid points made for it being a fair amount of spend for a new card, if you've had a previous relationship with them and they know what your spending normally looks like that should not have raised any flags or caused them to have a (relatively) low ceiling for charges. Also, are you the primary on that? (AU accounts don't seem to factor in at all for NPSL and SL purposes.)