I just received a phone call....

[bsprtsgrp]

I have a personal AMEX Plat card and 3 Business cards (Gold, Blue, Amazon) all with AMEX and all in good standing. I pay the statements in full as soon as they generate each month. Today I received a call today from a FL area code number that had a caller ID of American Express. The caller left a voicemail stating he was from AMEX; he left his name and phone number and asked that I call him back at my convienence. I ran the phone number thru Google and came up with nothing. I instead called the PLAT desk number on my card and told the CS agent what had transpired and the number that had called me. They put me on hold for about 5 minutes. When they came back on, they told me that the call was from in fact from AMEX and the call was about a Green card that was charged-off in 1985, 40 years ago. They transferred me to another department (Credit) and the phone just rang until I hung up. The SOL in my state is 6 years which would have been 1991.

[SouthJamaica]

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@bsprtsgrp wrote:

I have a personal AMEX Plat card and 3 Business cards (Gold, Blue, Amazon) all with AMEX and all in good standing. I pay the statements in full as soon as they generate each month. Today I received a call today from a FL area code number that had a caller ID of American Express. The caller left a voicemail stating he was from AMEX; he left his name and phone number and asked that I call him back at my convienence. I ran the phone number thru Google and came up with nothing. I instead called the PLAT desk number on my card and told the CS agent what had transpired and the number that had called me. They put me on hold for about 5 minutes. When they came back on, they told me that the call was from in fact from AMEX and the call was about a Green card that was charged-off in 1985, 40 years ago. They transferred me to another department (Credit) and the phone just rang until I hung up. The SOL in my state is 6 years which would have been 1991.

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Wow, that is weird.

[SuperFlyEDSguy]

That is very bizarre! Most SOLs are going to be 7 years or less and I've never heard of anything even close to that old being enforceable, with one caveat, that is if you actually started paying on it again the SOL goes all the way back to day 1! This is extremely weird if only because AMEX knows that they can't take legal action, but additionally this should have been archived in legacy systems long ago!

Was the debt even yours? If not, just tell them it wasn't and that you will not accept any calls specifically pertaining to it as that is your right under federal law regardless of whether you owe, owed, or never owed on that particular debt! Even if you currently owe on an enforceable debt, you have the right to tell collectors to discontinue any and all communications. They would have to comply as they know it's very much illegal to continue such communications. At that point the owner of the debt has to make the decision to "crap or get off the pot," meaning trying to get a judgement while the SOL still applies or write the debt off. It really is that simple.

Please let us know what happens. Good luck! 

[Anonymous]

The new American Express "Cold Case" department.

Staffed by interns and demotees.

[SuperFlyEDSguy]

Holy smokes man, you're on a roll today with the jokes! 👍

Sounds about right though, probably in a basement somewhere. 

[pizzadude]

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@bsprtsgrp wrote:

I have a personal AMEX Plat card and 3 Business cards (Gold, Blue, Amazon) all with AMEX and all in good standing. I pay the statements in full as soon as they generate each month. Today I received a call today from a FL area code number that had a caller ID of American Express. The caller left a voicemail stating he was from AMEX; he left his name and phone number and asked that I call him back at my convienence. I ran the phone number thru Google and came up with nothing. I instead called the PLAT desk number on my card and told the CS agent what had transpired and the number that had called me. They put me on hold for about 5 minutes. When they came back on, they told me that the call was from in fact from AMEX and the call was about a Green card that was charged-off in 1985, 40 years ago. They transferred me to another department (Credit) and the phone just rang until I hung up. The SOL in my state is 6 years which would have been 1991.

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That's wild if in fact they're asking you for payment after 40 years.   Any idea what the original charged off amount was on that card ?

[bsprtsgrp]

It could not have been more than 2-3K. Phone # that call came from was 754-354-2786

[pizzadude]

Yeah that does seem odd given the relative small amount.  They didn't mention or ask you about this when you were approved for your Platinum and Biz cards ?

[CreditCuriosity]

Weird but a debt really never goes away unless part of a bk or paid.

[pizzadude]

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@CreditCuriosity wrote:

Weird but a debt really never goes away unless part of a bk or paid.

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Agree, but from an accounting perspective I wonder if they've been carrying this on their books for the last 40 years versus writing off as bad debt ?