It is always nice to get unexpected money in the mail! This happened to me yesterday and from an unlikely sender – a credit card issuer. It was Amex, to be exact, and it was for $104. So, why did they send it?
Why Amex Sent Me A Check For $104
No, it was not the easy things like overpayment or anything like that. Instead, it was something that I had long forgotten about until I received the letter.
Background
A while back, Amex had partnered with a consulting firm that had gone through to make sure they were up-to-date on all of their accounts and that there were no issues with their customers. As a result, back then, my wife received a check for $800 because of an error on Amex’s part that did not award 40,000 Membership Reward points to her when they had awarded them other people (even though they had already awarded her 75,000 Membership Reward points for the Premier Reward Gold bonus).
The Check Today
It seems as if Amex may be auditing their accounts again as I received another check this week for $104. The accompanying letter referenced a business Platinum card I had closed years ago and said that their error had led to them not issuing me a refund on my Global Entry enrollment fee (which is a benefit of the card). They said it was their fault, they apologized for the oversight and sent me a check with an additional four dollars over the $100 fee for Global Entry.
As I began thinking about it, I was reminded that it had not posted automatically like it is supposed to but I had to message with a rep and have them manually issue me a refund. Well, it seems as if an audit was made and it was found that the money was not refunded. They told me at the time that it might happen and that I would be able to keep it as a goodwill gesture for the inconvenience but I never did receive it – until now.
Check Your Mail & Accounts
Take a moment to check your Platinum accounts to ensure that your credits have posted for the airline incidentals and/or Global Entry reimbursement. If not, send off a message to them about it and they should issue the refunds/credits quickly. Keep an eye on your mailbox as well, even if you did get a manual adjustment, if you have used the Global Entry benefit in the last few years. You may receive one of these nice letters as well!
Thank you, American Express!
I had no plans to check my mailbox until I saw your post. But since you told me at the bottom to go check my mailbox, I will. What brilliant advice!
This may not be the case for you but it is for me and many others – we get a lot of credit card “junk” mail. My statements all come online and so there are times that I could miss something like this unless I am looking for a card that is due to arrive. This works for regular mail and e-mail so I did not feel a heads-up to check for something like this was strange.
I guess my point (snarkiness aside) is that perhaps more useful advice would be “if you enrolled in global entry with an amex, check your account to make sure the credit actually posted”
Thanks, that is good advice and I will update it to be more exact. It could also apply to the airline incidentals as well since I know Amex had some snafus with those as well. Appreciate the feedback!
I received a check from American Express for an entirely different reason which may affect some of you. Again, always check and open your mail. The amount was for $40. and they said it was the amount of an AMEX offer credit that I never received. I have no idea what they could possibly mean. As all of you would do, if I don’t see the confirmation email after making the purchase (or eventually the credit itself) I ALWAYS CALL. Notice I didn’t say “sometimes” or “usually” I said ALWAYS. Not a life-changer, but the $40 was much appreciated.