Amex customers see 'weird' payments on accounts - but say helpline 'absolutely useless'

customers have been left confused as mystery payments have appeared on their online accounts.

Customers of the company, which has half a million customers in the UK, started to report issues over the weekend. However, what's made the situation worse is that customers were unable to get through to its customer service helpline to query the payments. Others also said that they have been unable to use the company’s live chat either.

One Amex customer posted on X - formerly : "Looks like Amex have some sort of cyber attack going on, bare people getting all these transaction alerts, their live chat is down, and no one’s answering their phones." A second shared: "@AmexUK 56 minutes on your tel line to report attempted fraud, and no response. No-one answering chat either. Absolutely useless."

A third customer messaged the company saying: "@AmericanExpress hiding a cybersecurity breach, switching off customer chat, not answering calls & not communicating is the perfect way to make customers lose trust & leave. You're leaving us high & dry in an emergency. Just say something. ANYTHING. The truth will come out anyway." A fourth added: "After waiting 1 hr and 25 minutes to speak to you about fraud, you cut me off! As a good card holder I am not happy about this at all!”

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In a Reddit thread, several people shared that they had "random transactions" of £1 for "British Dressage" Some reported having up to six of them on their account. Another Amex customer shared on X: "I’ve been on hold for a call with your fraud alert team for close to two hours following a report of a rejected suspicious payment and 3 small (<£5 total with British Dressage?) pending payments that have appeared on my account.”

The American firm replied to customers on social media and said that its team is “experiencing a high volume of inquiries and is actively looking into the issue”. The company has not confirmed what the issue is but it is understood that Amex has added extra resource to its call centre to bring call wait times down. The credit card firm has confirmed however it is not a cyber security issue.

Commenting on the issue facing its customers, a spokesperson from Amex said: "The privacy and security of our customers is a priority for American Express. We have sophisticated monitoring systems and internal safeguards in place to help detect fraudulent and suspicious activity. If we identify unusual activity that may be fraud, we will take protective actions. We also recommend customers regularly review and monitor their account activity, and immediately contact us (using the number on the back of their Card) if they detect any suspicious activity.

"Our specialist Fraud Team thoroughly investigates all fraud claims and American Express Cardmembers are not liable for this kind of unauthorised charge on their accounts.”

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