Offers contained within this article maybe expired.

Amex has been one of the more reliable credit card issuers in the past when it comes to taking care of IT issues. But recently, there have been a lot of issues going on when customers have tried to navigate through different parts of their website. If you’ve experienced any issues recently, you might be able to receive Membership Rewards for the inconvenience. Read how I did it below.

IT issues with Amex

I recently had issues with a few things on the Amex website.

First, on multiple occasions, I have not been able to pay my bills when I log in. For someone who manages 20+ credit cards, not being able to stick to my usual routine of making my monthly payments is a bit frustrating, especially when it happens on a continual basis.

I’ve gotten the message below on numerous occasions when trying to pay my bills.

The next error related to checking the status of my dining credit and airline fee credit for the Amex Gold Card. When I tried to check this, I got the error message shown below.

This error message came up repeatedly and showed up even when I tried to check it with different browsers. This wasn’t as big of a deal to me but if I hadn’t been able to enroll in the programs, it would’ve been more frustrating.

There have been many other reports of others receiving these error messages as well. And it seems that some people have been awarded Membership Rewards for their inconvenience when they voiced their frustration with Amex. I know some people have received 2,500 Membership Rewards for these problems, and I recently received 1,000 Membership Rewards.

If you’ve been inconvenienced by these recent IT issues, you can call the customer service number on the back of your card. When you call, you might want to first just voice your frustrations and see if Amex proactively offers you anything since they have done that for some people. If they don’t offer you anything then you might want to inquire with the phone rep about whether or not Amex can offer you something.

You will probably get transferred to the Membership Rewards department and they will have to be the ones to make the decision. Just explain to them why it’s been such a frustrating experience and if/when they ask what they can do to remedy the situation, propose receiving a small amount of Membership Rewards.

---

Tips

Here are a few tips for going about this situation:

Obviously, it would be unethical to request points for these IT issues if they haven’t bothered you. In my case, it had been seriously frustrating to not be able to pay my bills, especially since I stick to a strict schedule when I pay my credit card bills. I really don’t think there’s anything wrong with voicing your displeasure with Amex’s online experience and inquiring about modest compensation.

But don’t press the issue too hard and act too entitled. If Amex won’t offer you points, then I wouldn’t try to escalate the matter since this not a huge deal for most people. And if you’ve got a lot of new accounts opened up, you might not want to put any eyes on your account and just pass up on this request.

You will need to call in to make this request as it doesn’t appear that the Amex chat reps have the capacity to award you Membership Rewards.

---

Final word

I don’t like to hassle these issuers over little things but when it comes to seriously frustrating experiences, I don’t think it’s too much to inquire about possible compensation for your issues. Try not to act too entitled and you might end up with an additional 1,000 to 2,500 Membership Rewards in your pocket. There have been many times when I was only around 1,000 points short for a redemption, so whenever I get a chance to stack on some extra points with minimal effort, I think it’s usually worth giving it a try.