American Express class action overview:
- Who: Plaintiff Carla Flannery filed a class action lawsuit against the American Express Co.
- Why: American Express said it would only do a soft credit check until a user was approved and accepted a credit card offer, but did a hard credit check instead, the lawsuit claims.
- Where: The American Express hard credit class action was filed in federal court in California.
American Express is facing a class action lawsuit alleging the company makes hard credit inquiries on new applications when it claims it only makes soft inquiries until the new card is finalized.
That means a potential customer’s credit can be negatively affected even if their credit application is denied, the American Express hard credit class action claims.
A soft credit pull is not visible to third parties on a credit score, while a hard credit pull does have an impact.
“Soft inquiries include inquiries made when a consumer checks his or her own credit report, inquiries made by businesses with which the consumer already does business, such as a mortgage servicer reviewing the status of the consumer’s account and, as discussed above, and inquiries made by credit card companies or insurance companies to make firm offers of credit even when no transaction has been initiated by a consumer,” the class action says.
American express falsely marketing credit checks, won’t remove inquiries from credit reports, lawsuit claims
American Express marketed its cards by telling customers they would know if they were approved without an impact on their credit score. The plaintiff sent four credit disputes to the credit reporting agencies, and none was successful.
American Express is accused of obtaining credit reports without permission and obtaining consumer information under false pretenses.
American Express is also facing a lawsuit from an Arizona woman alleging it violated the law when it contacted her at least 10 times trying to collect debt from a woman she says she has never heard of.
Do you use an American Express credit card? Let us know in the comments.
The plaintiff is represented by Yitzchak Zelman of Marcus and Zelman LLC.
The American Express class action lawsuit is Flannery v. American Express Co., Case No. 2:23-cv-07931, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California Western Division.
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147 thoughts onAmerican Express class action alleges company submits hard credit inquiries despite contrary representations
Yes I have a AE CC. To add to this diabolical mess, I had a credit line of $6k and someone stole my daughter purse with her phone in it and the person accessed our AE account and made 3 insufficient payments and I told AE I didn’t authorize them and they still held me liable for them and lowered my line of credit from 6k to 1k. When they weren’t supposed to do that because they have the not responsible for unauthorized transactions policy but they didn’t let it apply to my situation and they were supposed to. They also hit my credit with the hard inquiries also please add me.
Please add me.
I just went through a similar dispute with American express. After being a customer for several years they suddenly started running random credit chcks w/o my knowledge then reduced my credit limit. Justifying the lower limit decision based on my updated credit report …they accessed without authorization. Then continually called my business phone offering to restore my account if I agreed to pay just half of my past due balance. Once I finally agreed the drafted more money than they quoted in the offer. I have all of the correspondence documented.
Yes I definitely do use them and I have a good feeling they did this shit to me as well. See you can’t trust nobody not even the biggest scammers of mankind which are banks.
Add me please
Add me Please.
Add me plz
Add me
I was hit by fees by Amex. I have a card
American express charged me late fees and interest. The received my money order and they returned it to me and they tried to put their failure on me