Potential points compensation question

[belgrave]

Wonder if you have advice:

All my finances are in my maiden name and always have been. Passport is in married name to be the same as my children, hence flying clubs are too. Surely I’m not unusual in this.

Last week I needed to transfer points to Avios and Virgin for the first time to book flights and they were refused due to my Amex and flying clubs being different surnames, despite all other info – dob, email, address etc – being the same. I’ve never had this issue before with anything else where maiden/married names have been different and it was nowhere on the website or joining info that this was the case, hence I was caught out when I needed to use them.

Amex were spectacularly unhelpful. Told me I had to either change my passport back to maiden name or Amex to married name. Not changing passport as travelling soon so said I’d change Amex to married name.

Amex then told me 1) this would take a huge 10 working days, frustrating as the reward flights disappearing the longer I’m waiting and 2) that I would have to make payments to my Amex card from a bank account in my married name – which I don’t have as all my finances are in my maiden name!

To add insult to it all, today my Amex account is finally showing online as changed to my married name so I went to transfer the points – and all my 115,000 points have disappeared!! When I called I was told they wouldn’t be available until my new physical card arrives in ten days time and I activate it. Again, they didn’t tell me any of this when changing the name.

While this has been going on nearly all the reward flights for my dates have gone, so the lack of info from Amex and their delays are literally costing me money as I still can’t transfer points and even when I can there’ll be another 3-day wait as there always is with Avios transfers.

Do you think there’s grounds to ask for points compensation?

[NorthernLass]

I can’t see any grounds for compensation – changing the name on any kind of account is understandably a long and complicated process because there’s the potential for all kinds of abuse and fraud. This is also why the names on accounts need to match for points transfers – loyalty point abuse (especially via hacking from outside the UK) is also a large and growing problem. Because of all the complications around this, I keep everything travel related in my maiden name.

[BuildBackBetter]

Have you thought why such controls are present? Would you like it if someone impersonates you using one of your names and steals your money or points?

You knew your situation was a unique case and it was completely your choice to use different names, yet you want Amex to bend to your needs without performing kyc?

Next time try to plan in advance and try transferring small amounts of points first to make sure it’s all working fine.

[Thegasman]

I would imagine most people stick with one name for passport/driving license & financial products? I have lots of colleagues who practice under their maiden name but everything personal is married name. Equally my wife has stuck with maiden name for everything. She’s never had issues travelling with our daughter (who has my surname) but takes a copy of birth certificate just in case.

Considering the need to provide ID for so many financial transactions these days would it be simpler to settle on one name for anything vaguely official?

[Lady London]

I think you’re all being a little hard on @belgrave as it used to be possible to do these things – although the surname difference was probably always going to be a hard stop.

A lot of kyc etc. practice has got ridiculously cumbersome and obstructive in very recent years, applied like a blunt sledgehammer by relatively unskilled entities for no good reason across the board where not needed whilst those entities leave themselves exposed in other ways at the same time! I’m all for protection and compliance but today it’s getting ridiculous sometimes.

However on surname nonmatch belgrave sorry, perhaps with something issued by a decent private bank these arrangements can be made. But with mainstream mass market products and entities that particular mismatch was always going to stop you.

[Skywalker]

I think Amex has done very well here.

Inconveniencing, yes, but safeguarding, also yes.

[NorthernLass]

I’m not sure how Amex could have done this any better – a fraudster could realistically obtain someone’s home and email address plus other details, then request an account be changed to their name. This is especially prevalent with addresses that share common areas where post is delivered so cards can be intercepted with a bit of planning and effort. Understandably, credit card companies don’t want to find themselves liable for large sums spent by fraudsters who they are very unlikely to be able to successfully pursue. Ironically, Amex could help itself here by doing name checks, I suspect a lot of fraudsters don’t even know about this “feature” …

[aseftel]

I wouldn’t say that Amex have acted unfairly and I don’t think there’s a strong case for compensation. Breaking down the issues:

– Unable to transfer points because of a customer details mismatch. I think it’s reasonable for Amex to take such measures to prevent fraudulent points transfers. It would have been nice for them to publish the requirements to link an account but I don’t think essential to do so.
– 10 working days to perform a name change. It’s a bit slow but it’s not an outrageous SLA. Presumably the average time to change is considerably lower than the 10 days.
– Payments have to come from an account in the same name. Similar principle to first one. You do have more rights in terms of your ability to repay credit/exit agreements, but Amex can probably point to their regulatory obligations to prevent financial crime.
– Points unavailable until you activate the new card. This is probably your most compelling argument – it would have been better if the agent or automated comms had told you that this would happen. I can see how it is reasonable as a business practice if it is a fraud prevention strategy. Same thing on the 10 day SLA for a card to arrive.

You’d have a stronger case next year with Consumer Duty, but really more in terms of making a complaint handler squirm enough to pay you off rather than any serious regulatory breaches that would concern an internal policy team or a regulator.

[belgrave]

Thanks all. Yes I completely understand the same surname issue is a security issue, it’s the handling of it all by Amex that irks me.

As Lady London says, the use of maiden and married names isn’t unusual in this day and age – even my passport which is in my married name also states my maiden name and that I use it for professional purposes. A marriage cert was good enough for even HMPO to link the two!

There is no advice anywhere that to transfer points the surname has to match the flying club as well as all the other account info. Even the points transfer page said ‘accepted’ when I linked my flying club number. Had it been clear I’d have taken steps at the start to resolve it rather than being caught out at the point of needing to book a flight.

I wasn’t notified by Amex of the points transfer rejection, I discovered it when I called to chase the transfer. Another delay.

Yes I do find 10 working days to add a marriage certificate to my records excessive.

Then, when the name change finally showed on the account yesterday I went to transfer the points so I could finally book the flight – to find all my points had disappeared. I was told I would need to activate the new card for them to show again – which would arrive in 10 working days. This had not been communicated. Another delay.

Thankfully after persuasion they transferred the points at their end. Then today I called to check the status to be told that, despite the name now being the same, the transfer had been rejected again and to call BA.

BA said Amex had misadvised me, the same surname wasn’t enough – instead of just my initial and surname on the Amex it had to be my full first name.

So I now have to change the name again and wait for my rejected points to return to my card from BA before I can even instigate the transfer again. By which time I’ll be lucky if any reward flights are still available for my trip date.

Amex have offered 10,000 points as initial compensation and a manager is calling me tomorrow.

[belgrave]

Oh, and I’m well aware these are middle class problems and there are far worse problems in the world!