Employees at American Express (AmEx) misled small-business owners to increase card sales, reported the Wall Street Journal.
According to the report, the firm’s staff checked the credit scores of customers without their consent.
Go deeper with GlobalData
The employees also reportedly gave misleading data on the annual charges and rewards to boost sign-ups for a card.
The accusations were corroborated by over a dozen existing and former staff.
The activities started in the Phoenix branch and were later flagged by senior sales officials in Florida, noted the report.
“Less than 0.25% of the group’s sales activities have been identified by us as inconsistent with our sales policies,” a company spokesperson said.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataFor instance, Ohio disaster-cleanup company owner Brian Daughtry got a $250 bill for a card he didn’t agree to sign up for. The charge was cancelled only after Daughtry disputed the move.
The report said that the act to increase card sign-ups was largely triggered after the cancellation of its exclusive pact with warehouse club Costco.
Costco was one of the few big merchants that exclusively accepted AmEx cards and did not accept Visa, MasterCard or Discover credit cards.
American Express was the exclusive credit card partner of Costco since 1999.
After the termination of the relationship with Costco, employees were reportedly pressurised to lift sales and were offered bigger than usual rewards for more sales.
