The Amex Financial Disciplinary System: A One-Way Street to Punishment
American Express has built what can only be described as the last great pre-AI customer service system—one that exists not to serve customers, but to monitor, penalize, and restrict them. While most financial institutions have moved toward AI-driven models that reward good behavior alongside punishing bad, Amex remains firmly stuck in a disciplinary system that only deals in demerits, never in merits.
A Financial Disciplinary System, Not a Customer Service Model
Think of Amex’s backend as a military-style disciplinary system—but with one critical flaw. In the military, you earn both merits and demerits, painting a full picture of a soldier’s performance. However, in Amex’s financial version of this system, only demerits exist. Every late payment, every minor infraction, and every slight misstep is logged and used against you, gradually degrading your account status, credit limits, and financial standing within their ecosystem.
Now, you might assume that if Amex is tracking the bad, it would also track the good—responsible behavior such as making early payments, maintaining a high-value account, using their savings programs, or simply being a loyal customer. But no. Their system is not designed to acknowledge, let alone reward, positive financial behavior. It is purely punitive.
The Long-Term Consequences: Your Account Will Only Get Worse
Because Amex’s system is fundamentally designed to punish rather than reward, your account is destined to deteriorate over time. Life happens—unexpected expenses, delayed payments, financial hiccups. And with each one, Amex’s system takes note and adjusts your standing accordingly. The problem? It never recalibrates in the other direction.
Unlike a true AI-driven system that could balance risks and rewards, Amex’s archaic model ensures that your account will always be working against you. It won’t matter how much you spend, how many years you’ve been a loyal cardholder, or how responsibly you manage your finances overall. If you slip up, you’re marked. If you do well, it’s ignored.
The Result: A System That Will Never Be Nice to You
At its core, Amex has created an anti-customer, anti-reward system. It’s a financial equivalent of a one-sided court system where only the prosecution exists—no defense, no appeal, no consideration of context. And as AI continues to revolutionize the financial industry, Amex’s insistence on sticking with this outdated, punitive model will only serve to alienate customers further.
Until they evolve, one thing is certain: American Express will never be on your side. It will never recognize your responsible financial behavior. It will only punish, restrict, and diminish your account over time. In the end, it’s not just an outdated system—it’s a fundamentally flawed one.
A Criticism Born Out of Love for Amex
But let’s be clear—this criticism comes from a place of appreciation for what Amex once was and what it still has the potential to be. American Express has long been synonymous with prestige, exclusivity, and premium customer experiences. It has catered to the financially savvy, the high-spending, and the aspirational. We want to see Amex live up to its legacy, not devolve into a rigid and outdated system that alienates its most loyal customers.
For decades, American Express has been the gold standard for the affluent and financially responsible. It’s why we expect better. A system that recognizes both merits and demerits, that rewards just as much as it punishes, would not only make financial sense but would reinforce the brand’s standing among its elite clientele.
American Express can still reclaim its place as the pinnacle of financial service excellence—it just needs to start treating its customers as valued partners rather than subjects in a punitive system. Here’s to hoping that American Express evolves, not out of necessity, but out of the same pursuit of excellence that made it great in the first place.
