Just occasionally, a bank puts the squeezers on its customers with such class and finesse that one feels like applauding. A case in point is the letter now going out to customers of American Express Bank.
'At American Express Bank, we're always striving to provide you with the best possible range of services,' it says.
'That's why we're now changing the way we calculate the monthly Line of Credit administration fee - giving you the opportunity to have your fee completely waived if you keep your account balance [$10,000] in credit.
'Currently, the fee is 0.1 per cent of the highest overdraft amount used in each month. But from September 1st, 1996, the fee will be 0.1 per cent of your credit limit instead . . .
'If you'd like to continue taking full advantage of your Line of Credit facility under this new fee structure, you don't have to do anything at all.' One of the recipients, Mark Goetze of Baker & McKenzie, was amazed. 'I will no longer be charged 0.1 per cent of my overdrafts, but 0.1 per cent of the credit limit of my overdraft, whether or not I use it,' he gasped.
What American Express Bank is really saying is: 'We're changing the rules without asking you and unless you keep a minimum of $10,000 credit in your account you have to pay more.' But they make it sound as if they are doing you a favour. Brilliant. American Express Bank executive 'Carol Sung' is refusing to die, despite being revealed as a fake employee. Callers this week are being told she's 'in a meeting'. American Express was a sponsor of the recent run of Phantom of the Opera . Perhaps they should commission a new production, Phantom of the Office . I used to work for a newspaper in London that had a fake employee. His name was used whenever a furious reader would storm into the editor's office claiming to have been defamed. The editor would flick on the intercom to his personnel officer.
