Question I have... Applying for Lending Tree mortgage with major deductions on tax return? Thanks in advance for any answer or 2. My 2nd question... I had an interesting interaction with AMEX CSR's last night:.

My gold card had the Extended Payment Option/Sign and Travel Account attached to it. What this meant was that any purchase over $300 was automatically placed in a special section and I could pay over time if I wanted, rather than having to pay in full. I've been buying some furniture for the house with the AMEX, so my monthly bill was running a bit more than twice the normal level, so I sent in an early payment so there wouldn't be any authorization problems before the end of the month. What happened was they applied the payment to the "pay in full" section, giving it a credit balance, leaving a revolving balance in the EPO/S&T section, upon which they charged me interest!.

1st level CSR: I called in saying I think there's something wrong with my account, I don't understand how I can have a credit balance at the top of the page and owe interest at the bottom..

She looks at it, figures out what happened and wants to "advise" me to call in if I make any futher additional payments so it can be transferred to the right section..

I say OK, can you please reverse the interest charges?.

No, that's not within my authority..

OK, may I speak with a supervisor..

Yes, I'll connect you with a supervisor immediately..

At this point, although she was trying to suppress it, her voice was almost a little snippy, even as she handed me off to the supervisor. Supervisor looks at my account, 12 year history, high five figure annual charge volume and perfect payment record and comes back on the phone just dripping with honey and apologies, instantly reverses the interest charges, immediately cancels the EPO/S&T when I request it, stating that if I EVER want to extend payment on ANY purchase, please just call in..

OK, problem taken care of, but why was 1st level CSR upset that I needed to be transferred to a supervisor, after all, I made a request that wasn't within her authority, so there wasn't much choice. The only thing I could think of was that the CSR's get demerits or something when they can't resolve the call themselves. That explains her long involved explanation of what I should do differently next time, she was hoping I'd say OK, and hang up. If my requesting a supervisor cut into her monthly bonus, then I guess that's why she almost got snippy...