This is standard practice for American Express. They do offer standard credit cards, but the traditional AmEx green and gold cards do not allow you to carry a balance – you have to pay them off every month. (they mean it, too – one of my old bosses had his AmEx cancelled when he didn’t pay the bill one too many times)

It’s meant for business use, where you’d submit your expense report and be reimbursed in time to pay the bill when it comes. Most businesses pay their expenses on a monthly basis – they don’t charge expenses and pay them off over time.

do yourself a big favor, cancel it–there a tons of credit cards out there that have better terms. Be sure and read all the terms of use on one before commiting. Its one of the tricks they use to lure unsuspecting consumers to using a never ending littany of charges. They make it easy to get and doggone hard to get rid of.