I'm convinced that American Express, the credit card firm, saved my life at a much earlier date. Gawd I was young and foolish and broke. Now I'm old and foolish and broke, vive la difference. Anyway, let me tell you the story.
I was at the ITB, that's the International Tourism Bourse held in Berlin each year. It was 1987 if I recollect but I cannot be sure. Anyhoo it was a long time ago, in the relatively early years of of Euro Ski Magazine and offshoot publications.
 I had spent the day trying to sell advertising in one of the magazines I owned at that time (probably Golf Travel) to the person who was in charge of promotion of Gersey or Gurnsey or whatever, Now I don't know if you have ever been to ITB selling ads, but let me tell you, selling ads and plenty of boozing often go hand in hand. And the Island nation or resort or whatever had lots of free, promotional, booze on hand. To that end both the potential seller (me) and the prospective buyer (him) took full advantage. This went on all afternoon to be specific.
Finally at six, the place was closing, it was time for serious drinking and partying. By this point my next drink was of far greater importance than any old advertising income so I suggested to mine host that we continue. "OK" says he "let’s go back to my hotel, we can get a drink there". I responded in the affirmative and off we went. Only problem was this dude was staying at the Hotel Kempinski in Berlin.  Ask anybody, the Kempinski Hotel is far from cheap. The difference in who was footing the bills was all too apparent; yours truly was paying for mine and I was watching my budget. Hell I lived in a far less expensive walkup B&B some blocks away.
Anyway back to the story. We sidled up to the bar in the Kempinski and my erstwhile benefactor informed me that it was my turn to pay; “ my round” so to speak. So I dutifully paid the next round (using AMEX) and asked the guy if he wanted to place some advertising.My mind quickly reverted back to the main purpose. "Geez I don't place advertising" he replied, "you have to talk to the ad guy and he ain't here". I was flabbergasted! A whole afternoon wasted talking to the wrong guy. Heck I might as well have spent it drinking. No I don't remember what we talked about after that and yes I paid up, said my goodbyes and left. It was probably 8:30 or so.
I put my hands in my pockets and trudged shielded against the Berlin winter down the Kurfurstendam (the name of the main and famous street in Berlin) in the direction of my B&B.
There was a serious problem though; I didn’t make it “til the wee hours of the next morning.
“Girls, Girls, Girls”. It seemed that every shop was a bar and every bar featured girls. It was more than I could bear, much more.
Anyhow I stumbled into one of these places that featured members of the opposite sex. Well perhaps stumbled is not the right word here, actually I walked into it using my own free will and my own locomotion. However I still had my stubbornness intact and I therefore vowed that I would not, could not, dally with any of the girls.
Hah!
As luck would have it the girl behind the bar was Austrian. And, as I lived in the Tirol province of Austria at the time I felt right at home using my best Austrian German on her. She gave me the rundown on the way the bar worked; which went something like this.
If one buys a bottle of champagne one gets a girl to go with it. Simple is it not? Now back to the story. The Austrian lady behind the bar asked then if I had selected a girl. “What? No” I said in firm response, “this is absolutely not my style”.
Just then a wonderfully clad young lady from Poland floated into my vision. She had on just a slikish nightgown that hung loosely from her nipples.
 “Buy me a drink?” she questioned.
“ Hell yes” was my immediate and without the slightest thought, answer. “In fact I’ll buy you a bottle”. Then I turned to the no-less-beautiful Austrian girl behind the bar. “Do you play by the same rules” I questioned. “Yes” she replied, and the rest, as they say, is history. Upstairs I went behind the two beauties grinning like the proverbial Cheshire cat.
I won’t bother you by telling all the details here. Suffice it to say that I had, err, sampled a large number of the girls by around 4AM or closing time and the waiter came around and handed me the bill.
JEEZUS EICH. It was 8,000 Deutche Marks. At the time about $5,000  and again at the time a real, real, huge amount of money. I sheepishly handed over my American Express card and waited for the inevitable.
After about 5 minutes two very large gentlemen turned up. “ Amex wants to talk to you” one of them said, and duly and dutifully I walked down with the two big guys, through where all the ladies were preparing to leave for the night and into the kitchen where the phone and American Express waited.
“You Mister Fogarty” the voice on the other end of the phone asked? “Err yes” I answered.
“Quite a bill you have run up. How do we know it’s you?” “Do you know anyone at AMEX Frankfurt?”
I thought for a moment and then remembered the girl who contacted me almost monthly looking for payment. “Yes I answered”. And I told her the ladies’ name.
“OK we’ll pay the bill” she breathed.  “But let me tell you. Do not try to use your card until this sum is paid”. That was it and Amex told the gorillas they would be paid. They were all smiles now and I was free to go back upstairs, dress and leave.
Fast forward to 2008; I went to my birthplace to visit family and spent much more than I had anticipated. Upon my return to Bangkok, where my card was now registered I got two bills from AMEX. Now to update you I had two cards by this time.  One an ordinary green eredit card (unlimited they tell me) and one a “charge” card with around $10,000 available. The credit card is payable upon request and the charge card at so much a month depending upon the balance I assumed. So I dutifully paid off the minimum on the charge version and nothing on the credit card. Instead I telephoned AMEX.
After a number of phone calls the tale went something like this. I offered to have them both put together and to pay the charge card off fairly quickly. That I assumed would get both me and the local branch of AMEX off the hook . I had been a member since 1987 so I figured it should not be a problem.
It was.
Tear up your cards and send them back was what I took as the answer. Pay immediately was what I remember to be the second part. Well I did and I didn’t in that order. I mean I cut up my cards and did not send them back. I did not pay; at all.
In short order AMEX either sold off or handed over ( I don’t know exactly how they work) to some sort of Thai collection agency. The next thing I know a 300 page Thai document hung on an office door with about ten days to get to a court outside Bangkok. I took it to my lawyer who advised me not to go; to ignore it. I did and heard nothing to this day (Jan 7, 2010). Nothing. Any comments? Anybody.