AMex overpayment

Anonymous · ‎07-28-2010

I have green and gold AMEx cards. I may have accidentially paid my Am Ex bill (gold card) twice--once by e-check from my bank and once while on the American Express site (they are not exactly the same amount.) Does AmEx just credit you against future purchases or is that a problem?

guiness56 · ‎07-28-2010

Shouldn't be a problem. Unless I missed something.

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Anonymous · ‎07-28-2010

No. I try to pay off my balance before the Am Ex site allows me to because I don't want a large daily balance. For some reason, I can pay the green card off on the AMEx site 2-3 days after a purchase appears but I cannot pay the gold card balance until a week or more after a purchase posts. So I use my bank's bill pay feature in those cases. Unfortunately it takes a good two days for the payment to process after Am Ex receives it so I never know for sure from day-to-day what I owe (and don't owe.)

ludawg23 · ‎07-28-2010

I honestly cannot speak regarding AMEX card overpayments but i've overpaid on my BOA card and it's just a credit balance. Just offset it by purchasing something in the future...

bakalao2k · ‎07-28-2010

@ludawg23 wrote:
I honestly cannot speak regarding AMEX card overpayments but i've overpaid on my BOA card and it's just a credit balance. Just offset it by purchasing something in the future...

i did the same thing yesterday. i accidentally over paid my BOA card and have now have a credit balance.

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creditstarved · ‎07-28-2010

So how does that work, having a credit on your account? Does your FICO score go haywire?

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haulingthescoreup · ‎07-28-2010

@creditstarved wrote:
So how does that work, having a credit on your account? Does your FICO score go haywire?

No, a credit balance is reported as $0 on your reports. So that account will show 0% utilization, and it will be added into your total balances on all cards as $0, rather than (-$300) or whatever the balance is.

OP, I've never known an overpayment to cause a problem. AmEx will just carry it along and apply your new charges to it. I do think I've read that if you don't apply new charges, the bank will eventually mail you a check for the credit amount. (Seems like this was on a thread about a credit balance with Chase, but I certainly wouldn't swear to it.)

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vanillabean · ‎07-28-2010

@Anonymous wrote:

No. I try to pay off my balance before the Am Ex site allows me to because I don't want a large daily balance.

But why though? Nothing wrong with a high daily balance, I would think.

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vanillabean · ‎07-28-2010

@ludawg23 wrote:
I honestly cannot speak regarding AMEX card overpayments but i've overpaid on my BOA card and it's just a credit balance. Just offset it by purchasing something in the future...

Yes. I would imagine that if you have $-5 on your last statement because you overpaid, and it's now time to pay a $15 balance before the statement cut, a $10 payment would zero the balance.

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Anonymous · ‎07-28-2010

As a new cardholder my concern over a high daily balance was that without a payment history with me, they might decline a future purchase.