topic Re: Amex To Pay It- Installments in Credit Cards

Amex To Pay It- Installments

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Aug 2017 22:51:31 GMT

I was reading an article that as of tomorrow, Amex will let you pay your balance in monthly installments. For example, from 3 to 24 months. It wil be interesting to see more to come tomorrow when it takes effect.

Re: Amex To Pay It- Installments

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Aug 2017 22:44:30 GMT

I just read about this too and it sounds very interesting.

Re: Amex To Pay It- Installments

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Aug 2017 22:47:46 GMT

It's call the 'Plan It' program and it was originally announced back in June as discussed here. Not sure if this article by ThePointsGuy that you read but he goes into detail about the plan.

Re: Amex To Pay It- Installments

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Aug 2017 22:49:55 GMT

Will this change the way it will report on the CRAs? Will it now report as a credit card with a balance. Will be interesting because of the supposed "NPSL"

Re: Amex To Pay It- Installments

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Aug 2017 22:56:48 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Will this change the way it will report on the CRAs? Will it now report as a credit card with a balance. Will be interesting because of the supposed "NPSL"

This is for their revolving credit cards, not the charge cards. So they will continue to report the same as they always did and show whatever balance is left on your account at statement date. This is just an alternative way of paying for a balance that you might decide to carry.

Re: Amex To Pay It- Installments

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Aug 2017 23:00:46 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
It's call the 'Plan It' program and it was originally announced back in June as discussed here. Not sure if this article by ThePointsGuy that you read but he goes into detail about the plan.

Yes, that's the same article that I was reading by ThePointsGuy

Re: Amex To Pay It- Installments

UpperNwGuy — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 00:46:41 GMT

Hmm.... seems to me that the "Plan It" fee is interest by another name. If so, I think the Card Act requires Amex to provide a "Schumer box" stating the interest in percentage terms.

Re: Amex To Pay It- Installments

shoegal — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 00:57:12 GMT

They sent me 3 reminders in the mail about this offer, today.

Re: Amex To Pay It- Installments

wasCB14 — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 01:09:44 GMT

I wonder if these options really exist to encourage people to carry balances and pay interest...or just confuse them so they're more likely to pay late/not enough and get hit with a lot of fees.

I suspect the latter.

Re: Amex To Pay It- Installments

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 03:18:17 GMT

@wasCB14 wrote:
I wonder if these options really exist to encourage people to carry balances and pay interest...or just confuse them so they're more likely to pay late/not enough and get hit with a lot of fees.

I suspect the latter.

I would imagine the former.

Most people are pretty strict about not carrying a balance because of the high interest rates. Its just something commonly known you shouldnt do. But, i think more people are likely to take the option of "oh cool, for 4% more i can pay off this specific item over the next year".

Idk, just my opinion, but i think they will get a decent amount of people taking this option who otherwise either wouldnt have made the purchase to begin with, or PIF.

I would personally never use this but i think its suprisingly easy to get your average person to pay an extra couple percent to pay off "splurge" purchases over time.

Its also another inventive for people to use AMEX. "i probably shouldnt buy this, i dont have $xxx.xx to spend right now" "oh yeah, amex will let me pay it off over a year for a tiny bit more!"

Re: Amex To Pay It- Installments

Credit_hawk — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 03:47:39 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@wasCB14 wrote:
I wonder if these options really exist to encourage people to carry balances and pay interest...or just confuse them so they're more likely to pay late/not enough and get hit with a lot of fees.

I suspect the latter.
I would imagine the former.

Most people are pretty strict about not carrying a balance because of the high interest rates. Its just something commonly known you shouldnt do. But, i think more people are likely to take the option of "oh cool, for 4% more i can pay off this specific item over the next year".

Idk, just my opinion, but i think they will get a decent amount of people taking this option who otherwise either wouldnt have made the purchase to begin with, or PIF.

I would personally never use this but i think its suprisingly easy to get your average person to pay an extra couple percent to pay off "splurge" purchases over time.

Its also another inventive for people to use AMEX. "i probably shouldnt buy this, i dont have $xxx.xx to spend right now" "oh yeah, amex will let me pay it off over a year for a tiny bit more!"

The majority of people actually do carry balances. We're the minority "dead beats."

Re: Amex To Pay It- Installments

drboxing — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 03:51:54 GMT

Seems interesting

Re: Amex To Pay It- Installments

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 13:04:51 GMT

So, I wonder if they can treat it as something other than interest to avoid the disclosures, etc...kind of the way a Buy Here Pay Here car lot just overcharges for the car in the first place and has "interest-free" payments over time so they don't have to follow the rules that normal lenders do.

Making me wonder if AMEX's charge card business model is dying, at least for non-business customers and they're casting around for a way to salvage it.

Re: Amex To Pay It- Installments

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 16:07:25 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Will this change the way it will report on the CRAs? Will it now report as a credit card with a balance. Will be interesting because of the supposed "NPSL"
This is for their revolving credit cards, not the charge cards. So they will continue to report the same as they always did and show whatever balance is left on your account at statement date. This is just an alternative way of paying for a balance that you might decide to carry.

Got you, thanks!

Re: Amex To Pay It- Installments

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 17:53:02 GMT

Do you have those pay / plan it icons on your app? I dont see it on my 3 revolvers. As per those web sites deliving nenws, the implementation should be today.....

Re: Amex To Pay It- Installments

wasCB14 — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 18:47:54 GMT

@Credit_hawk wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@wasCB14 wrote:
I wonder if these options really exist to encourage people to carry balances and pay interest...or just confuse them so they're more likely to pay late/not enough and get hit with a lot of fees.

I suspect the latter.
I would imagine the former.

Most people are pretty strict about not carrying a balance because of the high interest rates. Its just something commonly known you shouldnt do. But, i think more people are likely to take the option of "oh cool, for 4% more i can pay off this specific item over the next year".

Idk, just my opinion, but i think they will get a decent amount of people taking this option who otherwise either wouldnt have made the purchase to begin with, or PIF.

I would personally never use this but i think its suprisingly easy to get your average person to pay an extra couple percent to pay off "splurge" purchases over time.

Its also another inventive for people to use AMEX. "i probably shouldnt buy this, i dont have $xxx.xx to spend right now" "oh yeah, amex will let me pay it off over a year for a tiny bit more!"
The majority of people actually do carry balances. We're the minority "dead beats."

So Amex payment options are:

Charge cards:

PIF

Pay Over Time

Sign and Travel

Extended Payment Option

Select & Pay Later

Revolvers:

PIF

Carry at a regular APR

Carry at a promo APR

Plan It

Am I missing any?

*If the goal was to encourage people to carry balances and pay interest, I'd have expected Amex to try to be more competitive with their APRs on charge card payment alternatives. Maybe they figure there's enough demand from people who need to carry $20k and are willing to pay a ~18% APR that the people who want to carry $5k and will seek a 4% APR elsewhere just aren't worth extending better terms to.

Re: Amex To Pay It- Installments

Anonymous — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 20:16:19 GMT

Thanks for posting this thread! I did some research. Apparently if your cards are eligible the account holder receievd new card terms in the June statements. I recall the extra infomration but thought it only related to penalty APRs and how they apply payments. There is an entire section explaining the new PLan It feature. The fixed rate is identifed and each month applied to the payment required. I chatted wiht CSR and eligible accounts are only now being enrolled geinning yesterday so the icons will slowly appear for as the cards are enrolled. He told me with in 72 hours. I usually PIF too, but this past year have been on a reuced APR rate promo so enjoying that a bit. I like the twi nfeature Pay It which is only availbale on the mobile app. You tap the Pay It icon to pay for that purchase now through your linked checking account. A great feature say for groceries or gas. I will definitely use the Pay It and will try the Plan It on my upcoming hotel stay purchase.

Re: Amex To Pay It- Installments

MrDisco99 — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 20:58:56 GMT

I don't see it on mine. I'm guessing I won't until my 0% intro period ends.

Re: Amex To Pay It- Installments

Credit_hawk — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 21:35:51 GMT

Yeah it's not on mine the last time I checked my bill yesterday. I just came off 0% APR last month.

Edit: I checked my statements and on my May-June bill it does have a card member agreement amendment regarding the plan it pay it dated for 8/30.

Re: Amex To Pay It- Installments

wasCB14 — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 23:21:18 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks for posting this thread! I did some research. Apparently if your cards are eligible the account holder receievd new card terms in the June statements. I recall the extra infomration but thought it only related to penalty APRs and how they apply payments. There is an entire section explaining the new PLan It feature. The fixed rate is identifed and each month applied to the payment required. I chatted wiht CSR and eligible accounts are only now being enrolled geinning yesterday so the icons will slowly appear for as the cards are enrolled. He told me with in 72 hours. I usually PIF too, but this past year have been on a reuced APR rate promo so enjoying that a bit. I like the twi nfeature Pay It which is only availbale on the mobile app. You tap the Pay It icon to pay for that purchase now through your linked checking account. A great feature say for groceries or gas. I will definitely use the Pay It and will try the Plan It on my upcoming hotel stay purchase.

I don't really see the value of Pay It.

For utilization micromanagers who can PIF, they can just pay once before the statement cuts and not worry about a bunch of little payments.

For people who will be carrying a big balance, their utilization won't be low, anyway.

For people who want to avoid any inconvenience from an FR, there's moderately high utilization and lots of small payments...two alleged FR risk factors.

For people with low checking balances, why give up cash before you need to in a manner that, in a few weeks, may prove to be less than ideal?