topic Re: Amex forcing me into Pay Over Time with no signup bonus, unless I opt out. in Credit Cards

Amex forcing me into Pay Over Time with no signup bonus, unless I opt out.

DeeBee78 — Sat, 25 Nov 2017 08:34:55 GMT

I’ve had my PRG since February of this year. It’s been an up and down experience with it, and I won’t be keeping it when the annual fee comes due.

Today i received a notice in the mail from Amex, telling me that because I’m such a valued cardholder (pause for laughter...) they’re automatically enrolling me in the Select and Pay Later feature, which is part of the Pay Over Time benefit.

Uhm, ok? You guys won’t give me a CLI on my revolvers but you’ll extend a $10K revolving line on my charge card? Makes perfect sense

The other part about this “feature” is most people are offered the opportunity to enroll (without being forced into it) and get bonus MR’s for doing so. Nothing in my letter indicates I’ll receive a bonus offer for doing it, and since you can’t turn off the feature once you’re enrolled, I’m going to lose any future chance at a bonus offer. No thanks!

Thsnkfully I can opt out, and will be. They must not be making enough money on me if they’re practically begging me to revolve a balance with them. I haven’t used the card in over two months, after dealing with their last customer service experience on the revolver side.

Re: Amex forcing me into Pay Over Time with no signup bonus, unless I opt out.

AverageJoesCredit — Sat, 25 Nov 2017 11:11:56 GMT

I received this letter for my green with the 10k limit. No bonus offer nor did i get one. I think all these bonus offers we see here spoils us. I wouldnt take it like they are forcing you i wou look at it like its a nice feature to have in case you need it.

Re: Amex forcing me into Pay Over Time with no signup bonus, unless I opt out.

HeavenOhio — Sat, 25 Nov 2017 14:42:32 GMT

If I needed to pay for something over time, getting a bonus for it would be pretty low on my list of concerns.

Re: Amex forcing me into Pay Over Time with no signup bonus, unless I opt out.

Anonymous — Sat, 25 Nov 2017 15:14:32 GMT

I received this for my ZYNC as well. All for the low, low APR of 19.24%.......I could see this being somewhat beneficial to the individual that uses their Amex charge card exclusively and maybe spent too much one month or something happened wherein they were unable to repay the full balance for a month or so...but otherwise I see no reason why a consumer would want this feature. A business maybe, but not a consumer. Especially when there are so many credit cards with lower interest rates.

Re: Amex forcing me into Pay Over Time with no signup bonus, unless I opt out.

Anonymous — Sat, 25 Nov 2017 15:50:05 GMT

@DeeBee78 wrote:
I’ve had my PRG since February of this year. It’s been an up and down experience with it, and I won’t be keeping it when the annual fee comes due.

Today i received a notice in the mail from Amex, telling me that because I’m such a valued cardholder (pause for laughter...) they’re automatically enrolling me in the Select and Pay Later feature, which is part of the Pay Over Time benefit.

Uhm, ok? You guys won’t give me a CLI on my revolvers but you’ll extend a $10K revolving line on my charge card? Makes perfect sense

The other part about this “feature” is most people are offered the opportunity to enroll (without being forced into it) and get bonus MR’s for doing so. Nothing in my letter indicates I’ll receive a bonus offer for doing it, and since you can’t turn off the feature once you’re enrolled, I’m going to lose any future chance at a bonus offer. No thanks!

Thsnkfully I can opt out, and will be. They must not be making enough money on me if they’re practically begging me to revolve a balance with them. I haven’t used the card in over two months, after dealing with their last customer service experience on the revolver side.

Thank you, OP I needed a laugh!

Re: Amex forcing me into Pay Over Time with no signup bonus, unless I opt out.

Anonymous — Sat, 25 Nov 2017 16:27:15 GMT

You are getting Select & Pay Later, and The Extended Payment Option mixed up.

Select & Pay Later is the base feature that is automatically activated on an eligible account. This is not something that you can opt in or out of. This gives you the option to call customer service and ask to move eligible charges into a Pay Over Time balance. There never has been, nor ever will be a bonus offer associated with S&PL.

The Extended Payment Option, however, is S&PL in auto-drive. Each charge over $100 will automatically be placed into a Pay Over Time balance as long as your account remains eligible. This is something that you may be offered, and you specifically must accept because it changes the way your payments get applied to the account in accordance with the payment hierarchy described in your Cardmember Agreement. This feature is typically associated with a bonus offer of some sort.

I hope this clarifies any confusion.

Re: Amex forcing me into Pay Over Time with no signup bonus, unless I opt out.

K-in-Boston — Sat, 25 Nov 2017 16:54:38 GMT

@Anonymous Wonderful explanation as always. Quick question that has had me puzzled for quite some time. With the Extended Payment Option, all charges over $100 are automatically put into the POT balance (and with Travel & Sign all travel charges are put into POT balance). Why does the Select & Pay Later option still exist once a cardmember has opted into Extended Payment Option, since there are literally no charges that can be selected at that point?

Re: Amex forcing me into Pay Over Time with no signup bonus, unless I opt out.

Revelate — Sat, 25 Nov 2017 17:07:59 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I received this for my ZYNC as well.

Haha, the Unicorn lives!

Haven't seen the offer personally but the only thing which lands on my Zync commonly is my $10 / month donation to the local NPR station... so I'm not one of the customers Amex really wants currently.

Re: Amex forcing me into Pay Over Time with no signup bonus, unless I opt out.

Anonymous — Sat, 25 Nov 2017 17:28:53 GMT

Sign & Travel is no longer a term or feature used at American Express. Select & Pay Later took over that function with it's greater versatility.

The Extended Payment Option, exactly as I had mentioned, is just Select & Pay Later in auto-drive. Without Select & Pay Later, there can be no Extended Payment Option. It's just the way the system is designed. Just think of ExPo as an upgrade to SP&L if that helps.

Re: Amex forcing me into Pay Over Time with no signup bonus, unless I opt out.

K-in-Boston — Sat, 25 Nov 2017 19:08:15 GMT

@Anonymous thanks for the explanation. That makes sense then if Select & Pay Later is a prerequisite to have the other POT options. For Sign & Travel, it is still in use at Amex. Actually, it wasn't even offered to me until January of this year. Any travel charges I make go to POT balance automatically regardless of dollar amount. Any non-travel purchase over $100 automatically goes into POT balance. I have been consistently PIF on my charge cards for quite some time now (sadly wasn't the case for most of my membership years and I got a lot of use out of POT), which is a good thing since I see that my POT APR has now risen to over 16% with the prime rate increases.

And of course there's the handy guide to explain the differences between the three:

Re: Amex forcing me into Pay Over Time with no signup bonus, unless I opt out.

Anonymous — Sat, 25 Nov 2017 19:30:00 GMT

Thanks for that update. When I was there, Sign & Travel was out the door and we were trying to eradicate any and all references to it. They must've made a complete U-turn on that!

Re: Amex forcing me into Pay Over Time with no signup bonus, unless I opt out.

K-in-Boston — Sat, 25 Nov 2017 19:52:39 GMT

Things are bound to change; that's why we're constantly picking your Amex brain while things are still fresh!

Also, @Revelate thank you for supporting public radio.

Re: Amex forcing me into Pay Over Time with no signup bonus, unless I opt out.

DeeBee78 — Sun, 26 Nov 2017 02:31:16 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
You are getting Select & Pay Later, and The Extended Payment Option mixed up.

Select & Pay Later is the base feature that is automatically activated on an eligible account. This is not something that you can opt in or out of. This gives you the option to call customer service and ask to move eligible charges into a Pay Over Time balance. There never has been, nor ever will be a bonus offer associated with S&PL.

The Extended Payment Option, however, is S&PL in auto-drive. Each charge over $100 will automatically be placed into a Pay Over Time balance as long as your account remains eligible. This is something that you may be offered, and you specifically must accept because it changes the way your payments get applied to the account in accordance with the payment hierarchy described in your Cardmember Agreement. This feature is typically associated with a bonus offer of some sort.

I hope this clarifies any confusion.

I'm familiar with all three Amex extended payment options. FYI, when I go into the "pay charges over time" area in Account Services, it clearly says that I am being enrolled in the Extended Payment / Pay over Time option, and charges over $100 will automatically be moved over to the extended payment line.

The letter may have said Select and Pay Later, but I'm being given the other programs as an option. I won't be enrolling in any of them without a bonus.

Re: Amex forcing me into Pay Over Time with no signup bonus, unless I opt out.

drboxing — Mon, 27 Nov 2017 04:42:43 GMT

I would just pay in full that would alleviate the Pay over Time feature and you’d knock out interest as well

Re: Amex forcing me into Pay Over Time with no signup bonus, unless I opt out.

K-in-Boston — Mon, 27 Nov 2017 20:06:18 GMT

@DeeBee78 this link will take you to the page where you can see which of the three you are enrolled in (and optionally enroll in any that you are not already enrolled in):

https://online.americanexpress.com/myca/lending/enroll/us/action?request_type=payovertime&inav=MYCA_LOC_Pay_Over_Time2

From what @Anonymous said, it seems like the Select & Pay Later option isn't one that you elect to participate in or not. But the Extended Payment Option you show in your screenshot is certainly one that you would need to agree to participate in (and I believe is the one typically targeted for bonuses), as it automatically places all charges above $100 into a POT balance.

@drboxing paying in full doesn't prevent eligible charges from automatically going to a POT balance, though. However, you do have the full grace period all the way through the next due date (previously "Please Pay By Date") to pay that balance and your minimum payment ("statement balance") without incurring interest charges. Personally, while I no longer use POT (even with the lower than my standard 16.24% offers of 9.9% they keep offering me) I love having the safety net there if I ever needed to revolve a balance again. Much better to pay 1% or less of interest for a month than to have a late payment and sour the relationship (and possibly your credit).