topic Re: Force a payment that is more than the balance? in Credit Cards

Force a payment that is more than the balance?

masscredit — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 22:42:00 GMT

How do I force a payment that is more than the card's balance? I like to have all of my cards except one reporting a zero balance when the statement closes. I sometimes have pending charges on one of them close to the statement closing date. No big deal if that charge doesn't post until after the statement closing date but sometimes they post just before it does. I can't make a payment from my checking account for an amount greater than the balance and doing a balance transfer to another card can take a few days. Is there any other way?

And I know it's not the end of the world if a balance posts but sometimes I'm on a mission to accomplish something so I don't want a balance on other cards It look a few days for my iTunes movie rental to register as pending and I know it will post before the statement clsoes in two days so I want to take care of that $5.99 charge.

Re: Force a payment that is more than the balance?

BH1985 — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 22:48:39 GMT

I have the same issue.

I use my bank’s bill pay feature to push the payment to the card issuer so that when the pending charges post I have a credit balance to offset them, resulting in a zero balance.

Re: Force a payment that is more than the balance?

CGeorge — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 22:52:21 GMT

All of my American Express cards allow me to pay more than the posted balances.

None of my others have ever allowed that....

Re: Force a payment that is more than the balance?

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 23:01:11 GMT

Would it also work to create a repeat payment of the balance due before the statement is cut? I am currently trying that on one card. I just did it so don't have results yet.

Re: Force a payment that is more than the balance?

CGeorge — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 23:13:05 GMT

I have never gotten that to work..Occasionally, I have been able to pay the pisted balance within several hours...before even the pending payment has been calculated into the allowed amount. But if you wait 24 hours, that won’t work. I lve AmEx....

Re: Force a payment that is more than the balance?

UpperNwGuy — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 23:20:56 GMT

AZEO is the cause of so much foolishness and nonsense in the world of credit cards. I wish Fair Isaac would change its FICO scoring model to eliminate the possibility of manipulating credit scores through techniques such as AZEO.

Re: Force a payment that is more than the balance?

CGeorge — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 23:30:19 GMT

You are correct. It truly is complete nonsense. I agree - it is all a game!

Re: Force a payment that is more than the balance?

masscredit — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 23:30:22 GMT

@BH1985 wrote:
I have the same issue.

I use my bank’s bill pay feature to push the payment to the card issuer so that when the pending charges post I have a credit balance to offset them, resulting in a zero balance.

I'm looking at my main checking account now. It looks like they send a check instead of an electronic payment. I just stopped to call the bank. I was told that some credit card companies don't accept electronic transfers so they would send them a check. Others do accept them. After I hung up I thought "my regular electronic payments from my checking account go through asap". Hum...

Re: Force a payment that is more than the balance?

masscredit — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 23:35:04 GMT

@UpperNwGuy wrote:
AZEO is the cause of so much foolishness and nonsense in the world of credit cards. I wish Fair Isaac would change its FICO scoring model to eliminate the possibility of manipulating credit scores through techniques such as AZEO.

It's become a way of life for me. I usually don't think anything of it and sometimes let more cards post balances but I've been on a mission that should give me some more points so I'd like to see what I get without this little $5.99 hiccup being tossed in. Kind of my fault. I would have taken care of it if it posted sooner but there was a few day delay so I can't pay when it's pending.

Re: Force a payment that is more than the balance?

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Sep 2018 02:07:37 GMT

Your scores are in the mid 700s, what is a few point bump (if any) going to do for you? I lost 0 points on Ex (5 points on TU and 2-3 points on EQ) going from 1 card reporting $10 (AZEO) to every single charge reporting naturally on 7 out of 8 cards @ 4% UTI in an year long experiment. I agreed FICO should fix their algorithm to get rid of the meaningless scoring manipulation loopholes so everyone would go back to using autopay and make better use of their time, energy and money.

Re: Force a payment that is more than the balance?

Shadowfactor — Sat, 15 Sep 2018 02:14:38 GMT

AZEO actually hurts my score. I normally loose around 7-10 FICO 8 points depending on what bureau.

It breaks down to loosing 3-5 points for having another personal card NOT report a balance.
If I don’t have a AU card report a balance , I loose another 5-7 points.

I get the most points from 2 cards reporting under $300 balance and 1 AU card reporting a small balance of under $100

The only way to pay more then what is owed is to push a payment from your bank.

Re: Force a payment that is more than the balance?

masscredit — Sat, 15 Sep 2018 04:05:02 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Your scores are in the mid 700s, what is a few point bump (if any) going to do for you? I lost 0 points on Ex (5 points on TU and 2-3 points on EQ) going from 1 card reporting $10 (AZEO) to every single charge reporting naturally on 7 out of 8 cards @ 4% UTI in an year long experiment. I agreed FICO should fix their algorithm to get rid of the meaningless scoring manipulation loopholes so everyone would go back to using autopay and make better use of their time, energy and money.

Your right. The points I gain (if any) aren't really going to be a big deal. It's not like I'm going to pick up 50 points or I'm right on the edge of moving to the next lowest rate for a mortgage but I like to maximize my scores. It's a hobby than provides financial benefits. I mentioned I usually just have one card reporting a balance. That's usually true. I've had two reporting a balance for most of the year. I'd like to see how many points I'll gain after I pay one of them off in a few weeks ($3600). That will bring me down to one card reporting and my overall utilization will go from 11% to 8% so I maybe pick up some points from that. And finally, I'm going to pay ahead a few payments to get my auto loan to 28%. Hoping for a few points from this too. Or, I won't see any gains at all.

I think the only way for me to pay more than the balance is to do a balance transfer. That forces a payment onto the card to get it to zero or lower That can take a few days to a week depending on the card.

Re: Force a payment that is more than the balance?

HeavenOhio — Sat, 15 Sep 2018 04:23:13 GMT

@masscredit, do you have any other checking account that might allow for a push payment?

AZEO is absolutely a valuable part of the testing process to see how one's profile reacts to changes. But I wouldn't go to any great lengths to get there beyond figuring out if you can push a payment. If you can't push a payment, see how your score reacts this month with an additional card reporting, then do AZEO next month.

Re: Force a payment that is more than the balance?

masscredit — Sat, 15 Sep 2018 04:57:58 GMT

I currently have accounts at 3 banks. I checked two this evening. I'm going to see if the other will allow me to push payments through.

Re: Force a payment that is more than the balance?

Loquat — Sat, 15 Sep 2018 05:11:08 GMT

@masscredit wrote:
I currently have accounts at 3 banks. I checked two this evening. I'm going to see if the other will allow me to push payments through.

If you don't mind me asking...who's the bank/lender? I bank with BoA and all of my lenders with the acception of NFCU's Amex allows for next day (if submitted by 4pm CST) delivery. The issue that BoA has with NFCU Amex is that once you key the card number from the NFCU Amex it wants to send the payment to American Express rather than NFCU. So when I tell the system that it's not going to the pre-populated address then it immediately kicks over to sending a paper check.

I have a lot of the key players (CapOne, BoA, Chase, Citi, NFCU, PenFed, Discover, Synchrony, Wells Fargo, Amex, Barclays, TD Bank, and even Comenity all allow for next day payments on their core and co-branded cards). You don't have to disclose by any means but I'm kinda curious what lender it is that doesn't play well with your bank.

Re: Force a payment that is more than the balance?

masscredit — Sat, 15 Sep 2018 14:11:30 GMT

I mainly use DCU. Great credit union but no luck using this through them. I might try it for another card to see if it works. The other two banks I deal with are local. I called one before replying. The person I spoke to said they have to send a paper check for the first one to two payments. After that they might be able to establish an electronic relationship with them.

I have a few Cap 1 accounts and have done balance transfers with them from time to time. Some transfers take about a week after I hit submit. And then some take a day. That's a way to push a payment onto a card. It works best when it only take a day or two to make it happen.

Re: Force a payment that is more than the balance?

NRB525 — Sat, 15 Sep 2018 14:27:33 GMT

For iTunes, you can pre-fund that account, so you have a balance to draw from for most movie or music charges. Use whatever card you were going to, to set a $50 balance ahead of time, and replenish as necessary. Then you aren’t second-guessing when to rent that movie.

Same with Starbucks, get a gift card, sign up on line, and use the Starbucks card instead of a regular CC.

Re: Force a payment that is more than the balance?

masscredit — Sat, 15 Sep 2018 15:08:59 GMT

@NRB525 wrote:
For iTunes, you can pre-fund that account, so you have a balance to draw from for most movie or music charges. Use whatever card you were going to, to set a $50 balance ahead of time, and replenish as necessary. Then you aren’t second-guessing when to rent that movie.

Same with Starbucks, get a gift card, sign up on line, and use the Starbucks card instead of a regular CC.

Great advice! I didn't know that! I usually switch to Netflix as my statement closing date gets closer. That will make it easier.

Re: Force a payment that is more than the balance?

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Sep 2018 17:11:36 GMT

@UpperNwGuy wrote:
AZEO is the cause of so much foolishness and nonsense in the world of credit cards. I wish Fair Isaac would change its FICO scoring model to eliminate the possibility of manipulating credit scores through techniques such as AZEO.

I don't think its even clear that AZEO is the optimal method for utilization strategy.

Re: Force a payment that is more than the balance?

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Sep 2018 20:09:57 GMT

I often do this with my Chase cards with no issues. But I pay my cards by having Chase pull from my checking account instead of pushing a payment from my bank's bill-pay, so maybe that's the difference? I just select "other amount" on the payment page, type in the sum of the posted total balance plus any pending charges and that's that. The payment usually goes through on Chase's end in a day's time, and either I have a negative balance for a day or two until the pending charges post, or a $0 balance if the pending charges post during the day or so it takes for my payment to show up. This always happens about two days or so before I see the money come out of my checking account.