topic Re: AMEX Plan It on Charge Cards in Credit Cards

AMEX Plan It on Charge Cards

NRB525 — Tue, 12 May 2020 13:08:04 GMT

Reading through the back pages of my AMEX Green statement today, was first disappointed they are removing "Pay Over Time Select".

However the good news is, they are activating "Plan It" on this Green Charge Card. I much prefer the Plan It to the POT Select option. The terminology in the Disclosures doc still refers to it as "Pay over Time Balance" but then also refers to a Plan Amount. So this probably will still be a form of "Pay Over Time" in the NPSL, but with a more focused offer of how many months to pay it off, as Plan It does.

Next question is whether a Plan It on a NPSL card has a similar limit of availabilty to the POT limit. My POT limit on the Green is $5,000. POT on the Platinum and Gold are $35,000 each.

Re: AMEX Plan It on Charge Cards

M_Smart007 — Tue, 12 May 2020 15:22:24 GMT

To be honest, I never use POT .. no real loss.

Re: AMEX Plan It on Charge Cards

Anonymous — Tue, 12 May 2020 16:42:26 GMT

I've only used Plan it once for an unexpected bill and wanted a little extra time to absorb the hit.

The only real benefit to it being on a Charge versus Credit, IMO, would be the no UT factor because it's an internal limit. So if a person wanted to and got a good rate, you could max out that $5K and it wouldn't report as maxed out. While on a regular CC it would increase UT.

Re: AMEX Plan It on Charge Cards

wasCB14 — Tue, 12 May 2020 18:12:37 GMT

@M_Smart007 wrote:
To be honest, I never use POT .. no real loss.

I've seen and used no-fee Plan It offers on revolvers, but only heard of the usual 10%-20% garbage "APR equivalents" on charge cards.

Re: AMEX Plan It on Charge Cards

NRB525 — Wed, 13 May 2020 04:33:07 GMT

@wasCB14 wrote:
@M_Smart007 wrote:
To be honest, I never use POT .. no real loss.
I've seen and used no-fee Plan It offers on revolvers, but only heard of the usual 10%-20% garbage "APR equivalents" on charge cards.

I will be watching for the ability to Plan It for some items. The interest rate / Fee Rate for the AMEX Revolvers is a reasonable APR, particularly if you just want to float a "balance" for a couple of months. Hopefully a similarly relatively low rate is available on the Chargers Plan It.

As with the Revolver Plan It, the main advantage is keeping the interest-charged portion of your card balance apart from the ongoing spend on the card. Quite important with the AMEX charge cards and their high earning rewards categories.

Re: AMEX Plan It on Charge Cards

joltdude — Wed, 13 May 2020 13:29:54 GMT

How does one figure out the APR equivalent of a Plan-it fee when its not zero... have tried to do this but havent quite figured out the maths for it.... Plan it fee of x for y months = a rough APR of ....

I havent seen it mentioned anywhere when initiating a plan it and think this would be good to know...

-J

Re: AMEX Plan It on Charge Cards

Anonymous — Wed, 13 May 2020 16:23:11 GMT

You'd have to know what your daily periodic rate is, then add that up over the terms of the proposed plan it time frame is. For a rough estimate say your APR is 20% on a balance of $1K, which would be around $.55 per day for about $16 per statement period. Give or take.

Individual results may vary

Re: AMEX Plan It on Charge Cards

NRB525 — Wed, 13 May 2020 20:20:24 GMT

I created a Plan It on my Hilton card in January. $1,431 amount. Monthly fee of $9.48, so 0.6% per month on the original amount. Minimum calculated rate then is 8%, however as you pay down the plan over the term, the remaining balance drops, so the interest rate steadily increases.

But one of the advantages of Plan It is, you can pay it off to stop the monthly fees, so can be a good source of short term financing.

Re: AMEX Plan It on Charge Cards

Anonymous — Wed, 13 May 2020 23:12:16 GMT

Do you know if it's just the Green, or if it's being dropped altogether? I logged in today to check on Amex offers, and decided to check those options and both were still available on Gold. I thought about switching it to Select, but figured since I don't use POT anyways there's no need.

Re: AMEX Plan It on Charge Cards

NRB525 — Wed, 13 May 2020 23:18:04 GMT

POT Select due to go away Aug 1. I had set the Green to Select, don't know yet if Gold or Platinum changed, stmts are not here yet. Gold is on Select, Platinum on Direct as I had not changed that one to Select yet, just wrapping up a promo on Platinum POT.

Re: AMEX Plan It on Charge Cards

Anonymous — Thu, 14 May 2020 16:58:29 GMT

Ah, okay. I don't read statements, i just pay the amount due. lol

So I heavn't heard/read of the news it's going away. I wonder if it's because no one was using it, similar to the benefits that MC axed becasue of non use?

Re: AMEX Plan It on Charge Cards

NRB525 — Thu, 14 May 2020 23:09:48 GMT

I think Plan It is probably popular in the AMEX revolvers. POT is marketed using an APR in the 20% range, probably not popular.

Plan It uses a smaller number for the "monthly fee rate" which has better optics to customers. The "create a Plan" steps where the cardholder reviews the offer is much more transparent than the POT method.

Re: AMEX Plan It on Charge Cards

Anonymous — Fri, 15 May 2020 01:14:38 GMT

I received this notice as well on my recent ZYNC statement. At first, I believed Pay Over Time was completely going away. It isn't.

There are two options currently with Pay Over Time. Pay Over Time Direct (they automatically place any transaction of $100 or more into PoT) and Pay Over Time Select (you log in, and transfer charges that you want to go into PoT).

Beginning in August, for my account anyway, Pay Over Time Direct, is simply being renamed Pay Over Time. Pay Over Time Select is being removed.

After the changes are made, cardholders will have the option of turing Pay Over Time "On" and "Off."

TL DR : Pay Over Time Select (you choose what goes to PoT) is going away; but Pay Over Time Direct (Amex automatically places $100+ transactions into PoT) remains and will simply be called Pay Over Time. This feature can be turned on or off by the cardholder.

Re: AMEX Plan It on Charge Cards

NRB525 — Fri, 15 May 2020 03:14:44 GMT

Yah, I am trying to get all my chargers off POT Direct, to POT Select. Platinum was on a special offer rate at POT Direct, will change that in a few weeks.

So if it turns out there is a toggle to on/off POT in August, mine will be off.

I will be happy to look at the Plan It feature on certain charges, but I don't like the idea of every charge over $100 ending up in a 20% POT bucket. That becomes just like a non-AMEX Revolver you let carry a balance. That's why I was getting away from POT Direct in the first place.

Re: AMEX Plan It on Charge Cards

jamesdwi — Fri, 15 May 2020 22:18:13 GMT

Make you turn off the auto-transfer to pay-over time, The updates, make seems like everything over $100 is moved to Pay Over Time with a nice fee up to 1.3%, if you don't plan on using it, you could get killed on fees if you leave auto mode on.

Re: AMEX Plan It on Charge Cards

Citylights18 — Sat, 16 May 2020 05:01:10 GMT

AMEX has a calculator for Plan IT. I didn't know it was being added to charge cards as an option but seems potentially useful.

https://www.americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/features-benefits/plan-it/prospect-Calculator.html

Remodeling a kitchen for 15,000 you could split it up into 6 equal payments of 2,625 and be done with it.

One of the things I've heard is that you are required to stick payment plan unless you knock out the remainder PIF. Its best then I think to go with a 6 month split over a 24 month split where after 12 months it still might be too much to PIF.

Re: AMEX Plan It on Charge Cards

NRB525 — Sat, 16 May 2020 11:53:37 GMT

@Citylights18 wrote:
AMEX has a calculator for Plan IT. I didn't know it was being added to charge cards as an option but seems potentially useful.

https://www.americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/features-benefits/plan-it/prospect-Calculator.html

Remodeling a kitchen for 15,000 you could split it up into 6 equal payments of 2,625 and be done with it.

One of the things I've heard is that you are required to stick payment plan unless you knock out the remainder PIF. Its best then I think to go with a 6 month split over a 24 month split where after 12 months it still might be too much to PIF.

Not sure I follow. The Plan you create comes with a minimum payment rate over the term you create. You can pay more than that each month.

The Plan also comes with a set Fee each month of the plan. The monthly fee does not change if you pay it faster, but once you pay off the Plan, the Fee stops.

Before embarking on a $15k 24 month plan, I would suggest starting with a +$100 grocery charge. Put that on a 3 month plan, let it show up on the statement so you see how it is structured, and then pay it off with the second payment so you see how it closes up.

AMEX Plan It is unique, innovative, and in my opinion cardholders actually experiencing it is the only way to really understand it for themselves.

Re: AMEX Plan It on Charge Cards

Anonymous — Sat, 16 May 2020 18:06:32 GMT

So i'm guessing that Amex decided it was simply too confusing having two seperate POT options? Or that they experienced enough issues with cardholders over the differrence to warrant the change?

Because why would they opt to keep the automatic version versus the one the cardholder can choose?

Re: AMEX Plan It on Charge Cards

NRB525 — Mon, 18 May 2020 09:19:37 GMT

After August 1 it will become more obvious how this is actually implemented. Part of that implementation should include refinement of how autopay options work. I have my revolvers set up to pay the Scheduled amount, which is the Pan It minimum payment plus all other new charges as PIF.

I plan to only use Plan It, so if there is an opt-out for POT, or a specific description of autopay types, I will be using either or both to not have POT, only have Plan It.

Re: AMEX Plan It on Charge Cards

LuvsRetro — Mon, 18 May 2020 10:36:45 GMT

Amex has been sending me banner offers on the Plan It......no fee and zero interest to end of May...we needed a new outboard and got a great deal from the local dealer so I logged in last week to make sure I asked for the transaction amount to be approved which is just under 14k which is half of credit line. Purchased the motor the next morning and waited 2 days then set up the Plan it deal. We got 12 months but plan on paying it off prior. Waiting to see how it reports and what effect it will be on the score. Anyway it seems to be a nice feature. Will be doing the same on one of DHs cards this week for a 54 in zero turn.