topic Re: Flexible Spending Credit Cards - How Much Over Limit? in Credit Cards

Flexible Spending Credit Cards - How Much Over Limit?

simplynoir — Tue, 03 Nov 2020 23:01:55 GMT

I tried researching this the past few days with little success probably because not many people would want to utilize the feature of a card with a flexible spending limit. So was hoping there were some experiences from any forum members here that have

My situation as shown in screenshot above is currently I'm using my BofA Premium Rewards card as a business card because it's the best way to earn cash on non-category spend with Platinum Honors status. Now even with the sizeable limit my card has the purchases for the whole month exceeds my limit so I'm having to cycle the limit several times a statement period because I don't want to spend over the soft limit. BofA did call to inquire about the purchases/cycling awhile ago and after explaining the charges BofA was fine with it as long as they were legitimate purchases. Been slowly but surely steering spending away from AMEX Biz Platinum because we don't want MRs with no travel planned anytime soon and cash is always nice

What I want to know is has anyone gone way farther than what your limit is when purchasing anything. There are advantages the AMEX card has and why it's been our workhorse: we haven't had a charge declined yet, the purchasing power allows us to carry a six digit bill and helps to not worry about it, and spending power tool can help whenever we're unsure. While it's not an issue for the most part I would like to not pay the PR card pretty much every week to free up the credit limit. I'll more than likely attempt a CLI request to see about getting more but I'll have to call them since link is unavailable right now

I tried looking this up both on forum and web with no success. Calling BofA produced similar results since they gave the usual spiel of it being a case by case basis and to call if the charge gets declined which doesn't help

Any help/datapoints would be appreciated!

Re: Flexible Spending Credit Cards - How Much Over Limit?

Remedios — Tue, 03 Nov 2020 23:10:07 GMT

I only did it with AR, went $3000 over the limit.

Called them beforehand to inform them of the large future charge, got standard "your visa infinite allows you to go over the limit" but when I asked is $3000 too much (that was a third of my limit at the time), she simply stated "System decides"

I've only had the card maybe 3 or 4 months and I was surprised they let it go through.

Re: Flexible Spending Credit Cards - How Much Over Limit?

K-in-Boston — Tue, 03 Nov 2020 23:19:25 GMT

This is absolutely a YMMV situation. Usually it ends up being somewhere around 10-50% above the limit in practice. About 3.5 years ago I was having issues with my then-$21k limit on the Amex SPG card and consistently went over my limit by about $5-9k a month (with a payment already scheduled and then I was well under the limit again before statement closing) and they never flinched. With your profile, I would think $15-30k over your limit might be okay with BOA as long as you're making statement balance payments in full each month. Unfortunately, most lenders are not keen on disclosing their cutoff so it really would be a case of use it unless/until it's declined and have a backup card handy.

Re: Flexible Spending Credit Cards - How Much Over Limit?

Trikoret — Tue, 03 Nov 2020 23:19:42 GMT

Try asking for a limit increase if you haven't asked one within 90 days. It's only a soft pull on credit report. The max i can get is 120k with my premium card. I used to put 200k a month on but I used to make weekly payments.

Re: Flexible Spending Credit Cards - How Much Over Limit?

simplynoir — Tue, 03 Nov 2020 23:24:08 GMT

@Remedios wrote:
I only did it with AR, went $3000 over the limit.
Called them beforehand to inform them of the large future charge, got standard "your visa infinite allows you to go over the limit" but when I asked is $3000 too much (that was a third of my limit at the time), she simply stated "System decides"
I've only had the card maybe 3 or 4 months and I was surprised they let it go through.

Thanks for the datapoint. Even with a moderate sized limit glad to see they didn't decline a charge that was 1/3 over your credit line. Wonder what factors they take into account with charges like this because the information is very lacking. Has been a very frustrating few days on that front. Can only make assumptions on the usual suspects (time, spend, ability to pay, perhaps even DTI, and so on)

Re: Flexible Spending Credit Cards - How Much Over Limit?

wasCB14 — Tue, 03 Nov 2020 23:30:28 GMT

~$40k on a $13k Amex BBP. Mostly estimated tax payments. Low balances on other Amex cards.

Never tried with BofA.

Re: Flexible Spending Credit Cards - How Much Over Limit?

simplynoir — Tue, 03 Nov 2020 23:48:58 GMT

@K-in-Boston wrote:
This is absolutely a YMMV situation. Usually it ends up being somewhere around 10-50% above the limit in practice. About 3.5 years ago I was having issues with my then-$21k limit on the Amex SPG card and consistently went over my limit by about $5-9k a month (with a payment already scheduled and then I was well under the limit again before statement closing) and they never flinched. With your profile, I would think $15-30k over your limit might be okay with BOA as long as you're making statement balance payments in full each month. Unfortunately, most lenders are not keen on disclosing their cutoff so it really would be a case of use it unless/until it's declined and have a backup card handy.

Balance gets paid in full before the statement generates at 200k-300k on average though it's going up the last few months. If this was AMEX I'd roll the dice since til the last few years they were the bulk of my credit card life. I don't imagine them declining a decent size charge above the credit limit. But BofA has me hesitant. I would like to think being Platinum Honors should hold some weight but it's not something I'm comfortable testing at least without more datapoints.

Re: Flexible Spending Credit Cards - How Much Over Limit?

simplynoir — Tue, 03 Nov 2020 23:53:49 GMT

@Trikoret wrote:
Try asking for a limit increase if you haven't asked one within 90 days. It's only a soft pull on credit report. The max i can get is 120k with my premium card. I used to put 200k a month on but I used to make weekly payments.

I haven't asked for a CLI in awhile so it's on the table. Will probably pull the trigger fairly soon if not tomorrow on that. And that's more or less our situation as well. Not use to putting so many payments on a card on limit this size but biz expenses don't play around

Re: Flexible Spending Credit Cards - How Much Over Limit?

Trikoret — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 00:10:11 GMT

@simplynoir wrote:
@Trikoret wrote:
Try asking for a limit increase if you haven't asked one within 90 days. It's only a soft pull on credit report. The max i can get is 120k with my premium card. I used to put 200k a month on but I used to make weekly payments.
I haven't asked for a CLI in awhile so it's on the table. Will probably pull the trigger fairly soon if not tomorrow on that. And that's more or less our situation as well. Not use to putting so many payments on a card on limit this size but biz expenses don't play around

Ask for the sky when you apply. They'll let you know how high you can go. I got a total 220k credit line with BofA between 3 cards. That's the max BofA was willing to give me.

Re: Flexible Spending Credit Cards - How Much Over Limit?

Harvey26 — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 01:26:07 GMT

@simplynoir When I worked for them a couple years back. I dealt specifically with Prefered Rewards Customers. BOA is big on relationship and deposit balances. I have seen BOA credit lines 100K plus but they are few far and in between and most of those people have significant balances. As far as going over the limit it really is a system thing.

Re: Flexible Spending Credit Cards - How Much Over Limit?

simplynoir — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 01:36:03 GMT

@Harvey26 wrote:
@simplynoir When I worked for them a couple years back. I dealt specifically with Prefered Rewards Customers. BOA is big on relationship and deposit balances. I have seen BOA credit lines 100K plus but they are few far and in between and most of those people have significant balances. As far as going over the limit it really is a system thing.

Any numbers, if you have any, on what they're looking for to get that high. @Trikoret mentions BofA giving high amounts of limits but I want it more concentrated on one card

Re: Flexible Spending Credit Cards - How Much Over Limit?

Harvey26 — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 01:45:24 GMT

@simplynoir I would say at least 500K+ , 1M would be better. That way you really have some leverage. Your spend is there. But I would request a CLI first. Do you have higher trades than 65K?

Re: Flexible Spending Credit Cards - How Much Over Limit?

imaximous — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 01:49:38 GMT

I haven't spent over the limit on the PR, but close to the $68k limit on it. I'm lucky I can use Apple Pay on the majority of my big purchases.

I do go over the limit on the USB AR all the time though. Not by a lot, but I've charged over $50k on its $40k limit. I never tried to go beyond that to test how much I can charge before I get declined. Maybe I'm being overly cautious, but something about USB that tells me they're not the bank to play games with.

I've also cycled the AR many times. The most I've spent in a single statement cycle is over $120k. I think I may be due to request a limit increase.

Amex was a different animal altogether. I think I've gone up to double the limit on both BBP ($30k limit) and Amazon ($50k limit). However, I noticed that the Amazon card became really restrictive in the last couple of months. They wouldn't approve anything over the $50k limit. I think it's because they were nerfing the 5% on the card to $120k per year. I'm still really annoyed about it, so I had to switch all Amazon spend the Chase Amazon card. I had a decent set up with both Amazon cards at $50k, and now I'm down to 1 only. BTW, I've also charged at least $10k over the limit on the Chase card.

Re: Flexible Spending Credit Cards - How Much Over Limit?

Trikoret — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 01:55:13 GMT

@simplynoir wrote:
@Harvey26 wrote:
@simplynoir When I worked for them a couple years back. I dealt specifically with Prefered Rewards Customers. BOA is big on relationship and deposit balances. I have seen BOA credit lines 100K plus but they are few far and in between and most of those people have significant balances. As far as going over the limit it really is a system thing.
Any numbers, if you have any, on what they're looking for to get that high. @Trikoret mentions BofA giving high amounts of limits but I want it more concentrated on one card

I actually read online people getting credit limit of 84k and up with low usage. Your bank balance might help but your usage might be the upper hand. One time I made a charge on my card and it declined cause I entered my wrong info. A few minutes later BofA called me and said they like to help me push that charge thru. The guys said he was worried I was going to use a different credit card lol. They know your usage and payment history. So hopefully that'll help you

Re: Flexible Spending Credit Cards - How Much Over Limit?

wasCB14 — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 02:03:10 GMT

I currently have about $500k in Edge. $17k SL on PR, $21k SL on WWFCR. Never asked them for a CLI, and I've never gotten one automatically.

Re: Flexible Spending Credit Cards - How Much Over Limit?

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 02:38:19 GMT

@Harvey26 wrote:
@simplynoir When I worked for them a couple years back. I dealt specifically with Prefered Rewards Customers. BOA is big on relationship and deposit balances. I have seen BOA credit lines 100K plus but they are few far and in between and most of those people have significant balances. As far as going over the limit it really is a system thing.

So @simplynoir , maybe this is the wrong site. Need to go to an IT forum and ask "anyone here programmed approvals for BoA credit card transactions?" Might luck out!

Re: Flexible Spending Credit Cards - How Much Over Limit?

simplynoir — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 03:07:32 GMT

@Harvey26 wrote:
@simplynoir I would say at least 500K+ , 1M would be better. That way you really have some leverage. Your spend is there. But I would request a CLI first. Do you have higher trades than 65K?

I believe I have 150k-200k in assets with BofA right now, I only put enough there to qualify for PH though they have been, ahem, "insistent" on wanting more or even all of it. Most of my other assets is spread out with other FIs. As for tradelines the only other one coming close is the AMEX Marriott card sitting at $51k that I got two years ago I wanna say. Haven't ask for an increase on that card in 2+ years

Re: Flexible Spending Credit Cards - How Much Over Limit?

Harvey26 — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 03:19:47 GMT

@simplynoir I would try for the cli and see where you get before moving any more money you might get a 80K SL

Re: Flexible Spending Credit Cards - How Much Over Limit?

simplynoir — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 03:27:57 GMT

@imaximous wrote:
I haven't spent over the limit on the PR, but close to the $68k limit on it. I'm lucky I can use Apple Pay on the majority of my big purchases.

I do go over the limit on the USB AR all the time though. Not by a lot, but I've charged over $50k on its $40k limit. I never tried to go beyond that to test how much I can charge before I get declined. Maybe I'm being overly cautious, but something about USB that tells me they're not the bank to play games with.
I've also cycled the AR many times. The most I've spent in a single statement cycle is over $120k. I think I may be due to request a limit increase.
Amex was a different animal altogether. I think I've gone up to double the limit on both BBP ($30k limit) and Amazon ($50k limit). However, I noticed that the Amazon card became really restrictive in the last couple of months. They wouldn't approve anything over the $50k limit. I think it's because they were nerfing the 5% on the card to $120k per year. I'm still really annoyed about it, so I had to switch all Amazon spend the Chase Amazon card. I had a decent set up with both Amazon cards at $50k, and now I'm down to 1 only. BTW, I've also charged at least $10k over the limit on the Chase card.

@imaximous, some great datapoints here thank you

*sigh* You saying that about Apple Pay for USB AR tempts me. And request that CLI, yo!

So, it looks like between the fact BofA already knows how I roll pounding this card to the ground, the total charges get all paid off before each statement period ends more or less, and being PH in their Preferred Rewards program should bode well then. I think if they are just generous enough on the CLI request to get me close to a six digit CL I'll gladly switch over most non-category business spend to them and let AMEX sit there as a backup til travel is a realistic possibility again. Split evenly give or take right now

AMEX, yeah, I agree there. I'd be more insulted if they declined any transaction on a non-charge card to a certain point with the money we've given especially the last few years. Despite what people say about them if you have the spend they'll take it any way they can get it. This goes for Chase as well

Re: Flexible Spending Credit Cards - How Much Over Limit?

simplynoir — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 03:30:44 GMT

@Harvey26 wrote:
@simplynoir I would try for the cli and see where you get before moving any more money you might get a 80K SL

I won't move any more into BofA. They'll have to settle with what's already in there lol. And there are several here that don't have any relationship or at minimal and got to the 99.9k threshold so that's my goal