topic Re: Why does Amex let you overpay sometimes but not others? in Credit Cards

Why does Amex let you overpay sometimes but not others?

SRT4kid93 — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 03:17:08 GMT

When I first got my BCP I prepared/overpaid by $1000 and it was fine. Ever since it won't let me over pay.

I just tried to over pay again just to see and it wouldn't let me, but then I tried to over pay my gold card by $1000 and it was going to let the payment go through.

I know over paying can be a sign of money laundering, so is there a limit where you can only over pay 1 payment per cycle or something?

Re: Why does Amex let you overpay sometimes but not others?

1lifeisworthit — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 03:48:59 GMT

My Cap One cards always let me overpay by 10%.

No other card that I have has ever let me pay more than my current (full) balance.

Including American Express. Full, current balance and that's it. That's my cut off and always has been.

If I were you, I'd stop trying, in case you irritate them and alert them to nefariousness that you aren't actually doing but they'll think you are.

Re: Why does Amex let you overpay sometimes but not others?

DoppelgangerD — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 04:05:47 GMT

I agree that I wouldn't keep overpaying, especially by so much.

I overpay all the time, but just to the amount of pending charges, or charges I know I'm going to make soon.

Unless you are literally charging $1000+ at a time, that money is better off in a HYSA collecting interest, then wait till the due date to pay your balance. Making that the standard will save you money in the long run.

Of the cards I currently have, and as mentioned above, Cap1 will let you overpay somewhat, Amex lets me too, then my Chase Freedom Flex lets me overpay as well. I haven't experimented beyond pending charges with the CFF.

Re: Why does Amex let you overpay sometimes but not others?

SRT4kid93 — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 04:10:51 GMT

Strange,

yea all my other cards usually have a restriction on how much I can prepay/over pay. when I set up the payment just now on my gold card it was going to let me overpay by 1000%. But when I tried on my BCP it would only let me pay my current balance plus any pending charges but not a penny over. I was just curious why it was going to let me on my gold but not BCP.

I didn't actually do it, I just typed in the number. And usually it says something like "you can only pay up to this amount" but it would have let me post the payment had I wanted to. It was more just a curiosity thing, I'm not actually planning on doing it continuously.

the 1 time I over payed was due to a charge I knew I had coming up that would immediately eat up the $1000 prepayment.

Re: Why does Amex let you overpay sometimes but not others?

JoeRockhead — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 13:18:29 GMT

@SRT4kid93 wrote:
When I first got my BCP I prepared/overpaid by $1000 and it was fine. Ever since it won't let me over pay.

I just tried to over pay again just to see and it wouldn't let me, but then I tried to over pay my gold card by $1000 and it was going to let the payment go through.

I know over paying can be a sign of money laundering, so is there a limit where you can only over pay 1 payment per cycle or something?

The reason they'll allow almost unlimited overpayment on a charge card vs a revolver is due to how each product is structured, and regulated.

Without going into a long, mundane explanation. Revolvers, are structured on the premise of lending you money with a set credit limit, and are more heavily monitored for compliance in regards to consumer credit regulations and anti-money laundering laws.

Putting POT limits/terms aside, charge cards aren't intended to have a set spending limit. They rely more on the account holder's spending/repayment history to establish what spending limits they might, or might not approve going forward. By over paying, or pre-paying a balance (because a higher than normal purchase is forthcoming), they would be viewed more like a debit card attached to a bank account, or dare I say even as a prepaid gift card.

Unlike charge cards where PIF is expected every month, overpayment on revolvers can often trigger red flags for fraud, so... Don't do it.

Before someone says there should be no difference, or that it makes no sense, please go back to the first sentence, and read it again.

Re: Why does Amex let you overpay sometimes but not others?

dfwxjer — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 14:05:23 GMT

What is the goal of overpaying on a card? As others have noted, this might trigger a red flag with your issuer with no real benefit to you.

Re: Why does Amex let you overpay sometimes but not others?

SRT4kid93 — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 16:23:16 GMT

@JoeRockhead

that makes perfect sense, thanks for the explanation.

@dfwxjer

Don't worry as I said this is not something I will be doing regularly. I did it once because I knew I had a large purchase that would immediately eat the over payment. And then it made me curious why they allowed me to over pay that time, but not others.

so just to test it out, I pretended like I was going to make a payment on both accounts without actually doing it, just to see if they would let the overpayment go through.

and it turns out the charge card would have allowed it while the revolver would not have.

Re: Why does Amex let you overpay sometimes but not others?

creditrizz — Fri, 04 Jul 2025 02:03:58 GMT

Too long of an explanation to get into detail about, but according to most risk models a dollar spent on a charge card is typically lower risk to a lender than a dollar spent on a revolving credit card. Pre-paying increases the exposure and risk, since if the ACH is reversed at some point it could result in your defualt on more than the risk originally allocated to you by your credit limit. Since charge cards are inheritently less risky to a lender than a revolving credit line of the same amount, their model may allow pre-payment to a certain amount on a charge card but not on a higher risk revolving credit account.

Re: Why does Amex let you overpay sometimes but not others?

redpat — Fri, 04 Jul 2025 12:12:46 GMT

SMH, can someone explain to me why one would overpay?

It's counter intuitive for having credit and using a about a 45 day float.

Re: Why does Amex let you overpay sometimes but not others?

SRT4kid93 — Fri, 04 Jul 2025 17:41:48 GMT

@redpat

Well in my situation my BCP limit is far too low for my needs. I can use the entire line or credit in 1 transaction.

so for me, I knew I had a transaction that would eat my entire credit line and would need to make a payment to be able to continue using the card. So there was literally no difference. Either I prepaid before the transaction or I paid 5 minutes later after the transaction.

Re: Why does Amex let you overpay sometimes but not others?

Zoostation1 — Fri, 04 Jul 2025 17:56:35 GMT

@creditrizz That fits with DPs that show people getting approved for Green, Gold, and Platinum Amex with lower scores than BCP or BCE (and to a slightly lesser degree the cobrand hotel/airline cards, which are marginally easier to get than BCP and BCE).

Re: Why does Amex let you overpay sometimes but not others?

SRT4kid93 — Fri, 04 Jul 2025 18:03:32 GMT

@Zoostation1

yes i agree the charge cards are easier to get than their revolvers, there's plenty of data points on that.

there's just less risk, if someone has a charge card and doesnt pay in full, its much quicker and easier for them to shut down someones charge card if they wanted to.

with a credit card, its somewhat expected that some people will carry a balance, and it allows people to dig themselves into a much deeper hole.

plus the huge annual fees on the gold and plat cards that amex collects instantly certainly helps approvals. and the large spend requirements for the SUB probably dont hurt either. As an example, amex knows that if someone wants a sub on a plat, they must spend a minimum of 6-8 grand a lot of the time to get it. and anyway who is able to spend that much money on a card and pay in full every month, isnt much of a risk most of the time.

Re: Why does Amex let you overpay sometimes but not others?

NoHardLimits — Fri, 04 Jul 2025 18:55:21 GMT

@redpat wrote:
SMH, can someone explain to me why one would overpay?

It's counter intuitive for having credit and using a about a 45 day float.

I like to control my number of accounts with balances, so I pay most cards down to zero before the statements cut. When banks allow overpayment (for me, that's Amex and Chase), I can pay all pending charges without having to wait for them to fully post. Sometimes, that saves me the hassle of having to login again a few days later. On small ticket items, a 45 day float is not meaningful.

Re: Why does Amex let you overpay sometimes but not others?

redpat — Sat, 05 Jul 2025 10:55:41 GMT

@NoHardLimits wrote:
@redpat wrote:
SMH, can someone explain to me why one would overpay?

It's counter intuitive for having credit and using a about a 45 day float.
I like to control my number of accounts with balances, so I pay most cards down to zero before the statements cut. When banks allow overpayment (for me, that's Amex and Chase), I can pay all pending charges without having to wait for them to fully post. Sometimes, that saves me the hassle of having to login again a few days later. On small ticket items, a 45 day float is not meaningful.

Just saying with a thick credit history and scores over 800 there is no need to micromanage cards to that extent if you are not applying for credit, utilization has no memory. I use some of my personal cards for business so my score may bounce from 836 - 792 from time to time with some BIG balances reporting and not a peep from any.

Life has become so much easier with only having 3 personal cards and really only using 2.

Re: Why does Amex let you overpay sometimes but not others?

SRT4kid93 — Sat, 05 Jul 2025 18:03:40 GMT

@redpat

Generally I would agree with that, and I stopped micromanaging my balances and jr felt great. But then Amex starting acting funny. The 2 problems I see with that theory are

1) amex- they are regularly checking your profile and if they see sometbing they don't like, they will FR you, cut your limits, etc. they are extremely sensitive to even small changes in your profile.

2) you don't always know when you will need to apply for credit. Car breaks down, and you need to buy a new car for example

Re: Why does Amex let you overpay sometimes but not others?

JoeRockhead — Sat, 05 Jul 2025 18:45:46 GMT

@SRT4kid93 wrote:
@redpat

Generally I would agree with that, and I stopped micromanaging my balances and jr felt great. But then Amex starting acting funny. The 2 problems I see with that theory are

1) amex- they are regularly checking your profile and if they see sometbing they don't like, they will FR you, cut your limits, etc. they are extremely sensitive to even small changes in your profile. Regularly checking up on account holders applies to ALL lenders. Amex is not alone, or special in this regard. I'd disagree that they are extremely sensitive, with the exception of churners, and people with young, thin files... and people trying to over pay on a regular basis.

Re: Why does Amex let you overpay sometimes but not others?

SRT4kid93 — Sat, 05 Jul 2025 19:52:40 GMT

@JoeRockhead

all issuers regularly check but I was talking about Amex specifically.

you have been around a lot longer than me so I will defer to your judgement. But from what I've seen, it seems they do financial reviews and AA more than any other lender. (This isn't to say other lenders won't FR you)

and it also seems a common reason for FR is high sustained balances on other accounts. Even those who pay in full. At least from the stories I've seen. (Were these people telling the full story? Who knows, there could have been other things that led to the FR)

but these stories are enough to scare me into being more careful about my reported balances. (But again, my profile is

younger than most, so everyone is different)

Re: Why does Amex let you overpay sometimes but not others?

NoHardLimits — Sat, 05 Jul 2025 22:00:19 GMT

@redpat wrote:
@NoHardLimits wrote:
I like to control my number of accounts with balances, so I pay most cards down to zero before the statements cut. When banks allow overpayment (for me, that's Amex and Chase), I can pay all pending charges without having to wait for them to fully post. Sometimes, that saves me the hassle of having to login again a few days later. On small ticket items, a 45 day float is not meaningful.
Just saying with a thick credit history and scores over 800 there is no need to micromanage cards to that extent if you are not applying for credit, utilization has no memory. I use some of my personal cards for business so my score may bounce from 836 - 792 from time to time with some BIG balances reporting and not a peep from any.

I never know when I am going to pull the trigger on a new card product that I hear calling to me. I like to keep my credit profile ready to go at a moment's notice. I should only have to unfreeze my bureaus and then hit the "apply" button.

Re: Why does Amex let you overpay sometimes but not others?

Zoostation1 — Sun, 06 Jul 2025 19:15:49 GMT

@NoHardLimits wrote:
I never know when I am going to pull the trigger on a new card product that I hear calling to me. I like to keep my credit profile ready to go at a moment's notice. I should only have to unfreeze my bureaus and then hit the "apply" button.

While I still have almost 2.5yrs until my reports are clean. I'm at the point where I don't want to micromanage what reports at all anymore. I stopped doing AZE1 not quite 2yrs ago. The 3 of my cards that account for about 95% of my spend usually all get a naturally reported balance (unless I'm switching something up to let another card report that I normally wouldn't. My utilization is low enough and the difference in 3 reporting vs AZE1 is little to none on FICO8 (and minimal on other models too). Granted my scores are meh till the BK7 falls off, but unless I'm applying for a loan and need to squeeze every possible point out, I don't think my lack of AZE1 is going to be a significant factor in being approved or denied for a CC (I also probably don't want any more cards - probably won't app for anything anytime soon and will let myself get to 0 HPs (I'm 0/12 on EX and EQ, 1/12 on TU).

Re: Why does Amex let you overpay sometimes but not others?

unsungivy — Sun, 06 Jul 2025 23:45:55 GMT

So, today I wanted to pay off the pending charges, since my statement date is soon. They won't let me pay the full amount! I come up shy 14 cents, WT*F*!! 😭