topic Re: AMEX Payments in Credit Cards

AMEX Payments

shane82388 — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:22:03 GMT

So im new to AMEX and have only made one payment. I have a balance of a few hundred bucks this month already and my statment doesnt cut until the 28th so I was going to pay it down a bit before then to keep my balance lower. I found that you cant make a payment until your statment cuts...

Should I avoid making a payment til it cuts through my banks bill pay or is that going to be considered a positive thing? I dont want to throw up any red flags unintentionally....I just want to baby this card as much as I possibly can to build a relationship up.

Whats the best course of action?

Re: AMEX Payments

nuggets321 — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:56:28 GMT

Very good question, I actually JUST received my card and would like to know as well..... maybe one of the moderators or super contributors could help ?

Re: AMEX Payments

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:12:12 GMT

Actually shane, You CAN make a payment for today, but you wont be able to SCHEDULE a payment till after the statement closes on the 28th. you'll then have the ability to schedule a payment after your closing date and BEFORE your DUE date. if im not mistaken, youre allowed to schedule payments btw 29th and 12th. its usually 2 weeks for me between closing date and due date.

as far as not showing a high balance, can someone give their advice? i personally dont like to report high balances anymore on my amex charge or any of my revolving accounts.

i do want to know what i should report on a charge ( open ) account though after ive reported a high balance.

Re: AMEX Payments

Walt_K — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:31:55 GMT

You will be able to make midcycle payments via Amex's online system after your first statement. This is only a temporary restriction.

If you want to make a payment using your bank's billpay for the first payment, shouldn't be a problem. I don't think it would be a red flag. Lots of people use their bank's billpay to push payments.

As for whether you want it to report a high balance, it doesn't matter for the most part for an Amex charge. Their charge products are ignored for utilization purposes except for TU98 which is the version of TU that you can get on this site. On TU98, it will use your high balance in place of a credit limit. There's nothing wrong with having a high balance. It just means that for that one month your TU98 will consider the card maxed out. The next month assuming you pay the balance down, the effect will be gone and you'll have a higher effective total CL on TU98. EQ and EX won't consider it all.

Re: AMEX Payments

flyingmd — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 12:40:06 GMT

For the first month with AMEX (and many other CC ) you CANT make an online payment because you have a 0 balance. The way I did it is through my banks bill pay. It takes a day or 2 longer to post but at least I am pushing payments on the account. You can also send them a check. But with AMEX they wont let you make an online payment first month or the when adding a new bank account until the next charge cycle. So if I was you I would add the AMEX account to my banks bill pay and make payments like that. After the first AMEX statement posts you will be able to make online payments to AMEX through AMEX site once every 24 hours pretty much.

Re: AMEX Payments

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 16:08:05 GMT

Im new to Amex as well...and my question is when i looked at my statement online, there is spending limit set....what does that mean?

Re: AMEX Payments

SevenNEW — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 03:00:25 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Im new to Amex as well...and my question is when i looked at my statement online, there is spending limit set....what does that mean?

Well, do you have a charge or a credit card? They work quite differently in terms of credit limit...

Re: AMEX Payments

CS800 — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 03:03:54 GMT

Does the charge card' balance report as CL?

Example:

Balance : $2000

Credit LIMIT : $2000

So it will seem like the card im using 100% of this card?

Re: AMEX Payments

shane82388 — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 04:03:12 GMT

Normally no because normally they don't have a preset spending limit but some people seem to get a limit even of its a charge card...if its a charge card the max balance shouldnt be considered into the credit score equation as far as I know...these days they are aware of excluding charge cards from utilization because it would appear its maxed out all the time otherwise.

Re: AMEX Payments

Odiseous — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 06:04:11 GMT

@SevenNEW wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Im new to Amex as well...and my question is when i looked at my statement online, there is spending limit set....what does that mean?
Well, do you have a charge or a credit card? They work quite differently in terms of credit limit...

That's the maximum you can have charged on the card at any given time. If you charge $1800 on a $2000 limit, that leaves $200 left that you can charge, before you hit (or exceed) your maximum limit.

Is the card you have one that has to be paid in full every month? Or can you spread the payments over multiple statements (AmEx calls it 'pay over time')?

If you're unsure; you can always just post which type of AmEx you have. Someone will chime in.

examples:

Charge cards (Pay in full each month):

Green

Zync

Gold

Platinum

Credit cards (Pay over time):

Blue Cash Everyday

True Cash from Costco

Clear