AMEX Gold payment change

[Anonymous]

---

@K-in-Boston wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

@UncleB wrote:

---

@NRB525 wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

@PDXoriginal wrote:

There is no such thing as Plan It on a Amex charge card.

Likely you auto qualified for Pay Over Time Direct which automatically moves charges over $100 to the pay over time balance. Pay off the entire balance, the interest rate on pay over time is ridiculious.

---

I have POT on my Gold and just recently, I got a notice that everything, no matter the amount, will get put in POT *unless* you opt out of it. Also, in doing that, they charge interest immediately instead of waiting till the next statement cuts. 

If you have POT on your card, it won't affect it, just the smaller charges under 100.

---

While they did change the method, where all charges over $100 go into a new subtotal section on the first page of the Charge card statement, that does not immediately begin charging interest.  I have both Platinum and Gold, each is set on autopay to pay the New Balance, and that works the same way, to pay all statement charges. Only if you pay something less than the New Balance does interest begin on that carried Pay Over Time amount. That POT interest rate is so onerous that one should not go more than a month or two before catching it up again.  

Having the two subtotal sections of the first page is the same format as Revolvers where one might have a Plan It balance.  The Plan It eligible charges still need to be identified and accepted for the Plan It offer fees to begin.  

---

+1

I have pay over time direct, and I've also never had any issues with interest.  I simply pay the total balance in full, and ignore the lower amount.  I do like having the option in the event of an emergency, though.

I only wish I had waited for a MR offer to add it... LOL.  I was so excited to be offered POT at the time my new card was activated that I quickly accepted without hesitation. 

---

I had the Platinum first, then they approved me for the PRG. Soon after, couple months or so, they gave me POT on the PRG but refused it on the Platinum. That irritated me! Anyways, when I initially got the notification of the Direct thing, I looked at it and thought "Are they turning this into a revolver?". I dug deep and discovered that they want to charge interest earlier and I went "NOPE", opted out of that uberfast! I like the POT, but I'm not paying their interest on crap that costs $5...

PRG = New Gold

---

To confirm the two posts prior to this, being enrolled in POT does not mean that you will start paying interest, unless you do not pay the statement balance in full prior to the following due date.  Balances that are automatically placed into POT do not begin accruing interest until the next statement generates.  Unlike revolving credit cards, having a balance in POT does not cause you to lose your grace period on new purchases, which is similar to how Plan It works except that the balance will accrue interest at your card's APR rather than with a set monthly fee.  Between two charge cards, I carried nearly a $50k POT balance for YEARS at 14.x%, but one of those was my daily driver so I can certainly speak from experience on this one.

---

I stand corrected. 

I deactivated the POT Direct. I like having a card that forces me to PIF, helps me keep stupid spending down... I do have Select, which is useful, but it helps me keep from paying interest on the smaller things I might charge to that card.

[NRB525]

I may have to assign one of my POT eligible charges to POT just to confirm for myself that the rest of the charges are left alone. My POT rates are 20% if I recall, but for science, all things are useful.

First step is to figure out where the button is...

[K-in-Boston]

---

@NRB525 wrote:
I may have to assign one of my POT eligible charges to POT just to confirm for myself that the rest of the charges are left alone. My POT rates are 20% if I recall, but for science, all things are useful.

First step is to figure out where the button is...

---

https://global.americanexpress.com/lending/pay-over-time

And ouch, with the increases in prime rates over the past few years it's really gone up.  Fortunately, all of my Amex accounts have been PIF the past 4 years, so no worries.  But pretty much everything on my Gold and Platinum end up in POT balance by default.

[Anonymous]

This has been the case on mine now for a few months, I just PIF instead of the min amount due. It's a charge after all. I can see how it can be confusing though, it was for me the fist time it happened. It's not bothering me enough to have it removed though. 

[althes]

Funny if the rate was 9.99% it would make a whole lotta difference.