AmEx multiple payments FYI

Anonymous · ‎04-17-2017

I received an AmEx card recently and made a large purchase split into two payments of $8205 each. I paid the first one last week then charged the second payment Friday. It posted to my account over the weekend. This morning when I went online to pay, there was no option to - just a message that says no payment due at this time.

According to the chat session I had with them, if you set up a bank account to pay your bill from, for the first 30 days, you are limited to one payment every 7 days. After the first 30 days, you can pay as often as you wish.

Just wanted to pass that on in case someone runs into this issue close to statement date. Fortunately, I can pay the balance off on Friday before my statement cuts next Monday. I've never seen anything like this with any other bank. Anyone else seen it??

HeavenOhio · ‎04-17-2017

That's interesting about the 7-day thing. I hadn't heard that before.

If you have a statement balance, you're free to pay as you see fit until the balance is covered.

The thing to do is set up your bank account immediately upon opening the card. That kicks in the 30-day thing right away, and it'll be out of the way well before your first actual due date.

rex_03 · ‎04-17-2017

Yes, moons ago I had this same issue with my first new Amex card. You couldn't do multiple payments, but you can and should be able to push a pament from your financial institution though.. After thirty days as mentioned, your good to go..

Anonymous · ‎04-17-2017

Thanks for the info!

I am also going through this right now :/ Recently got Amex BCE and I made a payment last week, and I was trying to do another one a little while ago but couldn't so started to search here for answers! I saw some people also say that you can make one payment online from a computer (that's what I did last week) and also another from the mobile app. I have like 2 pending charges that should post by tomorrow, so I will give that a shot, making a payment from my phone and hope it works. Maybe you can try today and see if it works for you?

Edit: So I tried to do it from the mobile app and it still didn't work lol that sucks!

Anonymous · ‎04-17-2017

I also spoke to a rep on the phone today and she explained further that it can take 10 days for the funds from your bank account to actually get to AmEx and that's part of the reason. When I told her that my bank had deducted the payment on Friday, she said she would follow up and if that payment was received ok than the 30 day thing "probably won't matter". She also said if I wanted, she could put someone on the phone to take the payment I wanted to make. I told her I'd wait until Friday and make the payment online.

I just don't want it reporting when the statement cuts with 80% utilization on the one card, hence my reason for paying it early.

Anonymous · ‎04-17-2017

That happened last month with our new Amex BCP card. We charged $10K paid $5K and 2 days later wanted pay another $3K and it would not let us. We waited for the next statement instead. It did not report thank goodness. DW used to have another card who ? that allowed only 1 online payment per statement.

Watchmann · ‎04-17-2017

New card holders have that 7 day restriction for the first billing cycle, that is just the way AX operates. No big deal. After that you can make muliple payments. Don't sweat it, just wait for the billing cycle to generate the statement and then pay it. No need to try to work around it, you aren't getting any bonus points for paying early and the slight hit on your credit score will be fleeting. People tend to overwork the credit score angle, just let it work. Been an AX holder continuously since 1980, no need to sweat the first month's restrictions.

HeavenOhio · ‎04-17-2017

I made the one payment I was allowed before the first statement cut. Then I paid to zero right after the 30 days were up. And I paid to zero again just before the second payment cut. All of the payments worked fine, and they were each processed within 24 hours or so.

I wasn't concerned about the balance on my first statement as so many people here said that AMEX would be unlikely to report. I figured that would be an opportunity to get a number into the "high balance" field that wasn't ridiculously low while not affecting my score. As a matter of fact, I wish my first statement balance would have been a little higher. It would have been had my sign-up bonus not come through.

This would have been a little tougher to pull off with higher charges and/or a lower limit. If possible, I'd suggest working out your spending so it fits into the 30-day restrictions. And I'll reiterate: set up your bank account right away so the restrictions will be lifted well before the second statement cuts.

Mattopotamus · ‎04-18-2017

@Watchmann wrote:
New card holders have that 7 day restriction for the first billing cycle, that is just the way AX operates. No big deal. After that you can make muliple payments. Don't sweat it, just wait for the billing cycle to generate the statement and then pay it. No need to try to work around it, you aren't getting any bonus points for paying early and the slight hit on your credit score will be fleeting. People tend to overwork the credit score angle, just let it work. Been an AX holder continuously since 1980, no need to sweat the first month's restrictions.

came here to say the same thing. It is just for new cards during the first billing cycle. It applies to both charge cards and the credit cards.

Anonymous · ‎04-18-2017

There have been a couple of threads that talked about this in the past but I'm too lazy to find them. All info is correct about it stopping after your fisrt billing statment,

As an additional FYI, this is also true of new cards even if you already have an Amex account. I had this problem in Feb for my BCP and now have it again with my new PRG.