To kind of answer your question. When you us the tool AmEx is excepting you to use that amount or at least close to it with a few days to a week or so of checking it. That's what the tool is for. So, Im sure they look at the big picture. If you make a CSP request of say $50K and you normally soend a max on a single charge of say $5K, then after your request a charge of $23K is attempted and cleared they will assume that was the charge from the request. So, YES you really need to request an amount closer to what you know the charge will be instead of maxing the request out (which also takes me to this below..).
The problem AmEx has with the Check Spending Power tool is that way too many, matter of fact most of the folks who use never intend to spend that money. They use simply to check and see how much "unwritten credit limit" they have on that card for some reason. I guess it strokes their egos. But AmEx frowns on that big time and the over use of it has in some cases caused AmEx to do FR on some of those folks and even in rare cases closed accounts.
At that level of spend, you've exceeded my authorization level to approve it.
Best to call the number on the card, to talk with a CSR and explain the anticipated flow of charges. They can also tell you what your internal limit is on the card, which is a more relevant number than Check Spending Power. They can also potentially influence the AMEX Bot to handle the volume of spend.
My opinion of the Check Spending Power would be for a one, maybe two charge sequence, not for a generalized large flow of charges over several weeks.
Good luck!
@wasCB14 wrote:
@NRB525 wrote:At that level of spend, you've exceeded my authorization level to approve it.
Best to call the number on the card, to talk with a CSR and explain the anticipated flow of charges. They can also tell you what your internal limit is on the card, which is a more relevant number than Check Spending Power. They can also potentially influence the AMEX Bot to handle the volume of spend.
My opinion of the Check Spending Power would be for a one, maybe two charge sequence, not for a generalized large flow of charges over several weeks.
Good luck!
I just called. The CSR didn't give me a specific internal limit, but she did say a $100k charge (the high end of what I asked about) would go through (using the Bus Plat as a test card). So I guess that's a good enough answer for me for now.
She did say it was fine to use the check spending tool up to 3 times a day.
I asked about the "transaction matching" concern and her answer suggested Amex looked at one charge at a time. So I'm not sure if she wasn't an expert on this or if there is some misinformation, with the whole "we're declining your small charge because we're still expecting your big charge" idea being a myth? Maybe some people got small charges declined for other reasons?
I would really hope that AMEX doesn't shut off smaller charges just because the cardholder checked spending power. There would need to be a follow up step where the cardholder tagged a charge " yes this is the one of six Check Spending Power requests I made over the last 7 days. Please allow other smaller charges".
No, there's no way they would try to implement such a matching system because it's too limiting, and gives the cardholder too much say, too much insight into the Charge Approved / Denied data.
Congrats on getting assurance the card will work at those spend levels.
@wasCB14 wrote:
If I ask if I can spend $50k and Amex says it's okay, and then I try to make a $35k transaction, how do Amex computers distinguish whether:
a. They think I'm spending $15k less than I asked about (and the transaction goes through), or
b. They think I'm trying to spend $85k total (and they might decline the $35k)?
I don't *know* this by any means, but I can't imagine they'd do that. The tool is a hypothetical question, not a firm commitment to anything. When you make that $35K purchase, their computers just see it for what it is, a $35K purchase, and approve or decline it based on your purchasing power with them.
My experience with the 'check spending' tool is VERY limited--I got scared off after reading posts here! So I have no actual experience or knowledge about your scenario, I'm just thinking in terms of what makes sense--to me, as a retired programmer.
@wasCB14 wrote:
@SoCalGardener wrote:
@wasCB14 wrote:
If I ask if I can spend $50k and Amex says it's okay, and then I try to make a $35k transaction, how do Amex computers distinguish whether:
a. They think I'm spending $15k less than I asked about (and the transaction goes through), or
b. They think I'm trying to spend $85k total (and they might decline the $35k)?
I don't *know* this by any means, but I can't imagine they'd do that. The tool is a hypothetical question, not a firm commitment to anything. When you make that $35K purchase, their computers just see it for what it is, a $35K purchase, and approve or decline it based on your purchasing power with them.
My experience with the 'check spending' tool is VERY limited--I got scared off after reading posts here! So I have no actual experience or knowledge about your scenario, I'm just thinking in terms of what makes sense--to me, as a retired programmer.
I think that's part of the unease about it (which I also had when I made this thread). A lot of the scary posts are from people who do silly things with it, rather than using it responsibly as a tool to seek relevant information.
And the Amex CSR's reply suggested it worked like you expect: one charge at a time without set-aside credit amounts for specific purchases.
Yeah, I've seen some scary posts. But from what you've said, what the CSR told you, I'm re-thinking my concerns!
What happened to me was I accidentally added a '0' to an amount I put in the 'check spending' box--and, to my great surprise, they approved it! 
I cannot remember now if I had previously played around with that tool, but after that one, and then reading scary posts, I never used it again.
Just to clarify, the ”scary posts" stem from first-hand knowledge of a former Amex employee in the Platinum/Centurion department. Hitting it every now and then is not likely to cause an issue. But doing something like entering $5000 and then entering escalating amounts until you reach a "no" it is possible to set off potential fraud alarms. It was stated that Amex is expecting a potential charge of the amount you are requesting so a hold may be placed to allow that charge to go through. If your internal limit was $37k and you just requested to make a $35,000 charge, then there is a possibility that a $10,000 charge might be declined as a result. For most cardholders making charges of these amounts, it's likely that their internal limit may be substantially higher than they might think.
