Amex forcing me into Pay Over Time with no signup bonus, unless I opt out.

[DeeBee78]

I’ve had my PRG since February of this year. It’s been an up and down experience with it, and I won’t be keeping it when the annual fee comes due.  

Today i received a notice in the mail from Amex, telling me that because I’m such a valued cardholder (pause for laughter...) they’re automatically enrolling me in the Select and Pay Later feature, which is part of the Pay Over Time benefit. 

Uhm, ok? You guys won’t give me a CLI on my revolvers but you’ll extend a $10K revolving line on my charge card? Makes perfect sense 

The other part about this “feature” is most people are offered the opportunity to enroll (without being forced into it) and get bonus MR’s for doing so. Nothing in my letter indicates I’ll receive a bonus offer for doing it, and since you can’t turn off the feature once you’re enrolled, I’m going to lose any future chance at a bonus offer. No thanks!

Thsnkfully I can opt out, and will be. They must not be making enough money on me if they’re practically begging me to revolve a balance with them. I haven’t used the card in over two months, after dealing with their last customer service experience on the revolver side. 

[AverageJoesCredit]

I received this letter for my green with the 10k limit. No bonus offer nor did i get one. I think all these bonus offers we see here spoils us. I wouldnt take it like they are forcing you i wou look at it like its a nice feature to have in case you need it.

[HeavenOhio]

If I needed to pay for something over time, getting a bonus for it would be pretty low on my list of concerns.

[Anonymous]

I received this for my ZYNC as well. All for the low, low APR of 19.24%.......I could see this being somewhat beneficial to the individual that uses their Amex charge card exclusively and maybe spent too much one month or something happened wherein they were unable to repay the full balance for a month or so...but otherwise I see no reason why a consumer would want this feature. A business maybe, but not a consumer. Especially when there are so many credit cards with lower interest rates. 

[Anonymous]

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@DeeBee78 wrote:

I’ve had my PRG since February of this year. It’s been an up and down experience with it, and I won’t be keeping it when the annual fee comes due.  

Today i received a notice in the mail from Amex, telling me that because I’m such a valued cardholder (pause for laughter...) they’re automatically enrolling me in the Select and Pay Later feature, which is part of the Pay Over Time benefit. 

Uhm, ok? You guys won’t give me a CLI on my revolvers but you’ll extend a $10K revolving line on my charge card? Makes perfect sense 

The other part about this “feature” is most people are offered the opportunity to enroll (without being forced into it) and get bonus MR’s for doing so. Nothing in my letter indicates I’ll receive a bonus offer for doing it, and since you can’t turn off the feature once you’re enrolled, I’m going to lose any future chance at a bonus offer. No thanks!

Thsnkfully I can opt out, and will be. They must not be making enough money on me if they’re practically begging me to revolve a balance with them. I haven’t used the card in over two months, after dealing with their last customer service experience on the revolver side. 

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Thank you, OP I needed a laugh! 
 

[Anonymous]

You are getting Select & Pay Later, and The Extended Payment Option mixed up.

Select & Pay Later is the base feature that is automatically activated on an eligible account. This is not something that you can opt in or out of. This gives you the option to call customer service and ask to move eligible charges into a Pay Over Time balance. There never has been, nor ever will be a bonus offer associated with S&PL.

The Extended Payment Option, however, is S&PL in auto-drive.  Each charge over $100 will automatically be placed into a Pay Over Time balance as long as your account remains eligible. This is something that you may be offered, and you specifically must accept because it changes the way your payments get applied to the account in accordance with the payment hierarchy described in your Cardmember Agreement. This feature is typically associated with a bonus offer of some sort.

I hope this clarifies any confusion.

[K-in-Boston]

@Anonymous Wonderful explanation as always. Quick question that has had me puzzled for quite some time. With the Extended Payment Option, all charges over $100 are automatically put into the POT balance (and with Travel & Sign all travel charges are put into POT balance). Why does the Select & Pay Later option still exist once a cardmember has opted into Extended Payment Option, since there are literally no charges that can be selected at that point?

[Revelate]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I received this for my ZYNC as well. 

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Haha, the Unicorn lives!

Haven't seen the offer personally but the only thing which lands on my Zync commonly is my $10 / month donation to the local NPR station... so I'm not one of the customers Amex really wants currently.

[Anonymous]

Sign & Travel is no longer a term or feature used at American Express. Select & Pay Later took over that function with it's greater versatility.

The Extended Payment Option, exactly as I had mentioned, is just Select & Pay Later in auto-drive. Without Select & Pay Later, there can be no Extended Payment Option. It's just the way the system is designed. Just think of ExPo as an upgrade to SP&L if that helps.

[K-in-Boston]

@Anonymous thanks for the explanation. That makes sense then if Select & Pay Later is a prerequisite to have the other POT options. For Sign & Travel, it is still in use at Amex. Actually, it wasn't even offered to me until January of this year. Any travel charges I make go to POT balance automatically regardless of dollar amount.  Any non-travel purchase over $100 automatically goes into POT balance. I have been consistently PIF on my charge cards for quite some time now (sadly wasn't the case for most of my membership years and I got a lot of use out of POT), which is a good thing since I see that my POT APR has now risen to over 16% with the prime rate increases.

And of course there's the handy guide to explain the differences between the three: