Elan Max Cash $500 Limit: Can I Over Pay and Charge Over My Limit?

[Varsity_Lu]

It's  been a really cold winter and our electric rate just increased about 25% in mid-January. Our electric bill may be over $500 next month and I am trying to figure out how to cover it on our $500 CL Elan Max Cash card.  If I pay like $100 over and get a credit, would Elan let a $550 bill go through? Anyone have experience with Elan on this?

[ocheosa]

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@Varsity_Lu wrote:

It's  been a really cold winter and our electric rate just increased about 25% in mid-January. Our electric bill may be over $500 next month and I am trying to figure out how to cover it on our $500 CL Elan Max Cash card.  If I pay like $100 over and get a credit, would Elan let a $550 bill go through? Anyone have experience with Elan on this?

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@Varsity_Lu If you can afford a HP, I would call and request a CLI. When they ask why be honest, you need a larger line for upcoming utility bills. IME, and by DP's I've read, they can be quite generous with CLI's if you're willing to take the hit. Of course, with all things credit related, YMMV.

[Vinjints]

Not on a single bill, but I had to pay electric off before charging my water bill each month when I had the 500 CL. They never said anything about it. 

[FicoMike0]

Ouch! $500 is painful. We certainly have had a cold jan, I don't think it's gotten above freezing once. I'm glad I'm cooking with gas, but that's still high too. 

The first thing is so is call elan and ask about a cli. tell them you like their card, blah, blah, but it has to cover your needs. Since they're part of usb that may be a problem. I finally got a cli on both my usb cards, they quit that turd 1.0 nonsense, but wanted a hp. They did come across with +$3000 on each.

As far as paying over, I think the trick is getting them to take it. I've read a thread where someone mentioned using a different banks bill pay to overpay. Once you have a positive balance, I don't see how they wouldn't let you use it. Otherwise, they'd have to send you a refund.

I have a friend with electric heat pump, smeat pumps, two furnaces, big house. I'll have to ask him how bad it is. He may be better off, his are backed up with propane. I imagine it's mostly propane in this weather, not many therms for old reddy kilowatt to grab out of the frigid air.

[Kforce]

Agree with all others, 1st choice would be to try for a CL increase.

You could pay you electric company 2/3 of the bill, then pay off the card, wait for the card payment to hit and your CL go back up, pay part  two of the bill.  Most utility companies let you pay multiple payments.

For all my USBank cards any over payment adds to the available credit line. 

Push from checking billpay to card.

Don't know if other Elan cards work the same.

[Varsity_Lu]

Thanks for the replies, everyone.  A few things to consider:

First, it's my wife's card and she just requested a CLI, but was denied.  They said the account is too new and her turd score (hee hee...turd) was too low.  I don't think they are going to give her an increase. 

Second, we have been cycling on this card  anyway.  (Thanks for the $500 limit, Elan.)  Last month our electric was $465, cell phone $34, and our 3 month trash bill hit at $69.  I have been paying it off mid-month to get all these in. 

Third, we are all electric with geo-thermal, which is great in the summer, but sucks during a really cold winter.  Plus, our electric rate is going from like 6.5 cents per KWH to like 8.9 cents.  I hate Ohio Edison so much, but they have us over a barrel. The rate hike plus the coldest January in like 40 years is the problem. This is definitely an odd winter temp wise.

Fourth, Ohio Edison charges like 5% if you make a manual payment, but auto payments with credit cards are free free. I'd like to not have to make a manual payment (aka split the bill up) if possible.

Last month, I scheduled a payment from Fidelity and I noticed I could immediately schedule another payment.  I think I'll try to pay the full amount as usual and then add like another hundo payment from a different bank.  I'm pretty sure the bill will be under $600. I just hope the actual charge will go through.

[FicoMike0]

I think we're paying aep about $.09 too. I suppose that's lower than a lot of places. About five years ago, one of my children lived in connecticut for a year. Even back then, they were paying over $.20/kWh. No gas there either, mostly propane heat.

I'm surprised the geo doesn't work in winter. Do you have buried pipes? When I lived in fla. they put in geo with shallow wells. Where we lived, if you dug a hole for a fence post, it would fill with water. You could hand dig a water well, the soil was all sand. The water wasn't good to drink, but it worked fine for lawn sprinklers and cooling. Heating wasn't an issue, lol.

[Patient957]

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@FicoMike0 wrote:

 I finally got a cli on both my usb cards, they quit that turd 1.0 nonsense, but wanted a hp. They did come across with +$3000 on each.

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@Varsity_Lu  wrote:
First, it's my wife's card and she just requested a CLI, but was denied.  They said the account is too new and her turd score (hee hee...turd) was too low.  I don't think they are going to give her an increase.

Not to go too far off topic here, but this makes me wonder how much of this turd thing is tied to how long the account has been open.  Perhaps newness of the account factors in to the turd score?

@FicoMike0, how old was your account when they finally gave you that CLI?

@Varsity_Lu, how old was your wife's account when they denied the CLI?

Maybe this turd thing associated with specific accounts rather than tied more generally to the borrower?  Like "this particular account has a high risk of default" rather than "This particular borrower has a high risk of default."  Just spitballing here, but both of your comments seemed to indicate account age as a turd factor.

[ocheosa]

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@Varsity_Lu wrote:

First, it's my wife's card and she just requested a CLI, but was denied.  They said the account is too new and her turd score (hee hee...turd) was too low.  I don't think they are going to give her an increase. 

@Varsity_Lu This  is surprising. Wonder if it's just the $500 special that's blocked for a probationary period. Did they try the CLI on a SP? I tried for s SP CLI on my first card, twice I think, and  it was declined. Was finally told a HP was requred. I let it be because the CL was sufficient at 5K.

On my last card (#4), the SL was 7K and I needed more so I called in 2 days after approval, took the HP and they doubled the line to 15K. I don't even think the card was in the mail yet.

Given the limit, I can't imagine them having a problem with cycling the limit as needed.

[Follower]

If you're doubtful of getting a CLI, then I'd go with the idea of paying each bill in two payments, one at $500 (or maybe a little less to avoid 100% utilization)and put the rest on your Fidelity or another card.

You could also app for a second card in your name. I think I recall data points that actual USBank Cash+ cards usually get higher CLs than their Elan-branded counterparts...?

Finally, my last two months of $780 natural gas bills from National Grid (Boston) say, "Hold my beer."