Is making a large purchase risky on my new card (Amex or Citibank)

[charyot77]

I have an AMEX Blue and Citibank Dividend card.

Both are offering a bonus if I spend $500 in the first 3 months.

I'm looking to buy a new Macbook laptop.  Both cards offer 0% financing for 12 months. I was wondering if it would be dumb to charge a laptop to one of these new cards.

I'm looking at something around the $2k range and would pay it off in about 6 to 7 months.  

I will probably make the purchase with my Citibank card since rewards are capped ($300 per year) and I'll be calling into AMEX at the 61 day mark for my CLI. 

[bichonmom]

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@charyot77 wrote:

I have an AMEX Blue and Citibank Dividend card.

Both are offering a bonus if I spend $500 in the first 3 months.

I'm looking to buy a new Macbook laptop.  Both cards offer 0% financing for 12 months. I was wondering if it would be dumb to charge a laptop to one of these new cards.

I'm looking at something around the $2k range and would pay it off in about 6 to 7 months.  

I will probably make the purchase with my Citibank card since rewards are capped ($300 per year) and I'll be calling into AMEX at the 61 day mark for my CLI. 

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If I were you, I would not take advantage of Amex's 0% offer. I've read too many horror stories here of what happened when people carried a bal w/them. Definitely spend the $500 to get the bonus; just PIF.

I think you're safe using Citi for the financing. Just make sure it's 0% for NEW PURCHASES and not just BTs!

[Anonymous]

I don't think a large purchase is risky, otherwise they would not have given the limit to allow a large purchase to go through in the first place.

But, what is the limit on your citibank card? My only concern is, if your utilization rockets high from carrying a balance, and AMEX softs you on your CLI request, they might not grant it because they would see high utilization and think you are requesting it because you are starting to have some financial trouble.

I'm not sure what your other credit lines look like and if it will affect you utlization a lot by doing this, but I would purchase the computer after you 61 CLI request.

[navigatethis12]

The first purchase I used PNC for was $5000 and everything went fine. I charged 3000 on American Express and have been letting it sit for the past three months with no bad things happening. If your first purchase is large though, they may deny smaller transactions since it is out of sorts with the larger one.

[adavis425]

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@navigatethis12 wrote:

The first purchase I used PNC for was $5000 and everything went fine. I charged 3000 on American Express and have been letting it sit for the past three months with no bad things happening. If your first purchase is large though, they may deny smaller transactions since it is out of sorts with the larger one.

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I would have to disagree with this. Not all transactions will be large ones. If large transactions are allowed through on the account, there are no worries with smaller ones. I have made $40 transactions as easily as I've made $4000 transactions.  Once your upper limit is set internally with AMEX (I don't know about Citi), anything up to that limit seems to be fine. You can even call and let them know you're topping your limit and get an ok (or run it through the spend checker on the website).

[navigatethis12]

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@adavis425 wrote:

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I would have to disagree with this. Not all transactions will be large ones. If large transactions are allowed through on the account, there are no worries with smaller ones. I have made $40 transactions as easily as I've made $4000 transactions.  Once your upper limit is set internally with AMEX (I don't know about Citi), anything up to that limit seems to be fine. You can even call and let them know you're topping your limit and get an ok (or run it through the spend checker on the website).

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I know not everytime, but in the beginning. When I started making small charges on the card, they would either be denied or they would ring me later to confirm it was me. Any charge that is out of the usual spending pattern will usually be flagged.

[stevenngu92]

I think apple allows multiple payment methods, so you could split the total between the 2 cards and get the $$ bonus for both cards.