Pay over time, Amex Green question...

[Boragard]

On Tuesday 01/21/2014.  I got my Amex Green in the mail.  As I activated online, it asked about Pay over time.  I thought to myself "this is a charge card, so I have to pay in full" and thought that I might get limited access on my charge account if I choose to enroll.  So I declined, it said I can always switch by going to profile and preferences and enrolling at any time.  About 3 hours after activating and reading the forums I decided to enroll.  It then said that I now have to call in and be approved for the Pay Over Time feature.  My questions are

1.  Is the pay over time feature worth it?

2.  Besides paying over time, are there any other benefits?

3.  Do you think I will be denied if I called in and request it to be added on since I declined on initial enrollment?

4.  Or should I just forget about it and PIF and wait for another offer? If any...

Thanks in advance!

[enharu]

1. Its a feature that's nice to have, but try not to depend on it. Amex isn't big on customers dragging balances.

2. Nope. Helps to finance a purchase in the event of an emergency, which is great. Apr is a tad on the high side for most people though. You might be better off putting the balance on another card instead.

3. Don't know. Only way to know is to call in. Doubt it will be an issue though.

4. Entirely up to you. Amex gave me the offer as well when I enrolled my card online. Its a nice to have feature, but I haven't used it yet, and don't plan to use it. But it's just nice to have in case something goes wrong.

[Boragard]

Ok thanks, I will call in the morning.

[jamesdwi]

In general the only reason to take the pay over time option is if they offer you a MR points bonus to do so, there were offers of 10,000 bonus pts for signing up in the past, don't use the option there are too many horror stories on the web about it leading to FR's. The APR is bad, if you need to pay over time use a regular card much less hassle.

[Anonymous]

I have this feature on my Amex Gold. I used to to get a few large purchases that I was going to pay off within a few months. It also allowed my Util % to stay low on the credit reports, even though I was carrying a balance because this balance didnt report against my util %. That was my primary reason for using it for these purchases, because it didn't affect my scores... But I recommend that if you do use it, that you pay it off quickly because the APR is not that great. I think mine is 18%. I held a balance of over 30k for about 4 months... Never had Amex request a financial report during that time. It is nice to have like others have said in case of emergency. But you have to be very careful not to treat it like a credit card, and have restraint/self control....

[Blackbeauty212]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have this feature on my Amex Gold. I used to to get a few large purchases that I was going to pay off within a few months. It also allowed my Util % to stay low on the credit reports, even though I was carrying a balance because this balance didnt report against my util %. That was my primary reason for using it for these purchases, because it didn't affect my scores... But I recommend that if you do use it, that you pay it off quickly because the APR is not that great. I think mine is 18%. I held a balance of over 30k for about 4 months... Never had Amex request a financial report during that time. It is nice to have like others have said in case of emergency. But you have to be very careful not to treat it like a credit card, and have restraint/self control....

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I whole heartly agree with this..... I just got the Green to complement my BCE. the POT feature is nice to have as a backup mechansim for emergencies, but understand the primary use of the Green is to be used as a Charge and always too PIF. If you really want to be able to carry balances then you should app for a Blue card.