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amex (partial) CL restoral or glitch?

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score_building
Senior Contributor

amex (partial) CL restoral or glitch?

i posted recently, just a few days ago really, about a 400 CLD cutting my CL on an amex clear to 2100. at the time i was a bit agitated because it literally happened in front of my very eyes (on line) as i was speaking to a csr regarding another amex card.

 

today i was feeling groovy, woke up early and made additional payments on cards with balances but only another 25 payment on my clear balance. i would've paid more but with the CLD thing i figured someone else will get their money back first this week (i always pay at least 5x's min. on the few accts. that have balances left, incl. clear card, if i can't pif. i fear the worst if i pif on the clear but had planned to do so in a few weeks nonetheless).

 

when i paid the 25 dollars my available credit was 225.  after i paid it available credit jumped to 480.  this appears to be a partial CL restoral or glitch?!  i'll pay 500 tmrw and see if they give the 10k line back Smiley Surprised

edited because it is apparently probably just a glitch, thanks fevmlo!
Message Edited by score_building on 02-20-2009 06:54 AM
DCU EQ 5.0, Citi EQ 08 Bankcard, PenFed EX NG2
EX 08: AFCU, Amex, Chase, PSECU EX 98(?)
TU 08: Barclays, Discover
Message 1 of 13
12 REPLIES 12
Red1Blue
Super Contributor

Re: amex (partial) CL restoral

Congrats...
Message 2 of 13
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: amex (partial) CL restoral


@score_building wrote:

i posted recently, just a few days ago really, about a 400 CLD cutting my CL on an amex clear to 2100. at the time i was a bit agitated because it literally happened in front of my very eyes (on line) as i was speaking to a csr regarding another amex card.

 

today i was feeling groovy, woke up early and made additional payments on cards with balances but only another 25 payment on my clear balance. i would've paid more but with the CLD thing i figured someone else will get their money back first this week (i always pay at least 5x's min. on the few accts. that have balances left, incl. clear card, if i can't pif. i fear the worst if i pif on the clear but had planned to do so in a few weeks nonetheless).

 

when i paid the 25 dollars my available credit was 225.  after i paid it available credit jumped to 480.  this appears to be a partial CL restoral.  now i wish i made a bigger payment -maybe a bigger restoral?  i'll pay 500 tmrw and see if they give the 10k line back Smiley Surprised


Do you know if you were definitely, definitely CLD'd when you thought you were? I never trust the 'available credit' line on the website anymore, as for the last few months it's been crazily inaccurate the majority of the time, ESPECIALLY when I've just made a payment.
This is how it goes... the CL on my Blue Cash is $7400. If I've got a $1400 balance (let's say there are no pending charges), and if I'm lucky, it'll be showing $6000 available credit. Say I then make a $1000 payment via the site. It should instantly change to say that my available credit is $7000, right?
No! Whenever I make a payment, my available credit instantly jumps as if I've paid several times what I actually have - this usually results in my "available credit" showing as being more than my actual credit limit. Not unusual at all for me to make a $400 payment and instantly see my available credit jump by $1200. It'll usually all settle down within a couple of days, once the payment has credited to the account properly, but the first time it happened coincided with an "AmEx Account Review" soft pull on Experian at the six-month mark on the card, and when I saw I had a much higher "available credit" amount than my actual CL, I thought they'd given me a CLI for a second there!
.... then I remembered this is AmEx, and realized that wasn't the case.
I think the website is just messing with you - that "available credit" thing is screwy. 

 

Message 3 of 13
score_building
Senior Contributor

Re: amex (partial) CL restoral?

rats!  i should've figured.  these are the things that seem odd still:

 

1. unlike you, the available credit display has always seemed to acurately reflect my payments.  i hadn't ever noticed a big disparity as you described where multiples of the payment i post applies as available. 

 

2. i did receive written notification of the 400 AA.

 

oh well, thanks for the info. steering me right fevmlo Smiley Happy

sorry for the false alarm! 

DCU EQ 5.0, Citi EQ 08 Bankcard, PenFed EX NG2
EX 08: AFCU, Amex, Chase, PSECU EX 98(?)
TU 08: Barclays, Discover
Message 4 of 13
oracles
Valued Contributor

Re: amex (partial) CL restoral?

Well i hope it is not a glitch Score and you get to keep it.

 

Let us know if they take it back or you truly got it.

Message 5 of 13
score_building
Senior Contributor

Re: amex (partial) CL restoral?

thanks oracles me too Smiley Happy  it is still showing 480 available instead of 250. 

 

won't those of you who have an amex acct. please post your experience with payments vs. available credit?  do you have the same experience that fevmlo has noticed with his payments sometimes prompting an available balance much higher than it should??

DCU EQ 5.0, Citi EQ 08 Bankcard, PenFed EX NG2
EX 08: AFCU, Amex, Chase, PSECU EX 98(?)
TU 08: Barclays, Discover
Message 6 of 13
Zar
Regular Contributor

Re: amex (partial) CL restoral?

It is a glitch, I have noticed this a couple of times after making a payment and after buying something, it fixes "itself" the next day or after a few days.

 

Zar Smiley Happy

Message Edited by Zar on 02-20-2009 02:07 PM
Message 7 of 13
score_building
Senior Contributor

Re: amex (partial) CL restoral?

interesting, this has never happened that i noticed b4 and i always check it right after payment and make multiple payment per month.  some glitch- showing more available credit than is available, nice!  oh well.  thanks guys.


Zar wrote:
It is a glitch, I have noticed this a couple of times after making a payment and after buying something, it fixes "itself" the next day or after a few days.

Zar Smiley Happy

Message Edited by Zar on 02-20-2009 02:07 PM

 

DCU EQ 5.0, Citi EQ 08 Bankcard, PenFed EX NG2
EX 08: AFCU, Amex, Chase, PSECU EX 98(?)
TU 08: Barclays, Discover
Message 8 of 13
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: amex (partial) CL restoral?

What I have learned is that the cc companies post the "available" credit based on what's left over after companies/merchant/vendors have done a "soft run" on your account.

 

For example, you go to a nice restaurant, the server runs your card through for $100, even though your bill was $60.  Yeah, they are hoping for a nice tip....  This way, they find out if you have the room on your card for that tip.  It's a "soft" run on your card and takes $100 away from you available balance.

 

You decide to leave cash for the tip.  When the restaurant closes out the cc machine, they finalize their transactions.  

 

They can do this one of two ways.

 

1.  Rerun the credit information based on the actual charge.  The hold of $100 will stay until it is released, usually one to two later.

OR

2.  Amend the original charge to reflect the actual charge. 

 

MOST restaurants will release the funds immediately, that night.  It takes a day or two to update with the cc.

 

Some restaurants (usually fast food places) do it the other way. They get authorization for the actual charge, then later amend it to include the tip.

 

Gas stations are known for getting an authorization of $100-200 immediately.  That puts a hold on your funds with the cc.  It is reflected in your available credit.  They will do either step 1 or step 2.

 

Depending on the gas station, I have seen the actual charge appear on the cc the next day.  The initial authorization is held for one to two weeks before the gas station releases it.  

 

The authorization does NOT show up as a charge.  It is just taken from your available credit.

 

A pending charge that has been submitted to cc may take away from the available credit line, but not show up as a charge until the next day, after the cc has posted all new charges.  My insurance payment shows up first as a reduction in my available credit, then the next day as a charge. I use Amex for the insurance.

 

Hope that helps with understanding... 

Message 9 of 13
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: amex (partial) CL restoral?

Hi Penny Shine Smiley Happy (Tried to quote your post, but it's not appearing - my browser is misbehaving this afternoon).

I understand how pending charges work, and how your available credit may be affected by, say, restaurants or gas stations putting a hold on funds. But none of that explains why, when I make a payment to American Express via their own website, that payment will then instantly cause my available credit to increase by an amount that would indicate I've paid three or more times what I've actually paid. Hope this makes sense... what happens is that if I pay $500, my available credit will INSTANTLY increase by, say, $1500, often showing that my available credit is much higher than my actual credit limit (and no, it's not because I've overpaid and put the account in credit). It's nothing to do with pending charges, and everything to do with... I don't know, AmEx's site being odd. Never had this happen until maybe three months ago, and now every time I make a payment, the same thing happens. Oh well - now I've learned not to think 'woohoo, CLI!!' every time I see my available credit apparently increase to a thousand or so above my credit limit, I'm not too bothered!

Sorry, taking over Score Building's thread with my rambling, here. Score... I hope it turns out that they really have reinstated your limit, so I'm sorry to have put a dampener on the idea that they might have done! But as soon as I saw you say you made a payment and your available credit instantly shot up by more than the amount of the payment, something sounded very familiar! Smiley Happy
Message 10 of 13
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