Amex pay over time no upside to credit score?

[somtin]

Hi Everyone, 

So quick synopsis here. Carying a huge revolving credit debt (divorce/medical...). Fast forward between expenses and other life events I had close to 50k on an Amex platinum pay over time account at over 20%. Fico steady at 712 +/- 5 points depending on the direction of the wind. 

Fast forward and I have a windfall and pay down Amex by 40k to below 8k left on the pay over time. So now my revolving debt is around 60k all cards involved. 2 months later my credit score is still hovering at 712 despite that fact I just errased 40% of my debt load. In my research, unless I am mistaken, I found out that Amex doesn't report your pay over time credit limit and the balance is treated like as a charge card balance despite having a limit. Had I known that, should I have paid off my other sub 20% credit cards and my score would have rocketed? Am I wrong in my thinking that Amex pay over time is for suckers???

[NRB525]

Well, it depends what your available, realistic APR would be with those other cards.

PoT is expensive money borrowing but it is a flexible way to handle charges. It does seem reasonable that the PoT balance would be reported along with the other Charges and not as a revolving balance.

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@somtin wrote:

Hi Everyone, 

So quick synopsis here. Carying a huge revolving credit debt (divorce/medical...). Fast forward between expenses and other life events I had close to 50k on an Amex platinum pay over time account at over 20%. Fico steady at 712 +/- 5 points depending on the direction of the wind. 

Fast forward and I have a windfall and pay down Amex by 40k to below 8k left on the pay over time. So now my revolving debt is around 60k all cards involved. 2 months later my credit score is still hovering at 712 despite that fact I just errased 40% of my debt load. In my research, unless I am mistaken, I found out that Amex doesn't report your pay over time credit limit and the balance is treated like as a charge card balance despite having a limit. Had I known that, should I have paid off my other sub 20% credit cards and my score would have rocketed? Am I wrong in my thinking that Amex pay over time is for suckers???

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You are better off with an AMEX revolving credit card than an AMEX charge card if you don't pay balances in full every statement. I like having an AMEX NPSL charge card but, always pay in full. I had a CSR deactivate the POT feature they pushed on me and had a note placed in my account file never to enable that feature again.

If you plan to carry balances on occassion; use revolving credit cards. There are many cards available through credit unions at half the APR of AMEX POT.