Overpay credit card to increase limit?

CI on 09/05/2019 - 11:51
Last edited 13/05/2019 - 07:49

Hi All - Can I overpay my credit card to increase the limit?
I have the Amex Qantas card with $3k limit - I have $20k bill to pay - if I transfer $20k to my card will the card allow a $20k transaction to go through ?

Thanks - Also contacting Amex will update you with their response

Update 1 13/05/19: Yes, it's possible on some credit cards. However, amex have confirmed they would decline the transaction even with the surplus amount sitting in the account as credit - as this exceeds the credit card limit. Which is a bummer. Additionally, they said once you have the card for more than 3 months you can apply for a temporary limit increase. Unfortunately for me I have only had it for 2.5 months, and the bill was due yesterday. Missed out!

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Comments

  • cell on 09/05/2019 - 12:06
    +1

    Yes, this has worked in the past with CBA for me. I was advised to spend that balance within a few days, otherwise it would be automatically transferred out (possibly with fees? I don't remember).

  • Donaldhump on 09/05/2019 - 12:06

    yes imho

  • sghetti on 09/05/2019 - 12:11
    +1

    You may need to check T&C's on the accrual of Qantas points. They may not accrue if not using credit?

    • Poolprouk on 09/05/2019 - 12:23

      That would be harsh. they'll still receive the same transaction fees from the vendor of what's being bought whether the card is in credit or not.

      I'm not saying that they wouldn't do it though……..

      • sghetti on 09/05/2019 - 12:27

        All sorts of stuff can occur, some guarantees on purchases or fraud are not covered if using a credit card like a debit card.

        But yes, they still get their transaction fees from merchants.

    • jimbobaus on 09/05/2019 - 16:35

      This
      almost every AMEX card does not give points when you are not using the credit on the card , if you overfill the card you can spend the funds (if its a bank issued Amex they will transfer the over pay back to your linked account about 2-3 days after you overpay usually) but you will not get points for the over paid portion of the balance (17K in your situation)

  • blonky on 09/05/2019 - 12:14

    Yes, we do this with our work credit cards to increase the "limit" from 50k to 100k. At the end of the month the statements show a negative outstanding balance

  • [Deactivated] on 09/05/2019 - 12:45
    +1

    ive done this before and it worked.

  • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 09/05/2019 - 12:49
    +6

    Wow. I thought my Rates notice was expensive.

  • [Deactivated] on 09/05/2019 - 12:59

    Yes, but be mindful of any transactions limits as well.

  • tsunamisurfer on 09/05/2019 - 13:01

    For me I was advised this wouldn't work.

    I had a $15k limit and wanted to buy a $30k car.

    • trotsky on 09/05/2019 - 13:34

      What was the dealership's Credit Card fee? I will be buying a new car soon and the dealership quoted me 3%… a little more than I am prepared to pay.

      • tsunamisurfer on 09/05/2019 - 13:45
        +1

        No we negotiated the merchant fee……but they felt that even though I had $30k in my card, they would only be able to transact on $15k which is the CC limit.

        • [Deactivated] on 09/05/2019 - 15:47

          Yeah, you would need to confirm this with your bank as they'll often have a per transaction limit which is different to your credit limit (often much lower). You can usually get it changed on request though.

  • srsparky on 09/05/2019 - 13:08
    +2

    I bought a motorcycle recently on my credit card. CBA told me to pay $10k on the card, then transfer money to cover that $10k from my offset, then do the same again. They said if you transfer the $20k from the offset to put the card in a "negative" balance, when you pay with the card, points aren't accrued until the card goes "positive debt".

    • trotsky on 09/05/2019 - 13:35
      +1

      Interesting. Going to have to sit down and read my card T&Cs tonight, not for fun, but I'm about to put 70K through one card or another and I'd like it to be in a way that earns me some points.

  • Seraphin7 on 09/05/2019 - 13:53
    +1

    Yes. I did this recently on a $10k limit card to pay a $13k bill. No worries.

  • Justme1234 on 09/05/2019 - 14:15

    Won't work with Amex. If you overpay your card by that much they'll block the card and the transaction won't go through so there's no way you'll get the points. Yo'u;ll then have to spend time getting your money refunded. Its not worth it.

    Source: Personal experience.

    • cwongtech on 11/05/2019 - 11:04

      Mine worked..
      But then again I did this to temporarily increase my limit for 1-2 days only.
      Why would they block the card?

      • squarepants on 19/10/2019 - 10:57

        Hey just wondering with this, was it just a call to Amex to get them to increase your limit or via livechat?

        Looking at temporarily increasing my limit with Amex for a day or so as well and looking for some advice.

        Happy for you to PM me if you’d prefer.

        Thanks in advance!

        • bluesky on 19/10/2019 - 15:39
          +1

          Actually, if you log on to your Amex account, there is an option to increase/decrease your limit, under
          Account Management -> Manage Your Credit Limit.

          I just used this a few days ago to decrease my limit. The approval was instant.
          With increase in limit, if the limit requested is reasonable, maybe they will grant it straight away as well. Worth trying.

          • squarepants on 19/10/2019 - 21:45
            +1

            @bluesky: Cheers thanks. Might give that a shot first.

            • lgacb08 on 19/10/2019 - 22:16

              @squarepants: be very careful with requesting credit limit increase because it might trigger a record in credit file. Better confirm with them before doing so if your credit file history matters

    • Samsungnote10 on 11/05/2019 - 12:30
      +1

      its dependant on different people,

      ive had more than that in credit for months and its never been closed,

      in fact im in credit right now

      • Justme1234 on 15/05/2019 - 09:43

        Prohibited by their T&C's apparently. Have you been able to use your card?

        • Samsungnote10 on 15/05/2019 - 13:29
          +1

          Yes fine for me.
          I have heard others who are always positive balance

          Maybe its one of those t/cs that are enforced when they want to get rid of you

  • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 09/05/2019 - 16:10
    -3

    Also just watch out, this isn't something I'm intimately familiar with but a transfer of over 10k to your credit card may trigger a Threshold transaction report which gets reported to AUSTRAC.

    I know it applies to gift cards, prepaid debit cards. It may apply to credit cards as well, as technically it's not a "payment" - you're going well over the balance.

    • trotsky on 09/05/2019 - 17:29
      +2

      Payment reports to AUSTRAC are not really an issue unless you're a money launderer… if you make a couple of irregular payments here and there nobody would care. It's there to find those who are consistently transacting in large amounts and are doing so suspiciously.

      • grasstown on 10/05/2019 - 07:57
        -1

        You think it’s not an issue, but it may mean an analyst checks out your file and makes a few further inquiries and decides nothing of it and closes the file. But new records have been created. Then the next time they see a flag on your file and a few more enquirers are made. And so instead of dealing with someone who has no flags on their file, they are now dealing with someone who has flags. It just depends how much confidence you have in the system and if youre happy for analysts to make inquiries about you when you’ve done nothing wrong.

        • trotsky on 10/05/2019 - 13:18
          +4

          I would estimate in my business and personal accounts combined I have transferred near $10K AUD on at least 150 occasions, maybe more. I would then assume I would have that many transaction reports lodged with Austrac. I will sum up the impact on my life in a single number: 0. Never even had a phonecall. I was too lazy after the sale of a property to deal with a bank account that had a $10K transfer limit, so then went ahead and transferred the remainder of the amount to another bank over a month period. Never even got a call. If I had, I would have used the opportunity to ask the bank to go ahead and move the rest for me without the stupid limit but they didn't even bother calling.

          People move that sort of money around every day. Nowadays there are plenty of people who get that as a monthly salary. Business owners gross that and some in a day in some industries. Who cares about Austrac?

          • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 11/05/2019 - 23:12
            -4

            @trotsky: Just sayin'….there might be a day you start a thread on OzBargain titled "Help! AUSTRAC have frozen my funds!"

    • Zachary on 15/05/2019 - 15:10

      …that's why you transfer with cash instead of inter-banking……….if you're that paranoid about the government tracking your expenditure….

  • chumlee on 09/05/2019 - 16:42

    Does Amex cap the amount of QFF points each month like other cards do?

  • fadeinthemix on 10/05/2019 - 16:48

    Pay it in 3k installments?

    • fadeinthemix on 10/05/2019 - 16:54

      When I had a 3k limit with the Amex Platinum Edge and I wanted to do something similar (by 2k not 17k)
      They took a bsb payment over the phone which took out of my account in 2 days but on Amex's side it shown instantly.
      Maybe an option

  • TimOfEastBNE on 25/07/2019 - 10:20

    I used to work with a guy who claimed to pay for a Lotus Exige on his AMEX card, in full (all $125k I think at the time, it was a few years ago). May have been a charge card rather than a credit card though. No cc surcharge!

  • user27 on 25/07/2019 - 17:23

    I have a coles credit card which refuses to give me a limit more than 2000 so I've just overpaid it. Was just wondering whether this works recently.

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