Possible to pay off Amex Bill Early if balance is $0 ?

[wohoo]

I seek the advice of the brain trusts here.

Is it possible to pay off Amex bill early even though the current balance is $0?
- i can't pay by direct bill means, but does that mean I could try bpay?

kind Regards

 

[andyhui01]

If I am reading this correctly. Yes.

I am a new cardmember and don't have much credit. So my balance is always negative like this.

Like this?

 

[JohnK]

I have paid more than was owed many times in the past without issues.

Just note there have been reports of Amex closing some accounts with negative balance from time to time.

 

[andyhui01]

Just note there have been reports of Amex closing some accounts with negative balance from time to time.

What is the logic behind that?

 

[Dr Ralph]

I seek the advice of the brain trusts here.

Is it possible to pay off Amex bill early even though the current balance is $0?
- i can't pay by direct bill means, but does that mean I could try bpay?

kind Regards

In order to put your account in to credit? Yes is the answer. My AMEX accounts are frequently in credit. Absolutely no problems doing this.

 

[JohnK]

What is the logic behind that?

I'm not sure there's logic but it was happening. From memory 28 Degrees also did the sane thing.

 

[Crazy Diamond]

What is the logic behind that?

I'm guessing it comes down to max credit exposure (specifically exposure to possible chargebacks of a larger amount) which going into credit allows you. Eg if you have a credit limit of 3,000 but are at -2,000 (from overpaying) you could put through a 5,000 single transaction and later have it reversed/charged back. So Amex could then be up for 5,000 credit exposure if say you initiated the chargeback for a fraudulent transaction. But this is just a guess.

 

[NoName]

Any issues having a 0% balance transfer paid to AMEX and then closing it and having them transfer the large credit balance to you?

 

[Dr Ralph]

Any issues having a 0% balance transfer paid to AMEX and then closing it and having them transfer the large credit balance to you?

I've had AMEX proactively contact me to tell me my account was in credit and ask if I wanted the credit to be returned to me.

 

[wohoo]

Ah, thanks for all replied. I just want to zero my account and bpay'd today. Pitty I didn't apply for max credit and I am currently sitting at measly $3000 credit.

:/

 

[Archphoto]

I actually did this when I travelled last century (albeit not with Amex). Had a balance of -$15k which I used happily for anything and everything, plus I could withdraw my own cash without the using the cash advance.

At the time, I was able to earn points as well, but I think that maybe that has been removed since? As I've not done similar since I'm not sure. :mrgreen:

 

[Dr Ralph]

An update on this from my recent experiences - I hired a car in the US. They charged the $2000 price at the beginning of the rental. Turns out this was just a pre-authorisation though. Not knowing this I paid the $2000. They then returned that $2000 to my account. Meaning my account was in credit by more than $2000. It stayed this way for 8 weeks until the $2000 was finally taken after I returned the car at the end of the rental. Absolutely no problems with the card being in credit for this amount of for this time period.

 

[BettyB]

An update on this from my recent experiences - I hired a car in the US. They charged the $2000 price at the beginning of the rental. Turns out this was just a pre-authorisation though. Not knowing this I paid the $2000. They then returned that $2000 to my account. Meaning my account was in credit by more than $2000. It stayed this way for 8 weeks until the $2000 was finally taken after I returned the car at the end of the rental. Absolutely no problems with the card being in credit for this amount of for this time period.

Can I ask why you paid the $2000 into your AMEX account straight away?

 

[Dr Ralph]

Can I ask why you paid the $2000 into your AMEX account straight away?

That account only has a $3000 limit and I needed to use it whilst in the US so I needed to US it whilst in the US so couldn't wait until the end of the payment cycle.

 

[big_RED]

Very Interesting!
I wanted to purchase 2 x business class tickets from SYD to London a few years ago (around $20k cost) and my Amex card limit was 10k. I asked Amex if I were to pay the 20k to my card so that it had "20k sitting there as credit" would that be allowed and Amex said if my account was to have something like that happen the "AFP would consider it money laundering". And so I didn't opt to do that..

Perhaps things have changed over the last 3 years. But that is exactly how I bought my car on my CitiBank Visa. I put all the money on my card, and then it was there to be used and I could go over my monthly limit.