Charge cards?

Hi....erm....Im quite embarrassed by this, and figured alot of you have charge cards, but can somebody explain to me the rules of the amex charge card!? Ive got one of those gold 20,000 miles things and was told that there is no credit limit. I simply make my own limit.

Do I have to pay the full balance at the end of the month, what ever the amount may be. Be it £20 or £10000? So I guess that if I cant pay it off, then im in trouble.

Does that mean I could buy a car for £20000 and get lot of points, so long as I can pay if off when the bill comes?

[Nottingham Nick]

This is an oft discussed topic on FT's Amex forum.

Even though they say that there is no pre set spending limit, quite simply 'there is'. Your 'credit limit' is set by Amex based on your history with them (and I would guess other credit scores).

From what I have read, I think it is very hard to find out what it is until your card is refused. [:(!]

In answer to your other questions, as it is a charge card, your balance MUST be paid off each month. I don't know what the penalty is if you don't, but I would guess it wouldn't help your 'score'[:I]

You can buy anything in the card... provided that merchant will accept the card.. given the large % fees that have to pay Amex, I guess it will be difficult to convince the dealer to accept the card for full payment on a £20K car.


Nick

Well if you want to test the theory you can now go wild in Boots the Chemist! They've just started accepting Amex...

[RichardMannion]

Nick's answer is spot on but let me add a bit more for you

There will be a predetermined amount which is your buffer, AmEx will normally allow 1.5 times your highest bill in previous billing cycles. So if you have a buffer of £10k and you spend £8k one month and clear it down as expected when the bill comes, the buffer will shift up to £12k.

There were some trials in the UK of a FlexSelect offering on Charge cards where you could choose certain transactions to be treated like normal credit card items and pay off over time instead of there and then at billing cycle end. So say you were to charge a £2k holiday to your card, and you actually want to pay that off over time instead of there and then, then you could elect for it to be 'FlexSelected'. If you do a search on the US site, it will explain it in more detail, I beleive its coming here properly soon (but not to Centurion accounts).

If you don't pay the balance in the alotted time, then you will forfeit your MR points and starting incurring penalties in the form of a fee based on the amount outstanding. The bills have pay within 14 days of creation notes of them, but the bills are made in Fort Lauderdale and then shipped over so its abit rich. The actual latest you can pay is normally 28 days later, or before your next statement is 'cut' (i.e. printed and made).

Yes you can charge anything, from £0.01 for an Amazon balance, to a mistaken $49,999 instead of $499.99 for an IPod in the US in my instance. [:0] I know for new Centruion Card applications (not that they are taking anymore this year), the application form includes a reference to your bank to check credit worthiness for £50k.

Thanks,
Richard

[Nottingham Nick]

I bow to LRoM, the guru of Amex (and VS) [}:)][8D];)

You are right about there being no lower end limit on a charge. I once got a charge of one penny when a restaurant took a swipe of the card for us to open a bar tab, and then never cleared it when we paid the bill at the end of the meal[:I][:I]

Nick

I just had a letter from AMEX offering me the option NOT to have to pay my balances off at the end of the months, but instead to allow them to charge me interest and pay it off in chunks, much like a credit card. I haven't taken them up on this as I have plenty (in fact way too many) credit cards. Did anyone else get this.

Incidently, I do also have from them an AMEX credit card, but this offer was definately related to my AMEX GOLD CHARGE card.

Paul

[Nottingham Nick]

I always believe that paying interest to Credit Card companies is a VERY expensive, if convenient, way of borrowing money and should be avoided if at all possible. [}:)]

Nick

'FlexSelected'. If you do a search on the US site, it will explain it in more detail, I beleive its coming here properly soon

My Uk plat has the flex select on it for up to £5k I only activated it to get the offered MR points and have never used it.

The other thing AMEX do if you do not pay off the balance in full is stop the bloody card without telling you.My crappy exbank bounced a cheque to amex and neither parties informed me,so no centurion card for me ever[V]:D

[mitchja]

I was told on opening my gold Amex charge account that if I were to make a 'large purchase' I would need to ring Amex and get it pre-approved first. Never tryed this yet though and I've had the card 3 years now and dont make big purchases with it.

I was offered FlexSelect on my account last year. Accepted it only to get the 3000 MR's they promised. Had and still have no intenion to use Flexselect though as the APR is pretty steap.

BTW I was credited with 2 x 3000 MR points so a result

Regards

BTW I was credited with 2 x 3000 MR points so a result

shhhhhhhhh;)

[RichardMannion]

Originally posted by jaguarpig

so no centurion card for me ever[V]:D

You have to have a perfect payment history over the past 12 months, you can have them add a note to reflect your 'bad' payment. I have them do this because I forgot I was on DD when I first got my Gold card (oh back in the days, only lasted a month!), and actually sent a internet payment over for my bill and obviously realised my mistake so the DD was returned.

Thanks,
Richard

You have to have a perfect payment history over the past 12 months

Only this one little glitch in 16 years:D

[Scrooge]

Just a note on buying a car,many dealers don't go for this due to charge backs etc,if your planning on doing it you do need to sit down with the dealer and let them know upfront what your planning to do.

Im in the market for a new car after the first of the year and have decided on a Pontiac GTO,I gave Amex a quick call,to be honest they weren't to happy with the idea of me charging $30k + in one go,but as I told them,you'll get a wire transfer the week before I pick up the car,so no reason to say no to the charge.

This should give me 30k+ points to add to my growing hord of points.

I bought my current car with a charge card - i just called the card company up first and it was fine was quite interesting spending £22k on chip and pin !

Originally posted by timsdm
I bought my current car with a charge card - i just called the card company up first and it was fine was quite interesting spending £22k on chip and pin !

I bought two cars with a debit card last year (mine and my sisters), it is weird spending that much on chip & pin and the dealers were both shocked that it went throug without extra authorisation even though I had not phoned in advance (I had previously checked with my bank and they said 20k in one transaction is fine without query as long as the funds were there).

On the charge card subject though, I agree with above that sometimes Amex will let you carry it over a-la credit card, but not sure what this does to your rating with them. I've been considering getting Amex platinum charge, but not sure I can justify the cost over the benefits, I used to use Amex corporate charge all the time though

22K spend and no VS miles!! you'd have earned enough for a free US Y ticket with the Virgin Card!! (44,000 FC Miles on the £85 card!)

or have you one of those cashback Debit cards?

Originally posted by Jonathan
22K spend and no VS miles!! you'd have earned enough for a free US Y ticket with the Virgin Card!! (44,000 FC Miles on the £85 card!)

A debit card costs the retailer about 15p per transaction, but a credit card (such as VSCC) will cost them a percentage of the deal. That's why the car dealer usually responds with a "that will cost an extra 2%, sir" when a creit card is offered for payment. Even VH add something on (1.5%?).

Originally posted by Ian

Originally posted by Jonathan
22K spend and no VS miles!! you'd have earned enough for a free US Y ticket with the Virgin Card!! (44,000 FC Miles on the £85 card!)

A debit card costs the retailer about 15p per transaction, but a credit card (such as VSCC) will cost them a percentage of the deal. That's why the car dealer usually responds with a "that will cost an extra 2%, sir" when a creit card is offered for payment. Even VH add something on (1.5%?).

What he said! They would not accept a credit card otherwise I would have done for the cashback I get. I paid deposits on CC though.

Have to say I was quite surprised when I persuaded our local Audi dealer to put the first £10,000 of a car purchase on my Amex card....a nice few BA miles (is that acronym heresy here? [:p] )

Amex typically asks that you notify it in advance of any major purchases, just so they can note your account and ensure the transaction goes through - they claim their automatic fraud protection systems could deny a transaction if it looked irregular. (Hence, call, note the transaction in advance, avoid the shame of a declined transaction.)

For what it's worth - my car dealer limits card transactions to the first $1,000; damn shame!