What happens if you pay your credit card too much?

Jamez1988

Hi All

I have a vanquis card, and wondered what happens if you make a payment online that is more than your balance.

Does your card simply go into credit?

Or do you get charged?

izools

With Vanquis they will block spending on the account until you send them proof of the source of the funds, e.g. a bank statement showing the transfer.

It's a crazy policy and makes no logical sense but that's how they do their thing.

Don't overpay.

Also, even if you do overpay and jump through their hoops to get the Vanquis card unbarred, they will decline any single transaction that's over the amount of your credit limit anyway.

Jamez1988

Okay, thanks! Interesting to find out!

What a weird policy!

chattychappy

Jamez1988 wrote: »

Okay, thanks! Interesting to find out!

What a weird policy!

Some would say it's weird to overpay a credit card when the whole point is that you are meant to owe them, not the other way around.

But the real reason is regulatory. Firstly, deposit taking comes under a different regulatory regime (and even a different regulator) than consumer credit. So CCs are not supposed to allow customers to run positive balances - whether expressly (in the T+Cs) or tacitly (ie just letting them do it). Secondly, such transactions can be connected with money laundering. Whilst this could be surmounted (with the appropriate checks) it's simply not the kind of business that CC issuers wish to get into.

How different CCs handle the situation varies. Small, occasional, transient positive balances are usually OK for some. But this should be the exception rather than the rule,

lisyloo

Is it hard to check the balance on-line before you pay?
I guess it could be if you were up a mountain or n the desert, but as you are making a payment on-line then I'm struggling to see why it would be hard to check first ???? although I guess you could type something in wrong.

datlex

Some allow it some don't. For example a few years back I got a charges refund from a credit card which put me in credit with them. Last month I accidentally over paid by 20p on a card, it just showed in credit.

On the other hand, a different card I have won't allow over payments. Meaning you can't pay for things until they have hit your card.

The_Boss

izools wrote: »

With Vanquis they will block spending on the account until you send them proof of the source of the funds, e.g. a bank statement showing the transfer.

It's a crazy policy and makes no logical sense but that's how they do their thing.

Don't overpay.

Also, even if you do overpay and jump through their hoops to get the Vanquis card unbarred, they will decline any single transaction that's over the amount of your credit limit anyway.

Interesting. Do you know of any other lenders that this applies to?

Herbalus

I nearly always have a 'positive balance' on my credit card because it takes about 4 days for purchases to appear on my statement but only 1 day for payments. My credit limit is small so it's the only way to do it.

For example, two weeks ago I bought an ipad for £315, which left me with available credit of £35. I paid the credit card immediately as my available balance had reduced, but it took 4 days for the purchase to show on my statement so it was telling me I had a positive balance of my £315 payment for 3 days.

DominicJ_2

When we bought our current car, we paid on the normal CC and transferred to another.
BC took payment anyway so I was left with a credit balance for two months.
No one mentioned anything