Amex Gold "Big Ticket Item"

Stephen_C.

From Amex:

No spending limit
The beauty of a charge Card is that there’s no defined spending limit, and you have the control of paying your balance in full every month. Plus, the more you put on your Card, the more points you’ll earn to pick up rewards. Please let us know when you’re about to buy a big ticket item so we can make sure your sale goes through as smoothly as possible.

What counts as a big ticket item? Does this vary from customer to customer?

e.g. If I were to buy a laptop from Apple for just over £2k, would that require me to call them first?

19lottie82

I spent 3k on a kitchen and it went through ok, but I guess it will vary from customer to customer.

MPH80

It'll be based on your card usage and trends rather than any set limit.

For example - I've got two credit based AmEx's. Tried to book a hotel on one - got blocked first time due to fraud. Whipped out the second amex ... booked it. And then accidentally booked it again.

So one amex blocked me due to an unusual transaction and the other let me book it twice in 30 seconds.

Stephen_C.

Sounds like the safest thing to do is just call them up beforehand. I'll be buying that kind of thing online most likely anyway, so I don't mind.

InsideInsurance

Stephen_C. wrote: »

What counts as a big ticket item? Does this vary from customer to customer?

e.g. If I were to buy a laptop from Apple for just over £2k, would that require me to call them first?

It varies from customer to customer. In part its about normal use but that tends to be more for counter fraud issues. The rest is down to their assessment of your credit worthiness.

Annoyingly they cannot actually "tell you" if its all going to be ok or not but by phoning them they can put a dummy authorisation through and let you know if it goes straight through, thinks about it or is declined. If it goes straight through you are safe to do the transaction from a "limit" perspective though of cause it may still be caught by the counter fraud processes.

Personally had 5 figure sums go straight through without problems but when I first got the card they said a £5k transaction would be declined (it was accepted 2 months later)

Stephen_C.

InsideInsurance wrote: »

It varies from customer to customer. In part its about normal use but that tends to be more for counter fraud issues. The rest is down to their assessment of your credit worthiness.

Annoyingly they cannot actually "tell you" if its all going to be ok or not but by phoning them they can put a dummy authorisation through and let you know if it goes straight through, thinks about it or is declined. If it goes straight through you are safe to do the transaction from a "limit" perspective though of cause it may still be caught by the counter fraud processes.

Personally had 5 figure sums go straight through without problems but when I first got the card they said a £5k transaction would be declined (it was accepted 2 months later)

So if they say the transaction will be declined, there's nothing they can do about it? Not really an unlimited card then is it!

reclusive46

Stephen_C. wrote: »

So if they say the transaction will be declined, there's nothing they can do about it? Not really an unlimited card then is it!

They'd let you make a part payment towards it or let you prove you have the money in your bank/savings account.

I've had some pretty large transactions on my Amex charge cards (Over 10k) and they've gone through fine. It obviously depends on your income though.

InsideInsurance

Stephen_C. wrote: »

So if they say the transaction will be declined, there's nothing they can do about it? Not really an unlimited card then is it!

No its not an unlimited card, and it doesnt claim to be, it says there is no set limit.

I did once run up a very high balance due to a merchants error and even at that point they didnt say to stop spending but just warned that any transactions over £100 are likely to be declined. I did a host of small transactions whilst the merchant sorted out the mistake and all went through fine.

They will sometimes entertain higher transactions if you preload the card with monies or prove you've the funds to repay it. It;s never happened to me so cannot say how easy it is to do this. I just accepted the time when they said it would be declined as I;d had the card a matter of weeks.

Transformers

I bought a 'once in a lifetime' present for someone which was paid for by a few family members sending me the funds and then me doing the buying.

I called Amex and they asked for a fax from my bank to confirm the funds were there and then they changed the account settings and I went shopping. No real hassles and my bank was happy to help too.

Stephen_C.

I wonder if there's a way to 'train' the algorithm to give you a higher limit, perhaps by progressively spending a little more each month. £500 month 1, £700 month 2, etc.

InsideInsurance

Stephen_C. wrote: »

I wonder if there's a way to 'train' the algorithm to give you a higher limit, perhaps by progressively spending a little more each month. £500 month 1, £700 month 2, etc.

You cant change the algorithm but certainly past spending, your income and history with the company will drive what they are willing to allow you to spend. Arguably where you are spending the money and in what class of shops may also impact things, is certainly what they use to flag you up as a candidate for Centurion

Assuming you have a good income then you dont really have to be that slowly slowly. Whilst it was in the first few weeks that they declined a 5k transaction within 3 months the balance went up to over 10k with a few 3/4k transactions with no problems and a few months after that a single over 10k transaction went through fine.

Since then never hit those levels nor any buffers with only one transaction being blocked and that was due to fraud concerns (ends up it wasnt fraud but didnt help that I didnt know the name of the company in question because I had bought from a site under a trading name and the company does a vast array of different things)