Over paying a credit card to purchase an item greater than the credit limit

toph

i need to make a single purchase of ~£10k on my Master Card to purchase a large item to be delivered and installed in my home, but my credit limit is just £5.5k.

i phoned the card provider and asked to up the limit but they say i need to wait 6 months. I then asked if i could over pay £4.5k on the card so i had £10k available to cover the purchase and they stated that it wasn't ideal (or words to that affect) but didn't confirm if it was possible or not and what would happen to the excess monies if i did over pay. They also mentioned it was something to do with anti money laundering.

All sounds like nonsense to me.

Has anyone recently over paid a card in order to make a purchase in excess of their credit limit?

Are there any laws or regulations that prevent over paying a card in this way?

is it possible for a card provider to reject an over payment?

Duckyduck

It’s probably possible, but it will be against the card T&Cs. I haven’t a crystal ball to tell you how they’ll respond, but the fact you’re doing it after calling to check shows you did so with intent.

toph

"but it will be against the card T&Cs"

they never said i couldn't do it, just that it wasn't ideal. i did press them for a definitive yes its ok or no its not and got the waffle about money laundering.

i was really hoping they would come up with a solution as to how i could make my purchase but I've been left in limbo.

Duckduck, do you definitely know its against T&Cs, have you seen it written in some, i've never noticed a clause that states you can't over pay.

redux

Why not just pay £5000 each from credit card and bank account, same effect same sources of funds.

bengalknights

If your wanting the protection of the card then you only need a £100 to get the protection so redux suggestion would be a good way.

bris

Why even bother when protection only need £1?


You risk having the card blocked until they sort out a money laundering enquiry.

SuperAllyB

Thought I read (probably on here somewhere) that putting the card in credit and paying over the credit limit for something invalidates the protection that you're hoping for by using the card in the first place.

Vortigern

toph wrote: »

i was really hoping they would come up with a solution as to how i could make my purchase but I've been left in limbo.

Pay a large deposit, up to your credit limit, then pay off the credit card, then pay the rest of the purchase with your credit card.

Would take a few days between those steps and is only worth doing if you want to maximise return on a cashback card.

Do you definitely know its against T&Cs, have you seen it written in some, i've never noticed a clause that states you can't over pay.

I've seen it written. It usually says you must not put your account in credit.

Ergates

redux wrote: »

Why not just pay £5000 each from credit card and bank account, same effect same sources of funds.

Yes - I would expect most places selling items costing £10,000 will accept multi-part payments.

CollinT

Some Credit Cards won't let you pay off more than you owe (to stop people putting their CC account in credit).

Virgin Money is one, where the website will only accept a maximum of the outstanding balance only. You cannot even pay off 'pending amounts'. The Creation ihg hotels CC is another. My BA Amex will not allow 'over payment' either.

Even going into a Virgin Money branch to make a payment against a Virgin Money CC is a 'no' as well, the cashiers get some sort of warning if one attempts to 'over pay'.

toph

Thanks to all above.

I’m purchasing from a website and there is no split payment option online. I fear I won’t get a sensible response if I phone and ask to split the payment across a credit and debit card. I’ll probably be told it’s to stop money laundering or something.

@Bris, iirc you need to pay between £100 and £30k to be protected on a credit card.

The card issuer phoneed today and I had to go through a further credit check to get the card upped to £12k.

They said if I added a significant more funds than to clear a the balance the card would be blocked and they’d post me a cheque of the excess & I’d have to phone to get the block lifted but in short I am unable to increase my spending amount that way.

Despite answering stupid affordability questions and waiting on hold for 20 mins I still must send them evidence of my earnings in the post before they will up my limit. Apparently they will only accept originals and won’t accept printed statements. All my financial stuff is now (actually past few years) online only including payslips, HMRC letters and bank statements so that’ll be my next hurdle

I seem to remember something about credit card companies having to pay interest to consumers for any excess funds and that is a possible reason why they have protections to prevent over payment. Vague statements about money laundering and fraud without actually pointing to any legislation or T&C’s doesn’t help me but I could understand something like them not wanting to pay anyone interest at the cash rate they themselves charge though.