American Express overpayment - help needed

PParka

Hi all...

A family member is currently in hospital, so will be unable to pay their American Express bill this month.
I know it is due, but can't get access to the bill to know how much they owe.
I've called Amex, but they can't tell me the amount due because I'm not the account holder. All they can tell me is that there will be a £12 charge if balance is not cleared or the payment is late.
I know the Amex account number, so I can make a payment online to clear the balance. I've also got an idea of the 'normal amount' they spend in a month.

Does anyone know what happens if you overpay an American Express credit card so that it ends up in credit?

I've never had an Amex card, so I'm not sure how they work compared to a normal credit card.  I just want to help them out while they recover.  My plan was to pay too much off the card so they don't get hit with any charges.

On-the-coast

A few 10’s of pounds, maybe even a few hundred of overpayment will just result in a credit balance.  

No alarms, cautions or warnings. 

There probably is a limit beyond which Amex would insist on repaying - or even closing the account, but I’ve never found it - and I’ve often rounded up payments to the nearest £10

Ms_Chocaholic

Can you not get hold of the paper statement that would have been sent to your family member's home address.

NoodleDoodleMan

Ms_Chocaholic said:

Can you not get hold of the paper statement that would have been sent to your family member's home address.

The card holder may have gone paperless.

Maple08

I had credit in my account and it was displayed as a negative balance, and I asked their CS about it and they just said it was credit and I could have it transferred to my current account if I wanted it. The negative balance/credit was only £8, though.

I think they deal with these things frequently with people getting refunds on large purchases. 

[Deleted User]

The key is to pay the minimum at the least, does your family member not have any idea at all how much they spent last month? A phone app? Could they give you the login details to their account to make the payment? Do they not already have a direct debit setup for payment?

If they are incapacitated then AmEx should have some sort of system to deal with this, what if they were hospitalised for months?

Olinda99

if you underpay then you will get hit with full amount of interest. better to overpay and then no interest will be due

northernstar007

the cardholder login info might be stored on there device, just click username etc

username

The other thing I thought of is does the person have any form of text balance update enabled from Amex? I get a text weekly showing the balance on my card, so it could give you a more educated guess as to what the figure could be. I can't remember if I opted in as part of the onboarding process or whether it was done automatically.

NoodleDoodleMan

northernstar007 said:

the cardholder login info might be stored on there device, just click username etc

My AMEX login name is stored - but it won't do this for a password.

That would be a major security issue.

As above, I get regular balance updates via my email.

[Deleted User]

NoodleDoodleMan said:

northernstar007 said:

the cardholder login info might be stored on there device, just click username etc

My AMEX login name is stored - but it won't do this for a password.

That would be a major security issue.

As above, I get regular balance updates via my email.

Possible though with apps they have biometric logins, all my card apps are locked behind fingerprints and face ID works for iphones I think