Can I overpay a Barclaycard to get more Avios points?

MarcHitchens

I've recently got an Avios Barclaycard with a welcome bonus of 50,000 points when I spend £3k in the first three months. I have a package holiday to pay for (£3k) but the provisional credit limit is just £200. Can I 'load' the card by overpaying it (what credit card companies call a negative balance), then pay for my holiday? Or will I fall foul of some money laundering rules? I'm self-employed and the credit limit will leap after extra docs are sent, but not before I need to pay for my holiday - and I use Avios for 5 free flights a year. And as well as the welcome bonus, I will get 3,000 x 1.5 points on the transaction. I've called/online chat but think what I'm asking is unusual. The terms and conditions say I'll get points when inside my credit limit. By paying in 3k, then paying out 3k, I think I am within my credit limit???? Any help appreciated before I take the leap. Thanks

born_again

Check the T/C but most will be a NO. You simply can not put a CC into a credit balance.

MarcHitchens

Thanks for your thoughts - the last two points on the Ts&Cs are ambiguous. I will be within and not over my credit limit, but they may say purchases were not made inside the £200. I can put the card into a negative balance according to call centre and pay that balance down by spending, but they have no idea if it will qualify for points, not does Avios or BA. 

crumpet_man

Why is the credit limit only £200?  Do you need to do send them some documents or ID to verify?  You would be better off getting the credit limit fixed before anything else.

SuperAllyB

I'm pretty sure you'll lose Section 75 cover doing it that way as well, if it's important to you

The_Urbanite

You can't really overpay with a debit card, but you can bypass by making a payment to Barclaycard by bank transfer.

Unlike other banks the transaction amount is capped at your credit limit.

In practice you can cycle your credit limit to your hearts content - I was doing  upwards of 20x my credit limit a month for a long time without challenge.

Marchitiello

Barclaycards are giving this £200 temporary limit to everyone they cannot complete full income verification nowadays. 

As others have said the transaction may not be authorised in the first place.

In terms of Avios earning and qualifying spending, anything that you spend on it will count, the fact that the card is on negative balance and/or that you overpay your statement has no bearing on it. Avios and Spending qualifying accumulation are calculated on actual transactions not on statement balance. 

Also, the comment about section 75 protection is no sense: what impact on a purchase protection right would the balance /payment/overpayment on the account have I am curious to learn… 

PS : I have had my Barclaycard accounts since 1999 and in this long time I have had few times the account in “negative” balance, some time for extended period of time. Normally it has only happened to the tune of £100-200 but at least one occasion it was around £2k (paid twice a statement via bank transfer) but the credit limit was many time that so it was obvious that it was not for creating larger credit limits. 

NoodleDoodleMan

Doesn't Barclaycard systems automatically reject any credited funds that would take the balance above zero ?

[Deleted User]

They probably won't reject it but likely will return it if put in credit deliberately (or even accidentally) 

msallen

Marchitiello said:

Also, the comment about section 75 protection is no sense: what impact on a purchase protection right would the balance /payment/overpayment on the account have I am curious to learn… 

Because you may not be buying your purchase on credit which I believe is an intrinsic part of S75.

born_again

Marchitiello said:

Barclaycards are giving this £200 temporary limit to everyone they cannot complete full income verification nowadays. 

As others have said the transaction may not be authorised in the first place.

In terms of Avios earning and qualifying spending, anything that you spend on it will count, the fact that the card is on negative balance and/or that you overpay your statement has no bearing on it. Avios and Spending qualifying accumulation are calculated on actual transactions not on statement balance. 

Also, the comment about section 75 protection is no sense: what impact on a purchase protection right would the balance /payment/overpayment on the account have I am curious to learn… 

PS : I have had my Barclaycard accounts since 1999 and in this long time I have had few times the account in “negative” balance, some time for extended period of time. Normally it has only happened to the tune of £100-200 but at least one occasion it was around £2k (paid twice a statement via bank transfer) but the credit limit was many time that so it was obvious that it was not for creating larger credit limits. 

S75 covers situations where credit is involved.

If you could put you CC in a credit balance, you are removing that position.