Why is my Amex balance due always so high?

Farr

I tend to do most my shopping using my Amex Platinum card. Sometimes when there are sales, I tend to do a really big shop and then decide to return some of the items which appear as a minus figure on my statement (which shows the refund went through). However, when I get my final monthly statement I always owe Amex a lot of money. So my question is, where is my refund money going exactly?

For instance, my recent statement took a payment of over £700 but after calculating all the refunds I see on my statement I really only spent over £200 in the month on my Amex. This happens to me every month so I don't understand how this is calculated? Sometimes the refund I get can be linked to something I bought the month before so how do I know if Amex is charging me correctly? Can someone explain in layman's terms how these credit cards work?

There are so many terms I get confused by, like 'total balance', 'available credit', 'closing balance', 'new credit', 'new debit'. I look at my statements and can't make sense of it. Please help and thank you!

BoGoF

What do you mean where is your refund money going? By your own explanation it shows as a minus figure thereby reducing the balance owing?

However if you return it after the date the statement was produced it obviously won't show until the next statement. If you spend £500 one month then the statement is produced then the statement will show £500 owing. If you return £200 of goods after the statement date then that will come off the following months statement.If you are unable to reconcile via statement then I suggest you keep some sort of manual record or revert to cash.

Emmia

It depends on when the refunds happen in relation to your statement date, as to how much you pay via your direct debit (which I hope you always pay in full given the Amex interest rates)

Brie

Would it make more sense if you put all the numbers into an excel spreadsheet?  I've had to do this with some cards as they didn't give me enough detail - particularly where I was using it for purchases and had a balance transfer deal running.  

It helped me if I put each type of transaction into a separate column - purchase, payment, refund, etc and then had a total at the bottom for each and used those totals to reconcile the opening and closing balances.  

grumbler

Some CC providers count refunds as payments and adjust the payment due accordingly, some don't.

If Amex don't, this can possibly explain the confusion.

maisie_cat

If your bill is created on say 15th and you get a refund on 16th it will probably fall into the next period. Most cards used to treat a refund as a cash payment, very handy when you were skint because you could play the system if you timed it right.

[Deleted User]

Hi.

if you don't pay your monthly statement in full, by due date, then you might be charged interest, even though you have refunds forthcoming.

prettyandfluffy

In my past experience of Amex and returns, they credit returns very quickly so depending on the timing they can go through before your payment is due.  That "artificially " reduces the balance as the payment for the item is due in the following period.  I think I'm not explaining this very well, I'll have another go: imagine your statement date is 2nd of the month, payment of £X due on the 12th.  On the 5th you buy £200 worth of goods which you return on the 8th.  The credit goes through immediately so your payment is now reduced to £X -£200 and the charge for those same goods appears on the following statement.  

daveyjp

Some credit cards consider a refund before due date as a part payment towards the bill (Barclaycard),  others treat it as a credit to the account which isn't accounted for until the next statement date and the refund therefrore reduces the balance the following month.

Farr

I've set my payments up as direct debit so I always pay in full. My refunds usually are very quick with Amex this is why I didn't understand why I get charged a high amount in the end. I've never tried putting a spreadsheet together but maybe it's about time I try.

I'm assuming if I were to ever close my account Amex would send a cheque for any outstanding refunds once I've already settled the balance due. I literally only keep the credit card to build a good credit history but it was much easier keeping an eye on my money when I was spending from just the one bank account.

cymruchris

Farr said:

I tend to do most my shopping using my Amex Platinum card. Sometimes when there are sales, I tend to do a really big shop and then decide to return some of the items which appear as a minus figure on my statement (which shows the refund went through). However, when I get my final monthly statement I always owe Amex a lot of money. So my question is, where is my refund money going exactly?

For instance, my recent statement took a payment of over £700 but after calculating all the refunds I see on my statement I really only spent over £200 in the month on my Amex. This happens to me every month so I don't understand how this is calculated? Sometimes the refund I get can be linked to something I bought the month before so how do I know if Amex is charging me correctly? Can someone explain in layman's terms how these credit cards work?

There are so many terms I get confused by, like 'total balance', 'available credit', 'closing balance', 'new credit', 'new debit'. I look at my statements and can't make sense of it. Please help and thank you!

If EVERY single month they are taking £700 (ish) and you're confident after refunds you are only spending £200 (ish) then over a period of time you'd be getting yourself into quite some serious 'credit balance' territory.

I might suggest that you put it all into a spreadsheet and trace what you're spending and the refunds you're receiving.

It could be that you're spending more than you think you are - or that it's balancing out between statements and payments.

If every month they took around £700 and you had only spent £200 - then after 6 months you'd be £3k in credit. I don't think that's what's happening though.