Experiences paying Amex (slightly) late

theburningcat · 2 June 2018 at 12:07PM

I own a small business. I regularly use my Amex Platinum charge card for business expenses and have been doing so for about 3 years. Never had a problem.

Recently, we've had several customers dragging their heels paying us. None of them are insolvent or unwilling to pay, it's a mix of people being on holiday etc.

I have just under £8k due on my Amex account on 06/06 ("payment due date" in the app). There is about a 50% chance I'll be able to pay it by the due date, and a 50% chance I'll have to pay it late, but less than a week late.

There are lots of questions on this forum along these lines but has anyone actually got experience paying a UK Amex charge card slightly late? What impact did it have? Given my situation, is it sensible or stupid to call Amex and tell them that it MIGHT be slightly late?

I found an interesting thread in Flyertalk suggesting that the due date they show you isn't the one they enforce (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-express-membership-rewards/1526010-amex-uk-charge-card-due-date-2.html) but this seems to contradict the cardmember agreement I signed with them.

I am thinking of leaving Amex and the £12 fee is not a big deal. My only real concern is my credit file.

jonesMUFCforever · 2 June 2018 at 7:28PM

Do you not have any savings that you can put towards this until your money comes through?
I always thought that a charge card had to be paid off each month on time or else but times have changed - AMEX are the people who can advise you.

maxximus75 · 3 June 2018 at 2:05AM

I think a phone call is in order?

Usually, most credit companies will try and help if you inform them of issues as early as possible.

If they do manage to help they may scrutinize further charges and put a hard limit on spending.

If you can manage it I would pay it but if you think not, then call and discuss.

Good luck!

theburningcat · 3 June 2018 at 5:25AM

Savings, yes, in a lifetime ISA and would be very expensive to withdraw.

What are the likely outcomes if I phone them? Is it realistic to expect they might be able to leave my credit file untouched?

Chippi · 3 June 2018 at 1:02PM

Call them and ask if you can pay on 13/06 instead. Only tell them a reason if they ask why. You'll be let off this once and if it happens again, they'll enforce the late fee.

theburningcat · 3 June 2018 at 1:20PM

Let off as in it won't be noted on my credit file? That's my main concern.

chattychappy · 3 June 2018 at 1:38PM

Personally I wouldn't call. This could end up with restrictions placed on the account (though I appreciate you can do without it) and I supposed an arrangement could be noted on the CRA file if they agree to let you pay late/part pay. This is probably worse than a late marker.

I used to have Amex Platinum Chargecard. I found that they did nothing provided you paid by the next statement date and I generally ignored the "pay by" date. By "nothing", I meant nothing sent to the CRA, no charges/ restrictions. From memory there was a comment on the statement to the effect "Your payment was received late. Please try to ensure your payments arrive on time." Only if payment hadn't arrived by the next statement date did they apply charges. But as I say, MY EXPERIENCE IS OUT OF DATE by a few years. (?4 or 5).

Personally I would just pay late, but as soon as you can. If you get charges, you can ask nicely for them to be refunded. Whether you get a late marker depends on their reporting date. But a single "late" marker isn't going to be an issue anyway, especially after 3 months or so.

Alternatively, do you have Halifax Clarity of Santander Zero? If so, you could draw some cash (works in the UK just like abroad) and top up your current account to pay off Amex. Clarity/Zero charge daily interest, but no fees.

Fingerbobs · 3 June 2018 at 2:09PM

chattychappy wrote: »

Alternatively, do you have Halifax Clarity of Santander Zero? If so, you could draw some cash (works in the UK just like abroad) and top up your current account to pay off Amex. Clarity/Zero charge daily interest, but no fees.

Cash Advances are also recorded on one's credit file, of course, and some say these are viewed negatively by lenders.
Swings and roundabouts.

chattychappy · 3 June 2018 at 2:15PM

Fingerbobs wrote: »

Cash Advances are also recorded on one's credit file, of course, and some say these are viewed negatively by lenders.

Fair enough, but on a different scale to a late payment. I think they can only be negative when viewed with other factors - missed payments, close to limits. Cash advances are a promoted service, afterall!

I'm using Clarity/Zero regularly for cash, in the past sometimes daily. Never had a problem. The Experian generated credit score (for those that believe in things) has remained at 999 despite cash advances, but has dropped significantly on missed payments (recovered within 3 months or so). I've had no problem getting new cards etc, despite my credit file being flagged for cash advances every month.

theburningcat · 3 June 2018 at 4:32PM

chattychappy wrote: »

Personally I wouldn't call. This could end up with restrictions placed on the account (though I appreciate you can do without it) and I supposed an arrangement could be noted on the CRA file if they agree to let you pay late/part pay. This is probably worse than a late marker.

I used to have Amex Platinum Chargecard. I found that they did nothing provided you paid by the next statement date and I generally ignored the "pay by" date. By "nothing", I meant nothing sent to the CRA, no charges/ restrictions. From memory there was a comment on the statement to the effect "Your payment was received late. Please try to ensure your payments arrive on time." Only if payment hadn't arrived by the next statement date did they apply charges. But as I say, MY EXPERIENCE IS OUT OF DATE by a few years. (?4 or 5).

Personally I would just pay late, but as soon as you can. If you get charges, you can ask nicely for them to be refunded. Whether you get a late marker depends on their reporting date. But a single "late" marker isn't going to be an issue anyway, especially after 3 months or so.

Alternatively, do you have Halifax Clarity of Santander Zero? If so, you could draw some cash (works in the UK just like abroad) and top up your current account to pay off Amex. Clarity/Zero charge daily interest, but no fees.

Your experience re paying late but before the next statement date matches the thread I found on Flyertalk - and many of the messages on that thread are very recent indeed. Is this documented somewhere though? The cardmember agreement is very specific that the due date is the due date and the fee applies after that (and I assume that if they charge a fee, they also report to the CRAs).

I've just recalled that I once paid them at 11pm on the due date, which was over a weekend, and I received an email from Amex saying that I'd paid late. I called them for clarification and they said it wasn't late but the email went out because payments over the weekend aren't immediately applied (but not my problem). Anyway, I remember that the email just asked me to pay as soon as possible but didn't mention fees etc.

Does it really depend when they report to CRAs?

chattychappy · 3 June 2018 at 4:46PM

theburningcat wrote: »

Does it really depend when they report to CRAs?

I'm no expert, but as I understand it, lenders don't specifically report a late payment. Rather once a month they report the status of an account to the CRAs. This includes balance outstanding, whether any promos are in force, credit limit, whether only the minimum has been paid, and whether the account is late (and the number of months behind), whether any cash advance had been taken. Some fields were blank for some lenders.

I used to have an Experian subscription, and the reporting date of each lender was usually the statement date.

Perhaps somebody will be along soon who knows more about these things.

Experiences paying Amex (slightly) late

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