Credit Card Programs - Is there no way for me to pay my CITI card more than what's statement due?

I got an AA card from CITI....spent a bit, the first statement was like $20. Spent some more after the statement close date. I would like to pay off the total owed, but it won't let me do the total, it will only let me do $20.

That seems silly! Can I really not make a payment that is more than my current statement due? Chase and AMEX let me pay any amount, including advance-paying statements!

You could do it through your bank, or send them a check.

Yeah, as mentioned above the easiest way is to set up your citi CC as a payee through your online bank service and then transfer whatever amount you decide that way. Just make sure this particular card allows pre-payments if you are planning to bring your credit card balance negative...some cards do not like when you do that.

P.S. are you sure there was no option for paying the total outstanding balance as opposed to only the total amount due?

Yeah, as mentioned above the easiest way is to set up your citi CC as a payee through your online bank service and then transfer whatever amount you decide that way. Just make sure this particular card allows pre-payments if you are planning to bring your credit card balance negative...some cards do not like when you do that.

P.S. are you sure there was no option for paying the total outstanding balance as opposed to only the total amount due?


I pay the outstanding balance before the statement date all the time. On the Make a Payment screen, there is a section called Select Payment Amount. Then either select Current Balance or Other. If you select Other, you need to enter the amount.

Now Citi will not let you pay for pending transactions. The maximum you can pay is total amount of charges that have already posted to your account.

I got an AA card from CITI....spent a bit, the first statement was like $20. Spent some more after the statement close date. I would like to pay off the total owed, but it won't let me do the total, it will only let me do $20.

That seems silly! Can I really not make a payment that is more than my current statement due? Chase and AMEX let me pay any amount, including advance-paying statements!

Try pay by phone, it worked for me

Citi also limits the amount which can be paid on new accounts, or accounts linked to a new checking account. These restrictions will disappear after a few billing cycles.

Citi will allow you to pay up to 7% over what your current balance is if you use the payment option on their website and manually enter the amount you wish to pay.

Actually is prepaying and creating a $0 amount due before the statement closes a good thing to do? I have heard some on this board saying that showing a 2% - 3% utilization rate is actually better than showing a 0% utilization rate.

I do understand, of course, that you do need to pay your credit card statement in full before the due date (I usually pay mine in full the day I get notified that the statement has been generated).

The thinking is, that when applying for new cards, if your credit report shows $0 balance on all of the existing cards, then it appears that you are not using your current accounts. Not using a card, to a bank, is a money losing operation for them. They want you to USE the cards.

Weird, for some reason I was able to pay off my card in full today. Since I paid off that $30 from my last statement, my current statement is $0 but I was still able to pay off the remaining $1000+...I'm glad I now have the ability to pay my card off at will!

It's not weird...

Citi also limits the amount which can be paid on new accounts, or accounts linked to a new checking account. These restrictions will disappear after a few billing cycles.

Same problem here and its gdamn annoying.

Actually is prepaying and creating a $0 amount due before the statement closes a good thing to do? I have heard some on this board saying that showing a 2% - 3% utilization rate is actually better than showing a 0% utilization rate.

I do understand, of course, that you do need to pay your credit card statement in full before the due date (I usually pay mine in full the day I get notified that the statement has been generated).

The thinking is, that when applying for new cards, if your credit report shows $0 balance on all of the existing cards, then it appears that you are not using your current accounts. Not using a card, to a bank, is a money losing operation for them. They want you to USE the cards.

You don't want a zero balance on ALL your cards, but having a zero balance on MOST is probably helpful. If you really want to fine-tune, I think the best scores result from having a few % on one card and zero on all others.

Resurrecting an older thread here - just got my first Citi card (Hilton Reserve) last week and already putting lots of spend on it. I'd like to pay some of it off before the statement date, but even with the transactions officially posted (not just pending), I get the message "You have entered an amount greater than your statement balance. Please re-enter an amount less than or equal to your statement balance."

Any idea how long it takes before they'll allow payments to be made prior to the statement date with a new Citi account (and with new bank account info)?

There's a footnote on my bank account that says "If you are making an online payment with us for the first time, or have recently changed your bank account information, we may impose limitations on the number of payments accepted." Any idea what these limitations are, and how long they're in effect?

The most you can pay, is your current balance plus 7.5%. You can also only make 4 payments in a bill cycle. You'll have to wait for pending charges to post before you can pay them.

Resurrecting an older thread here - just got my first Citi card (Hilton Reserve) last week and already putting lots of spend on it. I'd like to pay some of it off before the statement date, but even with the transactions officially posted (not just pending), I get the message "You have entered an amount greater than your statement balance. Please re-enter an amount less than or equal to your statement balance."

Any idea how long it takes before they'll allow payments to be made prior to the statement date with a new Citi account (and with new bank account info)?

There's a footnote on my bank account that says "If you are making an online payment with us for the first time, or have recently changed your bank account information, we may impose limitations on the number of payments accepted." Any idea what these limitations are, and how long they're in effect?

The current balance payment restriction should lift after the first statement cuts and you're into your second billing cycle. That's what happened with my last new Citi account. Amex does this at times as well.

In the meantime, if you want to zero it out or pay it down, send in a check via snail mail, or push the payment to it through your bank/credit union's bill pay service if you have the service. I push the payment via bill pay when this happens with new accounts, or when I want to pay more than the current balance...such as when a larger pending balance is going to be on the card right around the statement time that may clear that cycle, and I want to make sure it reports a zero balance.

For FICO scoring maximization purposes (as touched on earlier in this thread), I prefer to let one revolving account, that has a $40k or less credit limit reporting, show a small balance each month. That guarantees FICO version 04 will show @ 1% credit utilization since it rounds up, and my score will be at its best. Right now, with 5 new accounts reporting, my FICO 04 scores are still in the low 800s and FICO 08 score is about 827-830. And yes, I spend too much time thinking about these things. :D