onedog

I have done this many times, both with AMEX and Citi. No problems whatsoever. I use to do this a few years ago when I would charge business expenses that were much, much, much larger than my established credit limit. Sometimes you can't make an online payment that is larger than your outstanding balance. Just mail in a check and they will credit your account for the overpayment.

The only hiccup you may encounter is that the card issuer's system may by default only allow you to charge up to your established credit limit. As soon as that charge is processed (applied against your credit balance), you can continue to charge. This may take a day for the charge to flow through their system. Just to be safe, break your tax payment into increments lower than your established credit limit to lessen your risk of having the entire charge denied.

beckoa

Ive tried to do this on my BoA AS Visa... and no dice... I think I once talked to an agent over the phone, and they said even if I overpay xxx dollars, I still will have a preset spending limit... which impaired my ability to purchase airline tickets

nkedel

I've done this many times with Citi, without problem, but never for a charge over my limit.

As noted in a similar thread, with Citibank, if your checking account with them there is no problem making a transfer payment to them even with a zero balance on the credit card.

signal8

I tried this same strategy recently w/ the double miles Escape card. Having been denied a credit line increase request I made ahead of some large transactions (first puzzling thing--never been denied by anyone) I thought I would be creative and simply overpay ahead of the sales effectively increasing my "credit limit" (in the loose sense of the term).

However, because I did not want to be embarrassed by a denial on these sensitive transactions, I called CS first to make sure it was cool. They told me that any payment in excess of 110% of the balance would be denied! Very frustrating and baffling considering that a merchant pays a % of every dollar run through their card! Why don't they want me to use this thing!?

So what I'm probably going to do instead (since it's impractical in this instance to divide up the transactions any further) is to put it on the Citi AA card that has no pre-set. That is, unless someone here has a suggested work around? Anyone? Bueller?

bizaro86

This really seems to vary by bank. I was buying an engagement ring a few years ago for an amount that exceeded my credit limit. I zapped off an online bill payment to cover the difference with a credit in my account, and got a phone call a few days later saying that wouldn't increase the amount I could charge to the card, since "Its a credit card, sir, you can't use it like a debit card!" That never occurred to me, since I'd done the same thing one other credit cards in the past.

Ironically, they were more than happy to send me a check for the overpayment at no cost to me, which I then deposited and applied to my other credit card, which took it fine. It cost them fees on a reasonably big purchase, and delayed my engagement for about 10 days.

Michael

Edited to add: So the moral of the story is to check with the CC company before doing this.

Centurion

It can be done...I have done it. The reason why can not be done by many is the mechanics of the actions fit the profile of a very common fraud that is done to credit card companies. Enough said. Waste your time discussing this issue. If you want to do it contact your credit card company and do go beyond the customer service agent that answers the phone.

teacher5

we new we were having a huge bill on amex and did not want to have it disallowed since it was an new cardd...we called and told them to expect a pre payment...no problem