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I bought something on 06/04/09. I want to pay off the balance as soon as possible to avoid charges. I look at my account status online today 06/08/09 and don't see a balance but the purchase amount is already deducted from the credit limit. Is this normal? Or is it a new trick (hiding the balance so people can't pay early)? The point is I want to pay but I can't because the balance is not showing. Thanks.
I agree this is not new. The CC company does not set up their online sites for people to have balance available unless that is what your 'inquiry' is set-up for.
If you know how much the purchase was and can send the money in I would CALL to make sure that you have the correct means of designating the purpose of the payment /account number / address.
First is the Credit Line which is the amount you can borrow. Immediately upon approval of a purchase the amount approved is deducted from this Credit Line. At the point the actual items posts to your balance then the hold is removed from the Credit Line. If the item never does post to your balance then the hold will just age off in 5-7 days and the amount added back to the Credit Line.
Second is the actual balance. As mentioned before, it can take 3-4 days for a purchase to post and become an actual item to pay. Only upon the posting does your CC bank settle with the merchants bank.
You were seeing the amount off of the Credit Line and not seeing a transaction posted to your balance yet.
You can send the payment whenever you want. If you over pay or pay before purchases post then your account would just show a positive balance. I've had positive balances on my Kohl's card because I returned stuff after I paid the cc bill. After 3 months they send you a check.
While the process as described is supposedly "normal", there are a couple of issues most of you are missing.
First, with the possible exceptions of car rentals and hotel bills, 99% of transactions are completely electronic and instantanious through a verifone or other mechanism. The credit line vs. balance is largely BS. Yeah, some merchants might take a day to balance and close out, but merchants want their money and slow finalizing is rare.
The second issue is that I have run across is more devious, and I assure you it does happen. If, for whatever reason (yeah I hear you "I never carry a balance" folks I try not to as well) you do have a balance at the end of one period, and you go online to check your balance on the day before or day of your statement, one of two things is likely to happen - first, you won't be allowed to access your information (that was a startle the first time it happened), or second- even more deviously, one or two transactions will be missing. The amount may just be a buck or two, but it is enough to keep the interest charges accruing. When you are making thirty to a hundred transactions, and are on a business trip, keeping up with the bookwork is impractical. The card company obviously has the information available, since it shows up on the printed statement even though the exact same transactions do not show up online on the same day or day after.
When doing business with credit card companies you ALWAYS have to understand that the company is actively trying to find ways to make you pay more fees and interest. If a scheme isn't spelled out as illegal by a specific law, it will be used. Morality and fair play have nothing to do with how predatory lenders work.
If you examine the process, it might be more understandable. What happens is when the merchant swipes your card, it checks your limit balance, authorizes the charge and reduces your limit balance assuming you aren't over your limit. Later, the merchant processes all the credit card transactions either that night, the next morning or some other time frame. Once this is done, it places a pending charge on your account, which can take a business day or three before it becomes an actual charge and showing up on your account. Some credit card companies show pending charge details and some don't, so this may be why you don't see it.
If you are mailing the payment, by the time it gets there the charge should have appeared. If you are paying on line, you probably will not be able to pay it until the charge appears. If you look at the online payment options you will see the most you can pay is a small amount over the current balance.
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I try not to as well) you do have a balance at the end of one period, and you go online to check your balance on the day before or day of your statement, one of two things is likely to happen - first, you won't be allowed to access your information (that was a startle the first time it happened), or second- even more deviously, one or two transactions will be missing. The amount may just be a buck or two, but it is enough to keep the interest charges accruing. When you are making thirty to a hundred transactions, and are on a business trip, keeping up with the bookwork is impractical. The card company obviously has the information available, since it shows up on the printed statement even though the exact same transactions do not show up online on the same day or day after.
