American Express offer a number of charge cards (you can view a full list of these cards by clicking here and then selecting charge cards in the left menu), these differ from credit cards in that your balance must be paid in full every month and there is no hard credit card limit either. This means it’s not possible for American Express to collect interest fees on these accounts. American Express also over something called ‘Pay Over Time’ or ‘Extended Payment Option’, this basically turns your charge card into a credit card and allows you to carry a balance on some charges (charges must be over $100 to qualify).
In this post we’ll talk about things you should know about this feature that is offered and if/when you should sign up.
Contents
Wait For A Bonus
Periodically American Express will offer targeted cardholders bonus points/miles for enrolling their cards in pay over time. Normally the bonus doesn’t have any requirements other than enrolling. We wouldn’t recommend actually using the pay over time feature, as you’ll be charged high interest rates by American Express. Your bonus should post within 6-8 weeks after enrollment, in practice they usually post within a few days. According to a source at American Express this promotion is run every six months.
If for whatever reason you want to enroll in pay over time without a bonus, you can do so by clicking here. Again, we would recommend waiting for a bonus as you won’t be eligible if you’re already enrolled. Click here to see if any bonuses are currently available.
What’s The Best Bonus Available?
I have only ever seen a bonus of 10,000 points being offered. It’s possible that American Express will offer more/less in the future or have offered more or less in the past.
What If You Don’t Get Targeted?
It might be possible to get the bonus without being targeted, this post has more details on how this is possible. We will also create a new post on the website whenever a new targeted promotion becomes available (click here to see if there is anything more recent).
Can You Unenroll?
Turn Off American Express Pay-Over-Time Online With One Click
Is There A Hard Pull?
A lot of people are worried that American Express will do a hard pull on your credit report when you enroll in pay over time as American Express are basically extending you a new line of credit. Fortunately no hard pull is done by American Express.
Other Q&A
Q: Is there a minimum amount of time you must keep the account open after the points have posted?
A: No, account can be closed as soon as the points post.
Q: When do cards become eligible?
A: I believe they need to have been open for three billing cycles to be eligible.
I can confirm there is no hard pull. My file is frozen with all three bureaus and the offer went through fine.
Perhaps it would be helpful to have a primer on POT Select vs POT Direct, and how your choices when offered POTS impact your future eligibility for POTD (and the 10K bonus).
can you get it on 2 cards? (i am speaking about the bouns)
i called to get a new card after i lose my amex prg. they offered me 10k to enroll. no need to purchase anything he said.
You can unenroll via chat
Terms:
If you opt-out of Select and Pay Later, you cannot re-enroll in this or any other Pay Over Time feature in the future for this account. This means that you will not be able to have charges included in or transferred to Pay Over Time. Also, if you are currently enrolled in Sign & Travel or ExPO, opting out of Select and Pay Later cancels enrollment in those features.
Terms say you can’t re-enroll, but can you? Did you try?
Be mindful of this pay over time thing – if you miss the payment date and even if you pay full amount off immediately – you will still be charged for the interest for next 2-3 months.
What’s the APR for it?
That happened to me … I mistakenly made a payment that was $30 short and it cost me $100+ in interest over two months.
I have 2 bonuses out there for my Amex Bus. Plat. One is spend anything on the card and get 10,000 points. The other is spend $5000 by Oct. 15 and get another 40,000 MR points.
I did not get anything on the loan bonus.
I’ve read using this feature can lead to a FR…is that true?
AMEX auto-enrolled me after having my card for 5 months. If I un-enroll would I become eligible for the bonus points for enrolling at some point in the future? I know the article mentions un-enrolling, but I’m assuming that’s for people that enrolled during a points offer, not those who were auto-enrolled.
Not sure if you’re still following this Christopher – but this just happened to me. I had enrolled previously, unenrolled a month or so ago, and just received the email prompting me to enroll again today. I’ll let you know if I get the points!
How did you unenroll?
Thanks
Account Services > Payment Options > Pay Charges Over Time
🙂
Thank you.
Even more confused now. The Account Services > Payment Options > Pay Charges Over Time only has one option: I Agree, Enroll.
I assume this means that I am NOT enrolled.
But the latest statement has a section “Information on Pay Over Time Features” which says “You are currently enrolled in Select & Pay Later”.
Puzzled.
Mine haven’t posted yet. Taking way too long