No flexibility for temp CC limit increase?

[chekchek]

Not all bank accept prepaid cc account. One bank come into my mind is anz.

Sent from Nokia 8250 using GAGT

 

[Trazora]

Not all bank accept prepaid cc account. One bank come into my mind is anz.

Sent from Nokia 8250 using GAGT

sorry I don't follow you.

 

[dexboi]

BEFORE
Credit Limit: $12,000
Spent: -$5,000
Available Credit Limit for spending: $7,000

AFTER
TS to "Pre-pay" +$12,000 into card...
The sum will offset earlier expenditure of $5,000.
Which will reset his Credit Limit back to $12,000.
Overpayment balance remaining: +$7,000
Latest Available Credit Limit: $12,000 + $7,000 = $19,000

$19k still not enough? Offline purchase? Then ask the cashier to split and charge the card twice.

 

[littleprincey]

Yes, any logical person with half a brain would think of that. Not the CSO I dealt with unfortunately.

I asked for temp increase and even said if that's not possible I was willing to pre-pay but just make sure my card doesn't get rejected as that would be major embarrassing.

Was flat out told you can't get an increase. Didn't even bother addressing my second option. That's South Asians for you.

I whatsapp my RM at SCB to check this. There would not be any issue with prepayment. You got a noob CSO apparently. I tried before and it does not have any issue. However, it was a year back.

 

[hwmook]

I don't know about other banks but I'm surprised SC has no flexibility at all.

Thanks to its 3% cashback, the Manhattan World card is good for purchases of $3,000 and above. Well I have a purchase coming up that is almost $12,000 and naturally the card I thought of was the Manhattan World.

Problem is, I've charged quite a lot to my card already and there is no way I can add a charge of $12,000 as it will exceed my limit. So I emailed SC to ask if they could temporarily increase my limit for this month so I can make the purchase.

I even said I was prepared to pre-pay i.e. I do an online transfer of $12,000 to my Manhattan World account first if they are worried I am unable to pay that amount.

They said they do not allow temp CC credit increase for this reason. They will only allow if I am going overseas or for medical expenses. I found it weird because why does it matter what the purpose is? First of all its a temp increase for 1 month not a permanent increase. Secondly, why are they willing to increase if I am traveling but not for when I am buying an expensive item? Some more I told them I can prepay the amount if they are afraid I will abscond without paying.

When I asked these questions, they did not even bother to reply. Says a lot about how SC treats its customers I must say.

Anyway, I must thank SC. After this snub I just discovered that the maximum cashback I can get on my Manhattan World card is $200 per quarter. Had I charged the full $12,000 to my card, the 3% cashback would have been $360 but since their max is $200, I would have "lost" $160.

Suffice to say, when I realised this I made changes to my plan. I will now just charge $6,700 to my Manhattan World card which will give me $201 cashback. I just lose $1 which is no biggie.

And the remaining $5,300 I will charge to my ANZ Travel Card. With every $1 spent I get 1.4 points, so with $5,300 I get 7,420 points. Based on the cashback redemption rate of 7,000 points for $50, I will get $50. So total cash back for both cards combined would be $250.

So thank you SC for not being flexible and not even bothering to reply to my queries. I just managed to get an extra $50 cashback thanks to you. Too bad for you though. Assuming you get 2% admin fee for every transaction, you could have earned $240 if you had temp increased my limit. But because you didn't, you only earned $134.

But I guess $106 is peanuts to you. But think about it, if you earn $100 less from every other cardholder, this adds up. Perhaps if you revamped your way of doing things rather than laying off staff, you will not lose so much money and will not need to lay off so many staff.

I am lost, do your credit card have a >$12000 credit limit in the first place? If yes then you should not have to ask for credit limit increase as just paying back the amount you used should release the credit limit for further purchase. Pay first then charge is fine too. I can only say the CSO is blur...

 

[limster]

Lets say your credit limit is $11,000.
You are willing to pre-pay money into the credit card account
You want to buy something that is $12,000.
Die-die must use the particular credit card because of points (don't want to split among different cards)

This is how to do it.
(1) Prepay $2,000. Credit card system will check. Your credit limit is $11,000 (because pre-pay does not increase the credit limit)
(2) Instead of $12,000 in one shot. Ask the merchant to do a charge of $6,000
(3) The credit card system will then calculate your credit limit taking into account your pre-pay. So $11,000-$6,000+$2,000, your remaining credit limit is $7,000. This happens instantly (unless your bank CMI and calculates credit limit only at the end of each day)
(4) Merchant does the charge for the next $6,000 immediately after charging for the first $6,000. Payment goes through....

 

[Suleyman]

The CSO is technically right, but is just explained very poorly to the customer.

The term 'credit limit' has a specific meaning to the bank, which is the amount of 'credit' the bank is willing to extend to you. Under MAS rules, there has to be a specific reason to temporarily increase it, so they cannot anyhow just grant it. Travel, medical or wedding are three acceptable reasons that I know of. You can certainly claim to be traveling, but I have also encountered instances where the bank will ask for supporting documents like itinerary.

When you 'pre-pay' your credit card, you are not increasing the amount of credit the bank is extending to you, but adding an amount on top of that credit.

So, say your credit limit is $12k. You have signed $5k, so remaining amount of credit that the bank will extend to you is $7k. If you then pay $20k into the card, it frees up the $5k the bank has extended you. The remaining $15k is now your own credit. So, you can now sign $27k, $15k of your money + $12k that the bank lends to you. However, your credit limit continues to be $12k.

 

[Trazora]

Lets say your credit limit is $11,000.
You are willing to pre-pay money into the credit card account
You want to buy something that is $12,000.
Die-die must use the particular credit card because of points (don't want to split among different cards)

This is how to do it.
(1) Prepay $2,000. Credit card system will check. Your credit limit is $11,000 (because pre-pay does not increase the credit limit)
(2) Instead of $12,000 in one shot. Ask the merchant to do a charge of $6,000
(3) The credit card system will then calculate your credit limit taking into account your pre-pay. So $11,000-$6,000+$2,000, your remaining credit limit is $7,000. This happens instantly (unless your bank CMI and calculates credit limit only at the end of each day)
(4) Merchant does the charge for the next $6,000 immediately after charging for the first $6,000. Payment goes through....

Just to understand, if credit limit is $11,000, even if prepay say $2000 to the account, we cannot one shot charge more than $11,000 to the card?

 

[Inix]

There is no need to ask. Just pre-pay, wait for 24 hours for the amount to be active within your account, and you will be able to use it. I do it all the time. Most banks have a waiting period for the batch jobs to run. Some (like UOB) are instantaneous.

 

[derrickgoh]

My limit for this card is $10,500. So when they refused to temp increase to $12,000 i said i was willing to pre pay the full $12,000 & they could not even bother to say if that was fine or not.

Noob CSO is one thing but what i cant stand is lazy ppl who cant even bother to ask if they are not sure.

 

[hwmook]

My limit for this card is $10,500. So when they refused to temp increase to $12,000 i said i was willing to pre pay the full $12,000 & they could not even bother to say if that was fine or not.

Noob CSO is one thing but what i cant stand is lazy ppl who cant even bother to ask if they are not sure.

Many of the banks CSO are like that, cannot be bothered...

 

[zoossh]

Many of the banks CSO are like that, cannot be bothered...

i wonder why amex cso (not bank though) are often so much better than the rest.

also, local cso are always better. and i am always pleased with the front counter staff, even at uob and anz. although sometimes i dun like the local rm and salesman. it is hard and maybe a bit self conflicting to say, but i dun like fake and mercenary attitudes. afterall, consumer watch their interest, so should bank staff do so too. but i am rather conservative on responsibility and ethics, which i find lacking in some of them.

sorry for the bitching.