American Express Starts Applying Payments Instantly on Credit Cards

American Express has made a change to the way it processes payments made to credit cards. Previously, once you paid all or some of your credit cards balance, you would have to wait a day or two in order to see the balance and the available credit updated. But sometime in the last few days, this has changed.

Now when you pay an American Express credit card, you will see the balance and the available credit updated immediately. This is similar to how payments have always worked on Citi credit cards.

Besides the benefit of just visually seeing your payment applied to your balance, there are a few other positives here. With the available credit updated instantly, you can now use your card again immediately if you need to make a large purchase. Just be aware that recycling your credit limit might be an issue. So do not keep using your whole available credit and pay it off continuously within a month. It might raise red flags.

With the payment applied instantly it could also be useful if you need a quick credit score boost. Amounts owed on accounts determines 30% of a FICO Score. So if you pay your Amex card right before your statement closes, then the new lower balance will be reported to credit agencies and it will lower your utilization rate.

HT: JayBeltran805