Methods To Allow You To Pay More Than Your Credit Limit With A Specific Card That Earns You Most Air Miles

Example No.1 – Having Outstanding Balance

The most common situation where you may need more than your credit limit is when you have an Outstanding Balance.

Current Date: 3rd day of a month.

Credit Limit: RM20K

Outstanding Balance: RM13K (because maybe you bought your spouse an anniversary gift on 28th the previous month).

Statement Date: 18th day of a month.

So from the above, the Outstanding Balance won’t be due for another 35 days or so, i.e. Due Date 20 days from Statement Date.

But on 16th day of the month you need to pay something amounting to RM10K (current Outstanding Balance of RM13K + New Transaction on RM10K = RM23K), which means you will exceed your Credit Limit of RM20K and can’t use your credit card (some banks will allow you to do so but may imposed some kind of fee which is not what we want).

Options you have:

a. you can pay RM3K immediately towards your credit card account (or more to reduce your Outstanding Balance to RM10K or below) before you swipe your credit card for the new RM10K transaction thus not exceeding your Credit Limit of RM20K.

b. you can call Customer Service to request for Temporary Increase in Credit Limit to say RM25K until the next Due Date as you would have settled in full prior to the Due Date. For my case, Maybank has always entertained my request (I need to tell them why I need the increase and it can be for buying a Rolex or even a car) but up to 100% of my existing Credit Limit only – for example my Credit Limit is RM100K, Maybank will only increase max my Temporary Credit Limit to RM200K. However, many also told me that Maybank rejected their request mainly because they are new (less than 6 months) to Maybank and thus maybe their payment history is not adequate for Maybank’s management to approve their application.

Example No.2 – Transaction Amount Higher Than Temporary Increase in Credit Limit

In the event that you need more than than your Temporary Increase in Credit Limit OR you did not even request for it, you have several options:

a. you can “pay in advance” to your credit card account. HOWEVER, some banks today clearly stated in their TnC that you cannot do this!

Example: you RM0 Outstanding Balance and your credit limit is RM20K and you need to transact RM30K. You can then pay RM10K in advance to your credit card account and therefore with this said payment you can transact up to RM30K in a single swipe.

Like I mentioned, some banks clearly stated that you are not allowed to pay in advance.

For Maybank’s case, you won’t be able to deposit any money via M2U or MAE App for amount more than your Outstanding Balance. So if you have RM0 Outstanding Balance you can’t deposit any money. However, you can (1) go to the cash deposit machine and deposit cash into your Maybank credit card account – but this is kind of ridiculous if we are talking about big amount and therefore not practical or (2) you transfer from another bank the money to your Maybank credit card account! But this also not many people will do.

b. you can pay towards your credit card account after you performed the transaction to free up your Credit Limit.

This is the best option if you ask me. Say you have RM0 Outstanding Balance and you need to transact RM50K and your credit limit is RM30K. What you can do is first swipe/transact RM30K which you will then hit the Credit Limit of RM30K.

For Maybank case, since your Outstanding Balance is RM0K, you cannot make any payment via M2U or MAE towards your credit card account on the same day you swiped the RM30K with your Maybank credit card because the transaction has yet to be posted (most probably only the next day it will be shown you have Outstanding Balance of R30K). We are talking about same day so it will still be Outstanding Balance of RM0 for the credit card account in M2U or MAE App – take note.

In respect to the above, what you can do to free up your Maybank Credit Card Credit limit back to RM30K is you just need to pay RM30K you transacted earlier with your Maybank Credit Card via another Bank! Say if you use your CIMB Bank Account to Duit Now RM30K to your Maybank Credit Card Account which you had transacted RM30K, upon the money credited (transferred from CIMB) into your Maybank Credit Card Account, instantly your Credit Limit will go back to RM30K and you can then immediately transact up to RM30K, in this case you just want RM20K.

Alternatively, if you only have money in your Maybank Account, then you need to wait until the transactions is posted on the following day where you can then use M2U or MAE App to pay the Outstanding Balance of RM30K from your Maybank Savings Account or Current Account to free up your Maybank Credit Card Credit Limit. Once you paid the earlier transaction of RM30K, your Credit Limit will be back to RM30K which you can then swipte the balance RM20K.

CONCLUSION

In order to increase the amount you can spend beyond your credit card’s Credit Limit, you can either “Pay In Advance” (but some banks’ TnC clearly stated you are not allowed to do so) or request for Temporary Increase In Credit Limit.

You can reset your credit card Credit Limit anytime without needing to wait for Statement Date, i.e. pay in Advance. And in the above examples, I have showed you that you can INSTANTLY Free UP Credit Used with your credit card by paying via another bank with Duit Now.