Credit limit is a sensitive topic and so i haven’t gone through in detail on this part in most of my article. However, here’s something extraordinary that i felt worth sharing. Most of you might know that American Express Gold card is a charge card with no preset spending limit.
However, as discussed earlier in 5 things you must know about Amex Gold Charge card, it does have an internal limit/credit support placed on the account which changes dynamically every single month based on your previous spend/repayment pattern.
Finding the Internal limit: I’ve been wondering how big the internal limit of a charge card can get and one day i was surprised to know the number. When i called up Amex customer care lastly to inquire about the credit support available on my card, i was said that i’m good to go with a charge of Rs.20 Lakhs. Incredible!
What’s the maximum Limit? I’ve heard limits like 50 Lakhs or so on Amex Platinum Charge card as quite normal, but for a normal person with Amex Gold charge card, its really high as the eligibility for Gold card is less than half of Amex Plat Charge Card.
If Amex Platinum Charge card was allowed to charge 3 Crores as mentioned by the Amex Centurion cardholder, i guess limits like even 1 Crore (let’s say) on Amex Gold Card maybe possible. But hey, its a charge card, hence you need to clear your bill at the end of the month.
Increasing Internal Limit on Amex Charge Cards:
While i don’t use Amex Gold card often due to the low default reward rate, i tend to use it when i need high credit line, which if i charged on my other cards would max out my limit and would end up in bad credit utilization ratio. And, going with multiple cards for a single purchase due to limit issues is another not so nice process.
I still remember using 3 Credit+debit cards to swipe for a single purchase at croma 5 yrs back in time. Charge cards are very helpful in such situations. Also, more transactions means higher possibility of getting a annual fee waiver, hence its no brainer to hold charge cards.
How’s the Internal Limit on Amex Charge Cards Calculated?
As my Gold charge card account has a pretty decent credit support, i tried to decode the formula as to how my limit was decided. I did the math and this is what i found (approx) :
- Internal Limit = 3 X (Spends in past 1 yr) + Other Factors (CIBIL score & its data, repayment gap, card age, etc)
Ideally, the internal limit is very much higher than what you’ve spent on the card, in the range of 2x-3x of spends, atleast in my case. Hence, Amex Gold card is one of the must have cards in your wallet if you’re looking for high credit line in short duration. You may Apply for Amex Gold Card here.
Do you have such high imaginary credit limits on your credit/charge cards? If so, how much was that? Feel free to share in comments below.
Nice ice breaker article and this might also create interest in some people to apply for Amex Gold Card
Mine shot up to 8 lakhs after 6 months of usage. Reward rate incredible and is better than any other cards in india (if u consider the promotions run by amex y2y). I got statement credit of Rs 10000(gold collection), 15K Taj voucher and 20K Tanishq voucher. Thats INR 45000…. and my yearly fee is reversed on a call. This year I got 4000 worth bookmyshow vouchers till now.
Taj Voucher on Gold Card? I wonder how!
Hey Siddharth,
my dad has a Gold charge card since 2009(got it through his CA firm) , he rarely uses it though
the 3x spend may be doubtful , he managed to get 13.5 lakhs swipped in a single go without using the card for 5+ years
though age may have played a factor , he is 62
That’s interesting!
So basically you are saying that if a person has spend Rs. 10 lakhs in the previous year than in the current year he can spend 20 to 30 lakhs. That also in a single transaction ?
Single txn? – Practically rare, as there maybe limits put by payment gateways/terminals per txn.
What about the credit limit,
If i hold a Amex card with 60k limit and i spend more than that will it is considered as over limit.
Hello sid,
Sorry for the last comment,I don’t know about the gold card.
Thanks for your premium service it helps me a lot,
As of now I’m using two credit cards i.e kotak league platinum 57k limit and hdfc business money back 40k,I kindly request you suggest which card will i apply now,is it possible to apply amex gold card and can we hold two cards from amex.
Siddharth, what if i get amex gold charge card with internal limit with 2L at card approval and i will spend around 12L in 6 months what would be my gold charge card limit after 6 months? Also does charge card is considered same as credit card on cibil score point of view? Does it affect cibil score same way as any other credit card?
20L and above. Its all treated same in most aspects.
Thank you so much…i am planning to get amex gold charge card in January…can we know our internal limit on charge card by just calling customer care?
Hi,
I am using Amex gold charge card for last 3 years alongwith amex MMT credit card. I usually spend around 5 lakh on my gold charge card but my shadow limit is still around 1 lakh. I got approved platinum charge card this month also. I don’t understand without enhancing my limit on gold card how they have approved my plat charge card. Please clarify
Hi Siddharth, I recently got approved gold charge card and its on way to delivery…what if after 6 months i will have internal credit limit of 20 lakh and then after 6 month if i use less like 20000 a month then will my credit limit reduced from 20 lakh? Or it just stay same 20 lakh? Just want to know how this internal limit works…
I just checked on my card for you. Yes, it got reduced a bit ~10% as i haven’t charged much in past 1 yr. Good enough!
How do you check this Siddharth. On my Gold Charge Card, if i call them they just say there is no limit for this card.
Ask for internal limit. They’ll do test charge and tell you.
P.S. Don’t ask too often. It might flag your a/c, as it does in western countries.
I just got gold charge card and I want to check what is my limit, can anyone tell how to do so as customer care is saying I can go with any charge?
Hi Ashok,
Any charge wouldn’t go through just like that. You need to call the costumer care and ask them you have an upcoming charge of ₹10,00,000 (For example) and ask them to check wheather that can go through. They would check and let you know how much charge would maximum go through your card.
Don’t swipe just like that you would have high chances of getting it declined.
Once when I had asked for an charge they did even ask me the purpose for charge and where I was using it.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Kiran
Today i have seen on amex netbanking page that they do actually provide tool to test how much you can charge on your gold charge card…you just need to enter amount you want to charge…tool will tell you then…this is apart from usual net banking to know your internal limit…Siddharth have you seen this net banking tool to check limit? What do you think that if we routinely check on this net banking tool to check limit frequently amex stiil flag your account? What is best way to know for charge card limit, this new tool or customer care? Awaiting your reply…
Yes, i can that its enabled for even other credit cards. Thanks for spotting it.
But when i did the test charge (high amount) on charge card, it gives an error. They’ve limited the attempts. So it still seems calling cust. care is the best way.
I tried on my Gold Charge Card. On third attempt it said you have exceeded number of attempts and it has been blocked for you for security reasons.
Yes i called customer care and they said they limited only 2 attempts per day so we can try only two times in a day to see our internal limit on charge card…mine was 3.12L on first day…
i have checked for my gold card and i tested for Rs. 5 lacs and same was approved.
does it mean i can apply for any card which is issued on card basis having 5+ limit?
please confirm. if yes which card i can apply on this basis.as my highest limit is 442000/- on hdfc regalia card.
thanks.
Depends on the issuer and rules, which changes from time to time.
Except for HSBC cards. For card-on-card they do accept a “no pre set limit” option, on website as well as on phone.
Hi Sid,
Any luck of fee reversal on this card, if spend are more ?
Yes, Reversal is easy on Gold cards.
I wanted to know Siddharth, how do you make payments for the purchases on your charge cards, not asking for the smaller, average purchases. But my concern has got more to do with the larger purchases and payments. I use 8 lakhs on the charge card, so to speak, be it on the Gold or the Platinum, how will I make this huge a payment back to AMEX? Can I pay it off using the standard old fashioned Billdesk credit card payment mechanism or do I need to work it out some other way? I use the UPI payment option as with it, the payments get posted on the AMEX cards the very next day if made before noon the prior day. But there’s a limit to UPI payments of only up to 1 lakh. There’s a certain limit to NEFT payments as well if I’m not wrong. Can you please help me with this? Also, I tried looking for an article on credit/charge card payments on this one and only supercalifragilistic credit card information source in India but found none. I suggest you make one on this topic as well discussing the various payment options, especially for making large payments to credit/charge cards. All agog for a response on this as I have an upcoming large purchase ( north of 5 lakhs) on my AMEX gold charge card. Help on this from AMEXGUY too will be much appreciated 🙂
CRED is what you should consider, but make payments a week before. You could speed up the posting of payments by 1 day by doing multiple 1L payments as CRED uses UPI for upto 1L, after which NEFT/RTGS is used.
NEFT doesn’t have any upper cap.
NEFT doesn’t has upper cap. But, Banks do have ! That too depends on Account type. For eg. My Indusind Select Account gives me upper cap of Rs. 10 lakh for Funds transfer per day.
Hi Siddhartha. Any idea what’s the upper cap on the number of charge cards and credit cards you can hold with Amex. I was told by an Amex rep that I can’t have more than 1 charge card or two credit cards?