A charge card has no preset spending limit, but unlike a credit card, it expects the full balance every month instead of a minimum payment. No preset limit doesn’t mean unlimited, so confirm a big purchase first and set autopay to pay your full statement balance.
There is still a limit. It just isn’t fixed. On American Express cards with no preset spending limit, what you can spend adapts to factors like your purchase, payment, and credit history, so Amex can decline a big charge. In rare cases, it sets a fixed limit, for reasons like past-due payments.
The missing limit isn’t what makes a charge card, though. The pay-in-full bill is, and Amex says true charge cards are rare today. It calls its Gold and Platinum cards credit cards with no preset limit.
Their Pay Over Time feature lets you carry eligible purchases as a balance with interest, up to a Pay Over Time limit that caps borrowing, not spending. On personal Green, Gold, and Platinum accounts opened since August 2020, it’s on from the start.
With Pay Over Time, anything above its limit is still due in full, and eligible purchases you carry past the due date cost interest from each one’s transaction date. Miss a payment and you can owe a late fee. Amex reports the late payment to the credit bureaus once the account is 30 days past due and can cancel an account that stays behind.
Utilization, the share of your card limits you’re using, looks only at revolving accounts, the kind that lets you carry a balance. FICO says a charge card reported as an open account generally stays out of it, so a big month won’t push your ratio up, though the card adds no limit to pull it down either. Amex calls its no-limit cards revolving accounts, so check the account type your credit report lists for each card, and see how low to keep balances on the ones that count.
Before a large purchase, run it through Amex’s Check Spending Power tool in the app or online, or call your issuer. Then set autopay to the full statement balance, whatever minimum the bill shows.
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