# What happens if you don't pay your American Express balance? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 22, 2011, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-dont-pay-your-american-express-balance/579316 "2011-04-22T02:22:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Silver\_Tyger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2011, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-dont-pay-your-american-express-balance/579316/21 "2011-04-24T05:26:55Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Seriously, outside your mortgage, don’t go into debt ever. I would expand that to include student loans. They suck, but if you’re not a minority, disabled, extremely active in the community (those being the categories with the most scholarships) they’re almost unavoidable now. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2011, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-dont-pay-your-american-express-balance/579316/22 "2011-04-24T05:33:21Z")
For us, the point of a credit card is to help strengthen our credit rating, plus not to have to carry too much cash. We religiously pay our credit-card bills in full each month, so we never get socked with interest. But this being Thailand, we occasionally have to pay the small percentage the merchant is supposed to pay and has agreed not to sock the customer with, but it seems to happen less frequently than it used to. ---
**Author:** ![IAmNotSpartacus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@IAmNotSpartacus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IAmNotSpartacus)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2011, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-dont-pay-your-american-express-balance/579316/23 "2011-04-24T11:30:59Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > The new credit card law now offers the option to pay with cash (instead of a credit card) and get a discount. Cite ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2011, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-dont-pay-your-american-express-balance/579316/24 "2011-04-24T14:06:20Z")
American Express now lets you carry a balance, even on the traditional “Charge Card” type accounts. ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2011, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-dont-pay-your-american-express-balance/579316/25 "2011-04-24T17:54:56Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > That’s silly. That makes it no different than a debit card, except that you will be paying more for the privilege. > > No, the point of a credit card is for it to be used exactly how most people use it, even if it isn’t the most financially wise decision. The idea is that you can get future purchasing power and use it today. That’s what credit _means_. > > Using your credit card as a debit card is the atypical way of handling things. It would have to be, or these companies wouldn’t make any money. Actually, according to the first graphic on [this gallop poll page](http://www.gallup.com/poll/107833/nearly-onethird-americans-hold-high-credit-balances.aspx), most people pay their credit card off at the end of the month. Yea, I use mine like a debit card, but it is better than a debit card in many ways: 1. I don’t have to pay until the end of the month, which allows me to have my money longer. 2. If there is a dispute over a certain charged amount, it is fairly easy to deal with. With a debit card, the money is already gone, and is much harder to get back. 3. If someone steals your CC, they don’t take money out of your bank account. 4. I get 1% cash back for everything I charge. Why would I use a debit card, if I could have all of that? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-you-dont-pay-your-american-express-balance/579316.md?page=1)