Confusion Concerning AmEx Payments and Secondary Cards

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American Express

• 

  p1 ama on 29/05/2019 - 23:37

  +9

  As you can imagine, this makes it difficult to figure out who owes what at the end of the month.

  It's your card, you owe everything. If you want to separate out who owes what, your wife needs to get her own card. There's a promo on right now, so if you refer her, you'll both get a heap of bonus QFF points.

  • 

    CeleryMan on 30/05/2019 - 06:56

    +1

    I understand that the responsibility to ensure the card is paid off lies with the primary card holder, that's not what I'm questioning. If they split debits by which card was used, why not also show which card was used for payments? The primary card holder is still ultimately responsible either way, just like they're responsible for the debits made on each card, yet those are displayed separately. Why display them separately if not for the convenience of knowing which card was used?

    I know that how I think it should work ultimately doesn't matter, I'm just trying to understand the rationale and whether it's the same everywhere else.

    • 

      p1 ama on 30/05/2019 - 10:18

      +4

      If they split debits by which card was used, why not also show which card was used for payments?

      Because debit transactions are linked to a card, but credits are paid to the account, not a card. In other words, you could have paid a credit, your wife could have paid a credit, I could have paid a credit - it doesn't matter.

      • 

        CeleryMan on 30/05/2019 - 10:56

        I agree that payments are for the account and not for individual cards. There is no separate 'primary card holder owes $X, secondary card holder owes $Y'.

        I say that payments are made to specific cards, as the card number (which is different for primary and secondary cards) has to be specified when making the payment. Once the payment has been received, the credit is added to the account that card is associated with.

        If you are saying that this information of which card a payment has been sent to isn't tracked, then that answers the question. I would see it as an unnecessary limitation; why not show that information? Having said that, I don't know how the back-end of it works, and there might be a good technical reason. Either way, thanks for your reply, I appreciate the input.

        • 

          p1 ama on 30/05/2019 - 11:33

          @CeleryMan: I still don't understand what you're trying to say. If I send a credit to your account, how does that either come under "your" card or "your wife's" card?

          • 

            CeleryMan on 30/05/2019 - 11:44

            @p1 ama: From the AmEx site on paying your bill:

            You can pay your Credit Card bill directly from your bank account using BPAY®.

            For all Cards excluding David Jones Cards: Biller Code: 5082
            For David Jones Credit Cards: Biller Code: 88013
            Customer Reference Number: Your 15 digit Card number

            The CRN would indicate the card in question.

            • 

              p1 ama on 30/05/2019 - 19:37

              @CeleryMan: I don't think you understand what I mean - the CRN is only used to link it back to the account. You are not making payments to either card.

              • 

                CeleryMan on 30/05/2019 - 20:17

                @p1 ama: I understand what you mean, and I have explained in previous replies that although the credit is being attributed to the account (and not the cards themselves), the source of the credit (which could be determined based on which CRN was used) isn't recorded or used in any meaningful way to separate the payments.

                I don't know how else to explain it, so I will leave it there and assume that what I'm asking isn't possible using AmEx. Thanks for contributing.

  • 

    JTTheMan on 30/05/2019 - 10:02

    Yes, I am the primary account holder so I am responsible for the credit on my card as well as the supplementary card my wife occasionally uses. A supplementary card is not considered a second account, just a second card, nothing more.

    Although one extra advantage is you can use offers on the second card in addition to the primary card, but if you register the second card for that particular offer.

• 

  Quantumcat on 30/05/2019 - 07:38

  All payments will be into the one account so how can it know?

  • 

    CeleryMan on 30/05/2019 - 08:20

    Payments are made via BPAY to the individual cards, not the account.

• 

  Seraphin7 on 30/05/2019 - 11:43

  While I understand the substance of your question, I don't understand the point.

  You've given a secondary card to your wife and you're worried about how much she has paid off vs. the charges she's incurred? How many payments are you both making that can't be tracked by some manual means? Why do you need a third party to provide you with evidence of what you vs. your wife has paid? Surely you only give a secondary card to someone where you're not worried about who's spent and paid what?

  If you are really that concerned, why not have your wife just get an entirely separate card that she is 100% liable for and you keep your card, spending, payments, etc. to yourself?

  • 

    CeleryMan on 30/05/2019 - 11:50

    +1

    It's not that I'm concerned the bill isn't going to be paid or even how much is spent, it's so that we can easily see how much each of us needs to transfer to the account in order to pay it off each month. We both use the card for everyday spending as well as for some work expenses. Both of us make payments from different accounts to the AmEx through the month, and being able to see the amount that we have each contributed would mean less headache at the end of the month. It means not having to go through statements from elsewhere to figure it out.

    • 

      Seraphin7 on 30/05/2019 - 12:53

      +1

      If it's that big an issue, extract the transactions to a spreadsheet and then flag which payments you vs. your wife have made and reconcile accordingly.

• 

  josetann on 30/05/2019 - 12:58

  +5

  Here's a simple solution. Don't make round number payments. End all of your payments in .42, hers in .77.

  Now when you see this:

  $325.77
  $250.77
  $100.42
  $350.77
  $520.42

  You can quickly add $100.42 and $520.42 together to see what you've paid, and $325.77, $250.77, and $350.77 to see what the other person has paid.

  Yes, it's a hack, but it works. "But what if my wife just doesn't grasp how to add .77 on the end?" you might ask. Well, as long as YOU remember to add .42 on the end of your payments, then it's a non-issue isn't it?

  • 

    CeleryMan on 30/05/2019 - 12:59

    Thanks for the reply, I think we'll end up having to do something like this. A hack, as you say, but at least it gets the job done.

    • 

      p1 ama on 30/05/2019 - 19:39

      +1

      I don't understand why this is such an issue. It's your CC, you pay the bill at the end of the month. You have a record of what your wife spends through "her" card. Add up her spend, then bill her for her spend?

      • 

        CeleryMan on 30/05/2019 - 20:21

        We both pay the bill throughout the month, and ensure it's back to $0 at the end. I can see what we each have spent, what I can't easily see is how much she has paid.

        I'm sorry, I honestly don't understand how else to explain this. As mentioned in my other reply, I will try implementing josetann's suggestion and leave the discussion here.

        • 

          p1 ama on 30/05/2019 - 21:36

          +1

          @CeleryMan:

          We both pay the bill throughout the month

          Why would you do that? You're better off keeping the money in a savings account. You're losing interest doing this and not saving any interest with the CC because it hasn't reached the billing date yet. (I'm not questioning what you're doing, just curious as it might help me!)

          I can see what we each have spent, what I can't easily see is how much she has paid.

          Don't you keep track of your payments? Keep a list of your payment receipts and if one doesn't appear in your list, then it's got to be hers?

          • 

            CeleryMan on 30/05/2019 - 21:49

            @p1 ama: We get paid at different times (she's paid weekly and likes to transfer money when she gets paid, I'm paid monthly so that works for me). We also get paid expense claims from work through the month that go in so the money doesn't get spent. There's probably a better system; maybe this is just a procedural change that we need to make, rather than trying to get AmEx to fit our needs.

• 

  CeleryMan on 30/05/2019 - 21:27

  One final post for anyone interested. It might be easiest to look at this: https://imgur.com/a/e8C6gQp

  My original question was around whether or not there was a way to show which card/CRN was used when making BPAY payments. You can see in the screenshot that there's no way to see who made the payments (expanding those payment lines gives no useful extra information), and all credits have been listed as activity by me, which was definitely not the case.

  I'll investigate other payment methods. I'm thinking that paying directly through the AmEx website, rather than via DD or BPAY, might allow for the 'Credits' column to accurately reflect who made the payment. AmEx might treat BPAY payments essentially like 'anonymous' transfers, rather than using the CRN to determine who to allocate the credit to as originally thought.

  Thanks to everyone who took the time to reply.

  • 

    Doggiie on 31/05/2019 - 20:19

    +1

    I think you should tell your wife to stop paying the account until you reconcile the debt. It just makes logistical sense and saves both of you some sanity.

• 

  [Deactivated] on 31/05/2019 - 19:40

  Why dont you just get your wife to tell you weekly what she has paid so you can reconcile back to the monthly statement.