We’ve all been there: the dreaded moment when we realize we’ve accidentally overpaid a bill While it’s not the end of the world, it’s certainly not ideal So, what happens if you find yourself in this situation with your credit card bill?
Don’t Panic: You Won’t Lose Your Money
First things first, take a deep breath and relax. Overpaying your credit card bill won’t magically make your money disappear. Rather, the additional amount you paid will appear on your account statement as a negative balance. This essentially means you have a credit with your card issuer.
What Happens to the Negative Balance?
There are a few things that can happen to your negative balance:
- Automatic Rollover: In most cases, the negative balance will automatically roll over to the next billing cycle. This means it will be applied towards your next month’s statement, effectively reducing the amount you owe.
- Refund: If you prefer, you can request a refund from your card issuer. They are obligated to comply with your request within seven business days, and you can choose to receive the refund as a check, direct deposit, or even cash.
- Credit Towards Future Purchases: You can also choose to simply leave the negative balance on your account and use it towards future purchases. This can be a good option if you plan on making a large purchase soon.
What About My Credit Score?
The good news is that overpaying your credit card bill won’t negatively impact your credit score. In fact, it won’t affect your credit score at all. Your credit score is based on your credit utilization ratio, which is the amount of credit you’re using compared to your total available credit. Since a negative balance doesn’t count towards your credit utilization, it won’t affect your score.
Avoiding Overpayments in the Future
Even though it’s not a big deal, you should still try to avoid overpaying your credit card bill. Here are a few tips to help you prevent future overpayments:
- Set Up Autopay: Autopay is a great way to ensure you never miss a payment and avoid accidentally paying twice. You can set it up to pay the minimum amount due, the full balance, or a custom amount each month.
- Double-Check Your Transactions: Before making a payment, double-check your recent transactions to make sure you haven’t already paid the bill.
- Review Your Statements Regularly: Regularly reviewing your credit card statements can help you catch any potential errors, including overpayments.
Although it’s not a huge deal, overpaying your credit card bill is something you can easily avoid with a little preparation. Make sure you’re only paying what you owe by double-checking your transactions, setting up autopay, and routinely checking your statements. And keep in mind that you have a few choices if you do end up with a negative balance: you can ask for a refund, let it carry over to the following billing cycle, or apply it to future purchases.
Overpaying your credit card
There are normally two approaches you can take if your credit card balance is negative:
- Wait it out. Theres no penalty for overpaying your credit card. You can simply use the statement credit for purchases if you use the card frequently and the negative balance isn’t too big. After spending it, you’ll use your standard credit line once more.
- Request a refund. Should you have made a significant overpayment, you may wish to receive your money back. Each issuer has a different procedure for processing refund requests for overpayments, but you can usually finish it online. The issuer has seven business days from the time they receive your request to send the funds to you. Keep in mind that the issuer will try to issue you a refund even if you don’t ask for one if there has been a negative balance on your card for longer than six months.
Check for recent payments
Some credit card issuers make it easy to see if youve recently made a payment. If you have a card such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, tracking your payments should be simple. Although Chase usually takes a while to update your current balance, when you check the app, it shows the most recent scheduled payment in the card details. In order to view all of your recent payments and whether they were successful, you can also select “View payment activity” from the card details menu.
- RewardsEnjoy exclusive benefits like a $50 yearly Chase Travel Hotel Credit, 5x on travel booked through Chase TravelTM, 3x on dining, some streaming services, and online groceries, as well as other advantages.
- Welcome bonus: After spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months of opening your account, you will receive 60,000 bonus points. Thats $750 when you redeem through Chase Travel℠.
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Annual fee
$95
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Intro APR
None
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Regular APR
21.49% – 28.49% variable on purchases and balance transfers
- Balance transfer fee: $5 percent or $5 percent of each transfer’s amount, whichever is higher
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Foreign transaction fee
None
-
Credit needed
Excellent/Good
- Terms apply.
Read our Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card review.
All you have to do with a credit card such as the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (view rates and fees) is visit the issuer’s app. Capital One frequently updates your available credit almost instantly after you make a payment, and it displays your scheduled payments above the recent transactions section. This facilitates determining your available credit limit as well as the remaining amount you owe.
- Rewards: 10 miles for every dollar spent on lodging and car rentals; 5 miles for every dollar spent on flights when booked through Capital One Travel; 2X miles for free on all other qualifying purchases
- Welcome bonus: After spending $4,000 on purchases in the first three months of opening your account, you will receive 75,000 bonus miles.
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Annual fee
$395
-
Intro APR
None
-
Regular APR
19.99% – 29.99% variable APR
- Balance transfer fees are $0 at the Transfer Annual Percentage Rate (APR) and 4 percent of the total amount of each transferred balance that posts to your account at a promotional APR that Capital One may provide to you.
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Foreign transaction fees
None
-
Credit needed
Excellent
- See rates and fees. Terms apply.
Read our Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card review.
Your payment will also be shown here, so you can always check your transactions if your issuer doesn’t make this information as accessible as possible.
Enrolling in autopay is a convenient way to “set it and forget it” and prevent overpayment. Payments will be made automatically with this feature, and you can choose to pay the full amount each month. Just remember to keep it in place or else manually scheduling an additional payment could result in a negative balance.
What happens if you pay credit card bill twice? | Can I reverse a credit card payment?
FAQ
What happens if I pay my credit card bill twice a month?
What happens if by mistake I have paid my credit card bill twice?
Can I get my money back if I overpay my credit card?
Can I overpay my credit card to increase limit?
What happens if you overpay your credit card bill?
If you overpay your credit card bill, the excess amount will remain on the card as a spending credit, also known as a credit balance, that you can use. Most card issuers list the credit amount as a negative balance on the card. Let’s say you have a $500 balance on your credit card. You accidentally make two $500 payments.
What happens if you pay multiple credit cards at the same time?
Paying the wrong credit card: People who have multiple credit cards and pay several at the same time may pay a credit card’s balance on another credit card. For example, Card X might have a $1,000 balance and Card Y might have a $500 balance. The person may accidentally pay $1,000 to Card Y. Can I overpay with automatic payments?
What happens if you pay more than the balance due?
When you pay more than the balance due, your issuer should automatically issue the amount you’re owed as a statement credit and your credit line will reflect a negative balance until you’ve spent the credit. Does having a negative balance hurt your credit?
What happens if I pay my credit card balance in full?
If you paid your credit card balance in full accidentally, card issuers will generally refund the amount over the minimum payment due.