Pay It Plan It® Frequently Asked Questions
General FAQs
Pay It® and Plan It® are two features on your Card that provide you additional ways to pay off purchases.
Pay It is a payment option that lets you quickly pay purchase amounts when you’re on-the-go. Pay It is available exclusively in your American Express® App.
Plan It lets you divide purchase amounts of $100 or more into monthly payments with a fixed monthly fee.
Pay It Plan It is available on Consumer Card Accounts issued by a U.S. banking subsidiary of American Express, excluding Accounts that do not have a Credit Limit and do not have the Pay Over Time feature.
Certain accounts are not enrolled due to account status, Card type, or the date of the account opening. If your account is enrolled at a later date, you will receive a communication.
Prepaid Cards and products, American Express Corporate Cards, American Express Small Business Cards and American Express-branded Cards or account numbers issued by other financial institutions are not eligible for Pay It Plan It. Only Basic Card Members or Authorized Account Managers with Full Access can set up plans on the account.
Pay It
Pay It is a payment option that lets you reduce your balance by making small payments throughout the month in the American Express® App. To use it, simply select a posted transaction with a “Pay It” label, and follow the prompts to complete a payment for that amount. Payments are applied against your outstanding balance.
Qualifying purchases will have the Pay It icon in the American Express® App.
Pay It payments will be applied to your balance, and not a specific purchase. Any Pay It payment will be applied to your outstanding balance in accordance with how we apply payments as disclosed in your Cardmember Agreement. If you have a Minimum Payment Due, your Pay It payments will apply towards your Minimum Payment Due.
You can make up to five payments towards your account per day, including any payments from your online account, American Express® App, phone payments, or Pay It.
Payments may take up to 48 hours to be reflected on your account.
No. Pay It payments reduce your outstanding balance by the purchase amount you selected and do not pay the selected purchase.
Plan It
You can use Plan It on your online account or in the American Express App. Qualifying purchases in the American Express App will have a Plan It icon.
You may enter a qualifying amount or select up to 10 qualifying purchases to place into a plan on your online account. For each plan that you create using the American Express App, you may select only one qualifying purchase or enter a qualifying amount.
When you select a qualifying purchase(s) or enter a qualifying amount, you'll see up to three options for plan durations and the applicable monthly plan payments, including the plan fees, upfront. Your monthly plan payment will be added to your Minimum Payment Due each month. The first monthly plan payment will appear in the next billing statement following the date you created the plan(s).
A qualifying purchase for Plan It is at least $100 (or qualifying amounts of $100 or more, if you have a Consumer Card with a Credit Limit) and does not include a purchase of cash or cash equivalent, a purchase subject to foreign transaction fees, or any fees owed to us (including annual membership fees); as long as it remains within your Amount Available to Plan and does not exceed your Pay Over Time Limit or 95% of your Credit Limit, as applicable.
Qualifying purchases include recent purchases posted to your account and purchases shown on your most recent billing statement.
Qualifying amounts include purchases shown on your most recent billing statement.
Yes, you may not be able to create a plan if it would cause:
- your plan balance to exceed 95% of your Account Total New Balance on your last billing statement. This limit only applies if you’re using the Plan It feature to plan purchase amounts shown on your last billing statement. Plans you create for recent purchases that have posted to your account but have not yet been billed don’t count against this limit
- your plan balance to exceed 95% of your Credit Limit
- you to exceed your Pay Over Time Limit
Since your Amount Available to Plan is based on a portion of your balance, it can vary from month to month. Overall, your ability to create plans will be based on a variety of factors such as your creditworthiness, and your Credit Limit or Pay Over Time Limit, as applicable.
Note, the Pay Over Time limit applies to the total of your Pay Over Time, Cash Advance and Plan balances.
You may not see any qualifying purchases or a qualifying amount because your purchases have not posted, your purchases do not qualify, or because you aren't able to create new plans on your account at this time.
Your ability to create plans will be based on a variety of factors such as your creditworthiness, and your Credit Limit or Pay Over Time Limit, as applicable. You won't be able to create plans if your Account is canceled. You won't be able to create plans if one or more of your American Express Accounts is enrolled into a payment program, or has a payment that is returned unpaid, or is delinquent.
The plan fee is a fixed fee you'll pay each month when you have an outstanding balance in a plan.
Consumer Card products with a Credit Limit
- Your monthly plan fee is a percentage of each purchase amount moved into a plan that is based on the plan duration, the APR that would otherwise apply to the purchase, and other factors.
Consumer Card products with Pay Over Time
- Your monthly plan fee is a percentage of each purchase amount moved into a plan based on: either the APR that would otherwise apply to that purchase (for purchases in a Pay Over Time balance), the APR that applies to the Pay Over Time feature at the time you create the plan (for purchases in a Pay In Full balance), or the lower of the two APRs (for purchases that are divided between a Pay Over Time balance and a Pay In Full balance); the plan duration; and other factors.
You can view your plan fee on pages 1 and 2 of Part 1 of your Cardmember Agreement, which can be accessed here.
You will be offered 1-3 plan duration options for a qualifying purchase or qualifying amount. The plan duration options can vary based on a variety of factors such as your creditworthiness, the purchase amount, and your Account history. The duration can't be changed or modified.
If your account is in an introductory or promotional period with a promotional APR, you may see limited duration options.
If you have an eligible Card with the Plan It feature, you can use the Plan It Pre-Purchase Calculator to view the plan duration and plan fee options that could be available for a specific dollar amount prior to making a large purchase. To access the calculator, visit the Plan It hub on your online account.
If you don't have an eligible Card with the Plan It feature, you can visit the public Pre-Purchase Calculator here to view the monthly payment plan options that could be available on the Card.
The calculator is an illustrative tool only and does not provide the actual plan options that may be available to you when creating a plan. Your ability to make a purchase or create a plan equal to the amount you enter in this tool will be based on your account status, your Amount Available to Plan, and / or your credit limit. Your actual plan options with the monthly plan payment and plan fees will be presented to you if you choose to create a plan.
You can't change the duration of a plan after it's been set up, but you can pay a billed plan early by paying the New Balance shown on your most recent billing statement in full. If you pay off a billed plan early, you won't incur any future plan fees on that plan.
If you pay the updated Total Balance on your account in full, you will pay off your entire balance including any newly created plans in your current billing period. You can view your updated Total Balance by logging into your online account, or by calling us at the number on the back of your Card.
Please keep in mind it takes 24-48 hours for your balance to update after creating a plan.
You can’t cancel a plan after it’s been set up, but you can pay a billed plan early by paying the New Balance shown on your most recent billing statement in full. If you pay off a billed plan early, you won’t incur any future plan fees on that plan.
If you pay the updated Total Balance on your account in full, you will pay off your entire balance including any newly created plans in your current billing period. You can view your updated Total Balance by logging into your online account, or by calling us at the number on the back of your Card.
Please keep in mind it takes 24-48 hours for your balances to update after creating a plan.
No. Setting up a plan won’t increase your Credit Limit or your Pay Over Time Limit.
You can request a credit limit increase here.
You’ll see an Adjusted Balance on your account whenever you have active plans. Any amount you pay above your Adjusted Balance will be applied towards your remaining plan balance.
If you have a Consumer Card product with a Credit Limit, your Adjusted Balance includes your billed, non-plan portion of your Remaining Statement Balance and monthly Plan Payment Due. If you pay the Adjusted Balance by your Payment Due Date each month, you’ll avoid being charged interest on purchases.
If you have a Consumer Card product with Pay Over Time, your Adjusted Balance includes your Pay In Full New Balance, Pay Over Time and/or Cash Advance New Balance, and monthly Plan Payment Due. If you pay the Adjusted Balance by your Payment Due Date each month, you’ll avoid being charged interest on charges automatically added to a Pay Over Time balance.
If you have a Consumer Card product with a Credit Limit and you pay the Adjusted Balance by your Payment Due Date each month, you’ll avoid being charged interest on purchases. The Adjusted Balance includes your monthly Plan Payment Due and the billed, non-plan portion of your Remaining Statement Balance.
If you have a Consumer Card product with Pay Over Time and you pay the Adjusted Balance by your Payment Due Date each month, you’ll avoid being charged interest on charges automatically added to a Pay Over Time balance. The Adjusted Balance includes your Pay In Full New Balance, Pay Over Time and/or Cash Advance New Balance, and monthly Plan Payment Due.
The monthly Plan Payment Due, which is the total of your monthly plan payments on all plans, is automatically included in the Minimum Payment Due each month. You should pay your Minimum Payment Due by the Payment Due Date listed on your billing statement.
If you don’t pay your Minimum Payment Due, which includes your monthly plan payment, by the Payment Due Date, your account may go into default.
You can’t direct a payment towards a specific plan. Any amount you pay above your Adjusted Balance will be applied towards your remaining billed plan balance. If you pay the New Balance on your most recent billing statement in full, all of your existing billed plans will be paid. If you pay off a plan early, you won’t incur any future plan fees on that plan.
If you pay the updated Total Balance on your account in full, you will pay off your entire balance including any newly created plans in your current billing period. You can view your updated Total Balance by logging into your online account, or by calling us at the number on the back of your Card.
Please keep in mind it takes 24-48 hours for your balances to update after creating a plan.
If you pay the New Balance shown on your most recent billing statement, it will pay in full any plans that you have already been billed.
Please keep in mind the New Balance shown on your most recent billing statement may not reflect recent payments, credits, disputes and/or any other adjustments.
Only Basic Card Members or Authorized Account Managers with full access can set up plans on the account. Additional Card Members may not set up plans on the account unless they are an Authorized Account Manager with full access.
At this time, a qualifying purchase can only be planned after it has posted on your account.
Yes! You may enter a qualifying amount or select up to 10 qualifying purchases to place into a plan on your online account. For each plan that you create using the American Express Mobile App, you may select only one qualifying purchase or enter a qualifying amount.
No, once you create a plan, you will not be able to add or remove the purchases within it or update the planned amount.
Generally, you can have up to 10 active plans at a time per eligible American Express account, but your ability to initiate new plans is based on a variety of factors such as your creditworthiness or your credit limit. You won’t be able to create plans if your Account is canceled. You won’t be able to create plans if one or more of your American Express accounts is enrolled into a payment program, or has a payment that is returned unpaid, or is delinquent.
Yes. You will earn rewards as you normally would for qualifying purchases.
If you receive a refund/credit for a purchase placed into a plan, you can request that the amount be applied to your plan balance. Once you see the credit on your account, please call the number on the back of your card to speak with a Plan It Specialist to have the amount applied to the plan balance.
When you log into your American Express account online, you can see your current plans in the “View Your Plans” section. When you view your account using the American Express® App, you can see your current plans in the “Plan It” section. On your monthly billing statement, you can see a list of your current plans on the “Plan Balance Details” section.
Qualifying purchases on AmexTravel.com for Plan It include flight, pre-paid hotel, and pre-paid car rental bookings of $100 or more, when purchased separately. You cannot use Plan It on flight + hotel combined bookings or other similar packages.
At Delta.com, choose your flight as you usually do and at checkout, you will be offered 1–3 plan duration options after adding or selecting your eligible American Express card from your wallet. The plan duration options can vary based on a variety of factors such as the purchase amount, your Account history, and your creditworthiness.