Prepay a credit card into a negative balance for higher credit limit?

Do credit card companies allow you prepay a balance into a negative situation? For example, lets say my limit is $800, but I want to buy something thats $1000. I pay my credit card company $200 so now I have a balance of negative $200, so I can use the card to pay for the $1000 purchase.





I use citicards...I wont be able to call them til after work, just wondering if anyones done this before.|||Yes, you can over pay and have a credit on your account. But that doesn't mean that you'll be able to make a purchase larger than your credit line... that depends on the bank and their computer system. It's also technically illegal to do what you're talking about (but no one really cares if it's only 200 dollars - it's really when you're talking thousands of dollars or more).





Why not just call and see if you can get a credit line increase?|||just pay cash for the first $200 at the store and use the card for the balance. you can probably do what you're asking, but it will take days after you mail the payment for the money to be applied to your account|||http://www.creditmexy.com|||I have never tried this but I have heard of other people doing it. I would call them first though. They may have a limit per transaction, per day, or per week.|||I've gotten negative (credit) balances, but my limits have never been hit so I don't know if that works or not. I would do it, however, as I think there is an "over the limit" fee that a lot of companies have so that should avoid it, I would think.


Not all credit card companies will let you have a credit balance for long--had a run in with Chase over my habit of overpaying.