What happens if you go over your credit limit?

If you go over your credit limit, your credit card company may add the over-limit amount to your minimum payment, lower your credit line, or even close the account if you’re exceeding the limit too often. Also, your credit score will drop if the balance is still over the limit when reported to the credit bureaus. That said, it’s more likely that the card’s issuer will simply decline any transaction that would result in the balance exceeding the credit limit.

Key Things to Know About Going Over Your Credit Limit

Opt-In Requirement for Fees.

The only time credit card issuers can charge an over-limit fee is when a cardholder has opted in for the ability to exceed their credit limit.

Other Fee Limitations.

Even when you’ve given your credit card company permission to authorize over-limit charges, a card issuer can only assess one over-limit fee per billing cycle, and that fee cannot exceed the amount by which you’ve gone over the limit.

Declined Transactions are Increasingly Common.

Ever since the CARD Act of 2009, which created these over-limit rules, most card issuers have stopped charging over-limit fees. Instead, they often just decline transactions that would go over your limit.

High Credit Utilization is Bad for Your Credit Score.

Credit utilization accounts for about 20% of your overall credit score. To avoid reaching your card’s credit limit and risking significant damage to your credit score, consider paying down your balance more often, applying for a new line of credit, or asking your card’s issuer for a credit limit increase.

To see the credit utilization on each of your credit card accounts and learn how that usage may impact your credit score, sign up for a free WalletHub account and check out the credit score simulator.

Charging more than your credit limit could result in over-the-limit fees for cardholders who’ve opted-in or a decrease in the card’s credit limit. For cardholders who frequently go over their credit card’s credit limit, it’s possible that the card issuer will eventually close the account.

In addition, if a balance over the credit limit is reported to the 3 credit bureaus by the creditor, your credit score may be negatively affected. This could affect other applications for credit as it shows poor credit management and higher lending risk.

I would suggest paying the monthly bill asap, to lower the balance to less than the credit limit, before the next statement is generated and the current balance is reported to the 3 credit bureaus.

If it is a one-time event and you quickly pay your balance so that it is well below the limit, it may have little or no impact on your credit report.

But if you tend to stay close to your limit and go over your credit limit repeatedly, your credit score will suffer. Your credit score takes in consideration of your credit utilization rate (how much you borrow versus how much you are allowed to borrow). The lower the rate, the better.

Plus, keep in mind that some credit cards charge a very high fee for going over the limit.