It was one of those experiences that left me feeling like I was in the Twilight Zone. I’m guessing at that time (early 2017 now that i think of it) while the $3K transaction was being attempted, BoA calculated my available credit as $credit limit minus the $ i’d charged and not paid, but the charged amount couldnt be negative. The $1K prepayment was completely cleared and on the app said -$1000 balance and once the $2500 transaction owed balance was the correct $1500 with $1000 left to spend. It just took a couple days post-transaction. Too long to wait hence borrowing and using another card for the remainder. It just seemed to be a really stupid feature during the authorization &/or processing end of things.

The conversations with BOA’s employees were what really left me scratching my head and doubting reality but I no longer remember many details of them. It was a lot of “that’s another department,” among whatever else.

Thankfully the travel site did! Only had to borrow ~$500. BoA was completely inflexible

What’s absolutely insane is in ~2018 I pre-paid $1000 to a Bank of America credit card with a $2500 limit and no outstanding balance. Tried buying a $3K trip, wouldn’t go through because it was larger than my credit limit… phone call was no help and there was no way to spend over $2500 until the payment processed. I had to borrow money to put on another card to make it work, even though I already had the money on the card

Using debt to buy lottery tickets isn’t allowed either

You weren’t joking

🤡