How to Increase Your Afterpay Limit

Stores that manage their Afterpay payments efficiently make it easier to spread the cost of purchases, repaying for your shopping in stages or after you’ve been paid. Most accounts begin with a $500 max limit, but once you know how Afterpay works, you’ll realize it’s quite simple to secure a higher facility, which is essential if you want to buy a higher-valued product without relying on your credit card.

The main benefit of Afterpay is that you only need to cover 25% of your checkout cost upfront and can pay the balance over time without any interest charges. So, let’s look at how Afterpay sets credit limits and what you can do to bump up your facility.

How Does Afterpay Decide on Account Limits?

You’re assigned a maximum spend when you first create an Afterpay account. That threshold changes depending on how often you use your account and whether you keep up to speed with your repayments. It’s important to add a replacement card to your account if you stop Afterpay automatic payments at any time, so that you don’t end up in default.

Afterpay looks at several criteria, such as:

• Whether you’ve been declined a purchase at checkout due to insufficient funds;
• How quickly you paid back previous purchases;
• The length of time you’ve had an Afterpay account;
• Frequency of orders placed, on-time payments, and late payments.

There are limits on the number of orders you can have on your Afterpay account at any time. Regardless of the value, you might have a payment refused if you’ve bought many smaller items or have multiple existing orders pending repayment.

How to Get a Higher Limit on Afterpay

The maximum spend for one transaction is $1,500, with the highest possible account limit of $2,000, but you might find that some stores have lower thresholds. To begin with, you have a limited Afterpay facility and can wait for your maximum to increase over time. There are a few things you can do to speed this up:

1. Use Your Afterpay Account Regularly But Responsibly

New Afterpay users automatically have a lower spending limit but will be allowed to spend more as they use their accounts. Provided you make your repayments on time (or reschedule payments if you cannot), you’ll see a gradual increase in your account limit.

2. Add a Credit Card to Your Afterpay Payment Options

Afterpay requires you to add a credit or debit card to your account and estimates a spending limit. Using a credit card rather than a debit card (even if you immediately cover the balance from your checking account) means you normally get a higher limit based on your credit card limit and spending power.

3. Avoid Late Payments or Declined Transactions

It might be tempting to try and use Afterpay if you know you’re close to your limit but might have enough capacity to cover a purchase. The problem is that continually declined payments or late remittances negatively affect your Afterpay limit. Paying a few installments ahead of the due date or clearing small remaining balances can help to correct this and demonstrate good account management.

Finally, download the Afterpay app to your mobile and keep it updated. If you enable push notifications, you’ll get a reminder whenever a payment is due and can check your account limit before you try to process any new transactions on your account.