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Seven months ago, the following question was asked:

Can I prepay a Credit Card to make a Large Purchase greater than my credit limit?

This question was tagged with .

A couple of days ago, this question was asked:

Can credit card be used as a debit card by making payments into credit card before even using it?

This second question was tagged with , and the question was marked as a duplicate of the first one.

The Hong Kong question has several answers giving different advice. One late answer is actually specific to the Hong Kong location, and seems to contradict most of the other answers.

A close read of the questions reveals that they have different motives as well. The Hong Kong asker wants to add money to the account in order to purchase something over his or her credit limit. (Most of the answers address this.) The UK asker has not given any indication that he or she wants to make a large purchase, only that he wants to pre-pay his credit card transactions before traveling abroad to avoid interest charges.

Are these really duplicate questions? If they are, does the two different location tags change that fact?

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In my opinion, these really are two different questions.

The Hong Kong question is about making a single purchase that is bigger than the credit limit.

The UK question is about prepaying to maintain a positive balance on the credit account.

The fact that they happen to both discuss pre-paying is really incidental. I don't know the answer to either question, but you could easily answer the first question "No" and the second question "Yes," and you would have no problem logically, because they are different questions.

The actual answer to both questions, might be "No." They might even be "No" for the same reason. But that still doesn't make them identical questions.

We don't want exact duplicate questions here, but having a few similar questions is not bad at all.

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  • I understand your points, and have reopened for now. I am hoping more answers will come in that help to maintain the distinction. The current answer doesn't seem to address the question asked, in my opinion.
    – JTP - Apologise to Monica Mod
    Commented Jul 8, 2014 at 11:43
  • They are exactly the same question. They want to put money on the card before they have charges. That way they can use more than the credit limit.
    – mhoran_psprep
    Commented Jul 8, 2014 at 12:59
  • @mhoran_psprep Read the second question again. It has nothing to do with the credit limit.
    – Ben Miller
    Commented Jul 8, 2014 at 13:06
  • @mhoran_psprep - I recommend you vote to close again and see if 4 other members agree. I should not have 'voted' to close so quickly. If no answers appear that maintain a distinction, I'll also agree to close it down. Offering Ben a courtesy, as he see more of a distinction than you or I do.
    – JTP - Apologise to Monica Mod
    Commented Jul 8, 2014 at 14:28
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    Agree with Ben. The first question is about buying more than your credit limit. The second one is about using a credit card like a debit card. The intent of OP is very different. The key aspect that one cannot use the credit card like debit and still have to pay cash withdrawl commission is relevant only for second and not for first. We should keep both.
    – Dheer
    Commented Jul 9, 2014 at 5:46
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I see the questions as virtually identical. Overpaying a card to have access to the credit. The reasons may be a bit different, but I don't see this as substantial.

The HK question also has a UK answer. It seems to me the question isn't being answered like a tax question, "The law here is that...." but people offering their experience.

I'm reminded of the "paying my credit card debt in Australia" which was a debt question having nothing to do with the country named by the OP.

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Broadly they cover similar aspects. However I think the intention of OP in both is quite different. We should reopen and keep both the questions.

The way I read it, in the first question the intent is to make a purchase larger than credit limit on the card. The simple answer is load is with positive balance to increase overall limits.

The second question on the other had is to use Credit Card like Debit Card. The cash withdrawl aspect is very distinct from a credit card to a debit card. i.e. even if one has positive balance on the credit card, there will still be charges applicable on cash withdrawl over and above what would have been for a debit card. This aspect is irrelevant in the first question as the intent of OP is very different.

Geography by itself shouldn’t matter much if the answers are nonspecific and quite a few practices are same most of the places

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