Over-Limit Transactions

Overview

An over-limit transaction can be approved even when the account balance, with the transaction applied, would exceed the financial account's credit limit. Highnote supports over-limit transactions through two variance spend rules, gated by a card product feature that Highnote Operations enables on your behalf:

• Amount variance: MaximumAmountVarianceOnCreditLimitSpendRule
• Percent variance: MaximumPercentVarianceOnCreditLimitSpendRule

Either rule can be attached at the Card Product, Financial Account, or Payment Card level. The rule applies to authorized amounts; reversals decrement the cumulative authorized amount, but refunds do not.

Cardholder Agreement update required

Before enabling over-limit transactions, update your Cardholder Agreement to disclose how a cardholder opts in and to disclose any associated fees. The Credit CARD Act allows over-limit fees only when the cardholder has affirmatively consented.

Prerequisites

Both of the following must be true before you can use these spend rules:

• Highnote Operations has enabled the CreditLimitVarianceCardProductFeature on your card product. Contact your Highnote representative to enable it.
• Your Cardholder Agreement reflects the over-limit terms and any associated fees.

Rules lose their effect if a product feature is disabled while variance spend rules are attached.

Spend rules

Spend Rule	Input	Use it to
MaximumAmountVarianceOnCreditLimitSpendRule	amountVariance: AmountInput!	Allow cumulative spend up to a fixed Amount over the credit limit.
MaximumPercentVarianceOnCreditLimitSpendRule	percentVariance: UnsignedInt!	Allow cumulative spend up to a whole-number percentage of the credit limit. A value of 50 permits cumulative spend up to 150% of the limit.

Set your own upper bound

Configure percentVariance or amountVariance to match your underwriting policy and the terms disclosed in your Cardholder Agreement. Highnote does not enforce an upper bound on either.

• amountVariance.value is an integer in minor units — 1099 is $10.99 USD, not $1,099.
• percentVariance is a whole-number percent above the credit limit — 50 allows up to 150%.

Examples

Maximum amount variance

A subscriber wants to let a fleet — one financial account with ten payment cards — spend up to $500 over the financial account's credit limit. There are no restrictions on the number or dollar amount of individual transactions, as long as the cumulative over-limit total stays under $500.

Create the spend rule:

CreateMaximumAmountVarianceOnCreditLimitSpendRule

Query

mutation CreateMaximumAmountVarianceOnCreditLimitSpendRule(
  $input: CreateMaximumAmountVarianceOnCreditLimitSpendRuleInput!
) {
  createMaximumAmountVarianceOnCreditLimitSpendRule(input: $input) {
    __typename
    ... on MaximumAmountVarianceOnCreditLimitSpendRule {
      id
      name
      version
      amountVariance {
        value
        currencyCode
      }
      createdAt
      updatedAt
    }
    ... on UserError {
      errors {
        code
        path
      }
    }
    ... on AccessDeniedError {
      message
    }
  }
}

Variables

{
  "input": {
    "name": "$500 cumulative over-limit allowance",
    "amountVariance": {
      "value": 50000,
      "currencyCode": "USD"
    }
  }
}

⚠️ Please login to execute queries. Visit the dashboard to authenticate.

Result

{
  "data": {
    "createMaximumAmountVarianceOnCreditLimitSpendRule": {
      "__typename": "MaximumAmountVarianceOnCreditLimitSpendRule",
      "id": "<SPEND_RULE_ID>",
      "name": "$500 cumulative over-limit allowance",
      "version": "0",
      "amountVariance": {
        "value": 50000,
        "currencyCode": "USD"
      },
      "createdAt": "2026-05-18T12:00:00.000Z",
      "updatedAt": "2026-05-18T12:00:00.000Z"
    }
  },
  "extensions": {
    "requestId": "<REQUEST_ID>"
  }
}

Then attach the rule to the financial account:

AttachSpendRuleToFinancialAccount

Query

mutation AttachSpendRuleToFinancialAccount(
  $input: AttachSpendRuleToFinancialAccountInput!
) {
  attachSpendRuleToFinancialAccount(input: $input) {
    __typename
    ... on FinancialAccount {
      id
    }
    ... on UserError {
      errors {
        code
        path
      }
    }
    ... on AccessDeniedError {
      message
    }
  }
}

Variables

{
  "input": {
    "financialAccountId": "<FINANCIAL_ACCOUNT_ID>",
    "spendRule": {
      "id": "<SPEND_RULE_ID>",
      "version": "LATEST"
    }
  }
}

⚠️ Please login to execute queries. Visit the dashboard to authenticate.

Result

{
  "data": {
    "attachSpendRuleToFinancialAccount": {
      "__typename": "FinancialAccount",
      "id": "<FINANCIAL_ACCOUNT_ID>"
    }
  },
  "extensions": {
    "requestId": "<REQUEST_ID>"
  }
}

Maximum percent variance

A subscriber wants to let a financial account spend up to 20% over its credit limit — for example, $1,200 of cumulative spend against a $1,000 credit limit.

Create the spend rule:

CreateMaximumPercentVarianceOnCreditLimitSpendRule

Query

mutation CreateMaximumPercentVarianceOnCreditLimitSpendRule(
  $input: CreateMaximumPercentVarianceOnCreditLimitSpendRuleInput!
) {
  createMaximumPercentVarianceOnCreditLimitSpendRule(input: $input) {
    __typename
    ... on MaximumPercentVarianceOnCreditLimitSpendRule {
      id
      name
      version
      percentVariance
      createdAt
      updatedAt
    }
    ... on UserError {
      errors {
        code
        path
      }
    }
    ... on AccessDeniedError {
      message
    }
  }
}

Variables

{
  "input": {
    "name": "20% over-limit allowance",
    "percentVariance": 20
  }
}

⚠️ Please login to execute queries. Visit the dashboard to authenticate.

Result

{
  "data": {
    "createMaximumPercentVarianceOnCreditLimitSpendRule": {
      "__typename": "MaximumPercentVarianceOnCreditLimitSpendRule",
      "id": "<SPEND_RULE_ID>",
      "name": "20% over-limit allowance",
      "version": "0",
      "percentVariance": 20,
      "createdAt": "2026-05-18T12:00:00.000Z",
      "updatedAt": "2026-05-18T12:00:00.000Z"
    }
  },
  "extensions": {
    "requestId": "<REQUEST_ID>"
  }
}

Attach the rule to the financial account using the same AttachSpendRuleToFinancialAccount mutation shown above.

Combining with other spend rules

A variance spend rule on its own caps the cumulative over-limit amount but does not constrain individual transactions.

To layer per-transaction or per-window controls — for example, "$500 cumulative over-limit, but no single transaction over $250" — compose the variance rule with an AmountLimitSpendRule or wrap them in a VelocityRule. The variance rule continues to gate the cumulative over-limit amount; the additional rules constrain transaction shape.