Timing is everything when it comes to getting free 0% APR balance transfers and such. If you decide to take the free money, you better take it all at once (or keep usage below 50%). As your score drops and utilization ratio increases, you are less and less likely to receive similar offers from other banks.
You'll need some way of getting the money out. Occasionally the bank will mail you convenience checks (read the fine print then - e.g. AMÅX will treat it as cash advance if you write it in your own name) or will offer to deposit into checking (Citi, Chase, who else). Usually, however, your only option is to transfer balance from another account (with a different issuer).
You can then "transfer balance" from an account, where there is no balance, and then request a check. It has been discussed on FatWallet many times. However, some issuers will send you a check promptly and without asking any questions while others may take a few months or offer to send the money back to the card you used for payment only or close your account, especially if you have a history of requesting checks for overpayment.
Please share your experience: what was the maximum amount you were able to request this way, how high is your credit limit, how long did it take? Please share negative experience as well.
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EugeneV said:Occasionally the bank will mail you convenience checks (read the fine print then - e.g. AMÅX will treat it as cash advance if you write it in your own name) or will offer to deposit into checking (Citi, Chase, who else).
Citi CSR (two of them, actually) once told me they couldn't issue checks to be deposited into my checking any more. But they are offering it to me again recently without me asking. No consistency if you ask me.
MBNA CSRs are very aggressive at pushing the BT-to-your-cheking also.
Regarding overpaying your account, I wouldn't overpay the balance by more than 10% of the CL. Higher than that the risk of red flags would be too much for comfort.
I did this recently with AMEX and Discover. AMEX was pretty quick, about 1 week. Discover had to wait for my statement to close so it was about 3 weeks.
A few years ago, I overpaid a Fleet card by $15K or so, for similar reasons to OP. They were fairly suspicious, but eventually cut me a check after 3 weeks. I second what has been said above about MBNA conveniently doing transfers to checking.
With MBNA's BillPay, monthly bills should take care most of the balance transfer. If that is not enough, offer to pay your brother's and sister's bills. No red flag, no waiting, the money is already in your bank account.
harmlessbunny said:The last time I did this with Discover, they held the overpayment for 10 business days before sending a check.
How much did you request and how high is your CL?
mrbean said:Citi CSR (two of them, actually) once told me they couldn't issue checks to be deposited into my checking any more. But they are offering it to me again recently without me asking. No consistency if you ask me.
MBNA CSRs are very aggressive at pushing the BT-to-your-cheking also.
Regarding overpaying your account, I wouldn't overpay the balance by more than 10% of the CL. Higher than that the risk of red flags would be too much for comfort.
You need to have a Citi bank account though. What about MBNA? Would they do an external ACH push?
Where does the 10% figure come from?
DFWDAL said:Citi is pretty convenient. You can request the refund check online so they won’t be asking any questions.
True. What amount were you able to request this way? Any other banks offer online check request?
xerty said:A few years ago, I overpaid a Fleet card by $15K or so, for similar reasons to OP. They were fairly suspicious, but eventually cut me a check after 3 weeks. I second what has been said above about MBNA conveniently doing transfers to checking.
CL? How many times have you done it? Just once? Checking does not have to be MBNA Checking?
For experience, I did it with AMEX, they are slow, more than 10 days. And they are very careful, they will send a letter tell you you are requesting a check now. The second letter will be the check.
HJM said:With MBNA's BillPay, monthly bills should take care most of the balance transfer. If that is not enough, offer to pay your brother's and sister's bills. No red flag, no waiting, the money is already in your bank account.
HJM.
Care to explain?
I can pay other credit cards and creare a positive balance there and negative on MBNA. I then have to pay back MBNA and still have to get my money from other cards somehow. How does BillPay help?
If your family members have the money, they wouldn't have large bills to have to begin with.
CornHusker said:I ask this question, long time ago, but no definite answer,
Can you BT to your Debit Card?
I remember asking the same question. Yes, this would be the easiest way. Some banks, e.g. Juniper, recognizes the issuer by credit card number and sends payment there, but they could easily determine that it is a debit card with a Visa or MasterCard logo. I haven't tried this.
EugeneV said:You need to have a Citi bank account though. Not that I know of. The guy was so eager to get me to take the BT he offered to send me a check or deposit to my checking directly (never asked which bank). I declined. We'll see what happens later. It was like this before, but when I did call about it they said no-can-do.
What about MBNA? Would they do an external ACH push? Yep. Happily.
Where does the 10% figure come from? Personal preference. That said, MBNA online billpay (read: no human intervention) doesn't allow you to pay more than 110% of the balance. So although not entirely related, the 10% is not completely out of the thin air either.
EugeneV said:HJM said:With MBNA's BillPay, monthly bills should take care most of the balance transfer. If that is not enough, offer to pay your brother's and sister's bills. No red flag, no waiting, the money is already in your bank account.
HJM.
Care to explain?
I can pay other credit cards and creare a positive balance there and negative on MBNA. I then have to pay back MBNA and still have to get my money from other cards somehow. How does BillPay help?
If your family members have the money, they wouldn't have large bills to have to begin with. MBNA Bill Pay allow you to pay mortgage, insurance, utilities, etc. not just credit card. I pay 3 mortgages each month totaled around $6000.00. Combining all the bills for the whole family can easily reach $10,000 each month. Since your family have to pay those bills each month anyway, you pay for them and they sign you a check. You save them a lot of stamps and no worry of lost check or late fee.
I had in mind getting 100K during one month. Sure, my scores would plummet with four 25K cards maxed out, but I can just pay them back when I need my scores to go back up.
Was anyone successful at getting MBNA's BT fee waived lately? Did Chase offer 0% APR to anyone recently after a threat to cancel? The other thread talks about Discover only for the past couple of months despite its title.
I had in mind getting 100K during one month. Sure, my scores would plummet with four 25K cards maxed out, but I can just pay them back when I need my scores to go back up.
Just curious, you were able to request a 25K overpaid check in the past?
I once did a $10k transfer to Discover and they promptly mailed me an $8k check for the overpayment (had an approx $2k monthly balance). I then sent another $10k payment to Discover the next month when balance was only $21. Discover took almost a month to send me the $10k check then -- set some falgs off!
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