ILikeDollars said:xoneinax said:Yes, and they charged interest against the ADB

You misunderstand. I'm not suggesting that you should carry a balance. I'm suggesting that you pay off your charges before they appear on a statement (except for a small amount).

Let's say your statement closing date is the 28th of the month:

March 1st: $0 balance

March 12th: $250 purchase

March 14th: $248.01 payment

The grace period would apply to the $1.99 balance that would remain, IF they do not cancel it.I think they will cancel it. One month I had something like this (numbers are not exact):

November 7 - $0.00 statement balance
November 10 - $800 BT
November 17 - $800 payment
December 7 - $1.60 interest fee
December 7 - (-$1.60) small balance credit
December 7 - $0.00 statement balance

It's worth a try although it depends if it's worth it. $250 in you bank at 5% for extra 30 days nets about $1.25 in profit.

ILikeDollars said:xoneinax said:Yes, and they charged interest against the ADBYou misunderstand. I'm not suggesting that you should carry a balance. The grace period would apply to the $1.99 balance that would remain, IF they do not cancel it.Sorry, I misread your original question. I have done the same many times. However (with the possible exception of finance charges accrued from the previous billing cycle) a closing statement balance of 1.99 or less is obtained, it is definitely canceled.

SecondGunman said:I'm in the same boat. I have a Discover card that requires two purchases per month to keep the 0% interest. I made two charges of $1.08 each today. Because the balance on the card will be $2.16, I'm imagining that I'll be billed at the end of the month. What would happen if I bought two packs of gum on the card? The total would be less than $1. Would I be billed or not? If not, would those two purchases still be sufficient to cover my two purchases per month requirement?

On a related note...... Does anyone know of an easy way to arrange two small charges to the card each month automatically? I'm afraid I'm going to forget one month and lose that 0% interest.1. If you're already carrying the balance on the card (which you obviously are since you're talking about 0% BT for life), any additional charges will be added to the balance and will not be canceled. In the examples above, the cards are canceling charges only if a statement balance would have been less than $2.

2. If you're worried about forgetting to do your monthly transactions - you can subscribe to some periodic monthly subscriptions through paypal, that will charge you regularly, or just write it in your calendar - pick a date for these transactions and mark your calendar for every single month this year. Then when the date comes, just add the discover card to your wallet and make two purchases on that day.

Sears MC (by Citi) cancelled a $5.00 balance!!

Actually I had a BT offer on my Sears MC that I paid off 8 months ago. However, checking my credit report via TrueCredit showed that Sears was still reporting the high balance from the BT with a last update date of 8 months ago. As a result I made the $5.00 charge to force Sears to update my balance but it didn't work as Sears zeroed it out and didn't report the zero balance on my CR's!!! I ended up disputing the balance with the credit agencies to show a zero balance.

ianxxi said:Citicard (AMEX Dividend) billed me for $0.02... yeap 2 cents !!

Reminds me of when Citigroup sent me dividend checks for 19 cents, then around 24 cents for the longest time. Probably cost them more on postage than what it was worth, but oh well.

AKD

tarheels2000x said:
I was billed for 1.00 by Bank of America
Thanks for the info...I will do a 99 cent test then

EDIT: I just charged Macy's Visa for exactly $1.00 so far. That statement should cut in a couple of days. Did $1.99 on USAA MC. Also charged $1.98 to Providian, statement in one day here(hopefully it will show up on it in time). UPDATE: Providian cut my statement 2 days earlier than last month so it didn't make it...will have to wait another full month. BAH!

Next on tap: BofA for $0.99 or less.

I also just threw $5.00 on my Sears Mastercard to re-confirm that value. Sears haven't updated anybody's credit reports since May/June of 2006 unless you complain to via phone/online message for a manual update(they blame system upgrades). They are punks!

I wonder if having paperless statements affects this.

Capital One canceled at 1.00, I am trying 1.99 right now.

ChrisV said:*BUMP*

Other good data points needed(for anyone else that has some spare cards they'd like to use):

Any AMEX from $0.99 to $2.00, Capital One at exactly $1.00, Chase at exactly $2.00, Wells Fargo $1.99/$2.00, MBNA at $0.99, Advanta at $1.01, Providian at $1.01/$2.00, USAA at $1.00/$1.01.

Any other unreported cards(good starting point is $0.99/$1.00) including HSBC, GEMB, Juniper(Barclays), RBS, Keybank, U.S. Bank, Penfed, Patelco, Home Depot Mastercard, etc.

Tried Juniper (Barclays) with $1.99 and got billed. Oh, well. Maybe try $0.99 or $1.00?

cmatthes1 said:#1 I think some people think this is for a charge, it isn't it is for your overall bill.

You can't me 500 1 cent charges and get $5 back.

#2 People think you need to make small charges, you don't. You simply have to pay ALL BUT $X before your next bill is made.

Ok, so I have a $500 bill. I go to the effort to make an extra payment right before my statement closes in the amount of $499. My CC gives me 30 days from statement date until due date.

$499*.05/12=$2.08

So I just lost $2.08 in interest to *hope* that my CC company "forgives" my $1 balance. Even if I was in a 50% tax bracket I'd come out ahead not playing any tricks.