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Which credit cards will cancel your bill if it is small? Archived From: Finance

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I have a discover card that appears to be crediting my account everytime my bill is low. I don't use it except every 3-4 months for a small purchase, and in this case the purchase was forgiven for the amount of $1.18 both times.

What other cards have this "feature?"


Advanta canceled at $1.00
Advanta billed at $1.20

AMEX billed at $1.99
AMEX billed at $0.01
AMEX canceled at 0.49 (first statement: balance is 0.49 but nothing is due; second statement: balance adjusted to zero)

BofA billed at $0.01/0.03/$0.49/$0.99/$1.00
Best Buy Mastercard billed at $1.10

Capital One canceled at $0.99/$1.00
Capital One Business canceled at $0.99
Capital One billed at $1.01/$1.98/$1.99

Chase canceled at $1.40/$1.49/$1.99
Chase Biz canceled at $1.99
Chase billed at $2.00

Citi billed for everything, even for a measley $0.02
CitiBusiness billed for $0.99

Citi personal "BALANCE REMOVED DUE TO 3 MOS INACTIVITY" ($0.35)
Citi personal "BALANCE REMOVED DUE TO 3 MOS INACTIVITY" ($0.39)
** Citi personal "Removed balance can be re-applied to the acct as payment within 6(?) months" **

Discover canceled at $1.98/1.99
Discover billed at $2.00

Etrade billed at $1.97

Fifth Third billed at $1.96

Hooters (MerrickBank) billed at $1.84
Hooters CANCELED at $1.00

HSBC canceled at $0.92
HSBC billed at $0.95

Juniper(Barclays) billed at $0.01/$1.99

Keybank MC billed at $0.99/$1.98

Orchard Bank (HSBC) billed at $0.99

Macy's Visa billed at $1.00

MBNA billed at $2.02

PNC(Elan) billed at 1.98
PNC(Elan) canceled at 1.00

Providian/WAMU canceled at $0.99/$1.00
Providian/WAMU billed at $1.01/$1.94/$1.95/$1.99

Penfed cancelled $0.71
Penfed billed at $0.99

Pulaski cancelled $1.00
Pulaski billed at $1.99

RBS cancelled $0.99

Sears MC (by Citi) canceled at $0.99 (used to be $5.00 but stopped as of 7/01/07)
Sears MC (by Citi) billed at $1.00
Sears (regular - not MC) billed at $4.99.

SunTrust billed at $1.99

USAA canceled $0.93/$0.99
USAA billed at $1.00/$1.99

US Bank Platinmum Visa billed $1.09
US Bank Worldperks Visa cancelled $1.00
US Bank Worldperks Visa billed at $1.36
US Bank Worldperks Visa billed $0.92 (0n 10/6/07)

Wachovia canceled $1.00, however they did NOT cancel two months in a row

Wells Fargo canceled at $1.00/$1.06/$1.99

Zions Bank Visa canceled at $1.98

Message edited by: Chyvan on 2008-09-25 23:55:06 CDT
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have you checked your credit report to make sure they aren't adding it?


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Well I was just thinking that if I had 100 of those kinda cards...


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highmktgoods said:Well I was just thinking that if I had 100 of those kinda cards...i would find a better use of my time/credit.


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BrianGa said:highmktgoods said:Well I was just thinking that if I had 100 of those kinda cards...i would find a better use of my time/credit.

Of course I wouldn't exploit this, that would be silly. However, if I wanted a free bagel one day during the week, I could just grab one of my dormant cards.

My other question is, how much will they tolerate in a single billing period?


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I think you may have been lucky. Perhaps certain banks consider the cost of preparing, and mailing a statement too much for such small amounts, they forgive it. They do make something from the merchant. If you do it too often, you may be redflagged, and they also may decide to change their policy. You could paypal yourself free money


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discover is well known for this


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highmktgoods said:I have a discover card that appears to be crediting my account everytime my bill is low. I don't use it except every 3-4 months for a small purchase, and in this case the purchase was forgiven for the amount of $1.18 both times.

What other cards have this "feature?"


thats not a feature and i bet its going to bite you later, when was the last time you checked your CBR?


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It's not on my CBR, and I have credit monitoring. It happened several months ago too. It shows up as a statement credit. The description says: "SMALL BALANCE CREDIT" and the catagory it falls under is: "Payments and Credits."

I think that they realize that it would cost them more to send a paper statement and process it than if they just forgive that amount. It was never my intention to be stingy or to exploit this, I just noticed that there is a pattern with Discover.


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Interesting that you should mention this. My wife has an old Providian card that she doesn't use any more, and they forgave a $1 charge this month. (I used this card to confirm a change of address at usps.com. It was the only card she had where we hadn't changed the billing address.) As you say, you're not likely to get rich by taking advantage of this, but if I can use my Discover card and her Providian Visa to get two free bagels a month, that would still make me happy.


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PolarDude said:I think you may have been lucky. Perhaps certain banks consider the cost of preparing, and mailing a statement too much for such small amounts, they forgive it. They do make something from the merchant. If you do it too often, you may be redflagged, and they also may decide to change their policy. You could paypal yourself free money

Since we are not asking Discover to "forgive" the small balance. They do that voluntarily. How can they redflagged you because your spend habit(only charge a small amount in a month)?

I think you are fine to take advantage on this, until they fix it and decide not to "forgive" anymore.


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highmktgoods said:My other question is, how much will they tolerate in a single billing period ?Once, since, as you said, its a SMALL BALANCE CREDIT not a small charge credit.
Discover 1.99
Capital One 0.99


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Chase cancelled my bill everytime and give an adjusted credit for $1.08 Double Cheeseburge McDonald, I ate once a month.


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If you check the Chase Sony Visa thread, people have noticed their $1 charges getting credited.


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My charge of $3.14 to the Chase Sony card was billed.


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WalStMonky said:My charge of $3.14 to the Chase Sony card was billed.

From the answers, it seems like Chase will automatically credit for any balance up to $1-2 and will bill if the balance is higher than that. We can do some experiences if we have large samples to get the exact number. It could be $1.50 or $1.99?


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I've been charging $1.00 on my Wells Fargo Visa for almost a year now, and they have always adjusted my balance to $0. I haven't tried anything more than $1.00, so I'm not too sure where the limit is.

I usually make the charge via eBay's 'one-time payment' method. It's like 1 free insertion a month.


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SilverB18C1 said:I've been charging $1.00 on my Wells Fargo Visa for almost a year now, and they have always adjusted my balance to $0. I haven't tried anything more than $1.00, so I'm not too sure where the limit is.

I usually make the charge via eBay's 'one-time payment' method. It's like 1 free insertion a month.


I've charged 1.06 and they have adjusted it. For the upcoming month, I am testing 1.15. We'll see what happens.


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PolarDude said:I think you may have been lucky. Perhaps certain banks consider the cost of preparing, and mailing a statement too much for such small amounts, they forgive it. They do make something from the merchant. If you do it too often, you may be redflagged, and they also may decide to change their policy. You could paypal yourself free money

Ahhhh, ok. First month I had my Chase Cash Rewards card I only used it to buy one $1.25 metro ticket, and it got canceled on the bill. I was wondering what happened to that charge.


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