Need Data Points... what is the MOST you overpaid Citi card with BT $$$

As mentioned several times, I am prepping for my next round of AOR /BT fun....

Rather than wait on checks, I am planning on making ALL of my BT requests to Citi CC (which allows for overpayment, then will cut a check).

I don't want Citi to balk at this (as the amount can be significant, $30,000 or $50,000, or more); so I am asking for some data points for reference.

How much have you OVERPAID Citi
How recent was it
Did they question you, or hassle you when asking for a CREDIT OVERPAYMENT refund?
Any other info you want to add...

Another thing that I MAY try is AFTER I get the BT funds into my citi CC account as overpayment; rather then request a check for the overpayment, I may ask Citi to do a BT to either one of my savings/checking accounts, or (since I already have the hard inqs from AOR) open a citi savings/checking, then move the money myself...

Thoughts, comments, observations and data points welcome!

* You too, LFTM & IYHTA.... just waiting for your neg comments and the red!*

Well, this is probably a smaller amount than you have in mind, but:

$5k overpayment on a $25k line
February 2007
No hassles or questions, requested check online*
IIRC, check took a couple weeks to actually get to me.

edit:
*Under "Manage My Account" choose "Maintenance Requests" --> "Credit Balance Refund"

Time: I believe if you request a refund check immediately after a payment, it may take longer, because they wait a few extra days to verify that the payment clears.

I'm currently attempting a $33k overpayment on a $8k limit, and will soon attempt $11.5k overpayment on a $5k CL. If it fails, you'll hear me complaining

edit: they both worked.

24k on a 2k credit line, took a month to get it, and when I called, the first time I got a csr who was very rude and was like "why is there such a large payment" and she ended up hanging up on me, when I called back later at night I got a csr that wasn't from the US was he was very shocked to see that i had such a large amount and he said he would put it in imidatly... I called about 2 weeks later, they said since it was such a large amount would have to make sure it wasn't fraud..

This was done in june 2007

They did a 4k refund on a 15k line for me. It only took about 5 days to get the check.

Approximately 8 months ago, I overpaid 50,000 on a $63,000 CL via a BT from AMEX - no hassles!

25K to one citi
30K to mbna (probably cumulative 200K to that one card). i spend some of the money so they don't mind
25K to AMEX, they are slow to refund you.

best to overpay to a card that has a no fee BT and BT's fast, the rate is immaterial.

lhendricks92 said: great thread idea, OP. thanks!

a couple of questions...

1) why would you call citi when you can request a credit balance refund online? the fewer phone conversations i have to have about my BT shenanigans, the better.

2) let me get this straight...say you have a 10K CL on a citi card with a no fee BT offer. you overpay to create a 20K credit balance. can you request a 20K BT check for the full amount of the credit balance, or are you limited to the 10K of CL?

1. Probably wouldn't call... just wrote call instead of writing "Log in, and request Credit Balance Refund"... my bad!

2. I have 18K CL on my one citi card... which is why I posted question. I was concerned about doing BT's GREATER than the CL, and being hassled (or shut down). So far, thanks to everyone that responded, it looks like you can BT MORE than the CL. Highest Data points are
22K over CL or 1200% of CL,
10K over CL, or 600% of CL,

And I really like what pdpyromaster did.... Lots of TY points (and technically 40K over CL)!

If any more people respond, please add CL to your response.

Thanks again!

Squeezer99 said: lhendricks92 said:
2) let me get this straight...say you have a 10K CL on a citi card with a no fee BT offer. you overpay to create a 20K credit balance. can you request a 20K BT check for the full amount of the credit balance, or are you limited to the 10K of CL?

you sould have a CC with a -10K balance on it. then you could do up to a 20K BT to checking on that card, but then you'd have a 10k balance on a card of a 10K limit, so i'd recomment a 19K or less BT. which would give you a balance of 9k or less on the CC.

sorry if i wasn't clear. you start off with a zero balance, then create a 20K negative balance. what i was asking is what technologist answered - can you BT for MORE than your CL if you have a negative balance? apparently, yes, you can.

From what I have seen with Citi is that there is often a 30 day delay in thier processing for credit refunds, then you have to wait for snail mail check which takes 7 days.

Technologist, do you have a HELOC? If so, you should be able to get a 16 digit credit card that links to it. In this case, you can send all the $ you want to the HELOC and withdraw it with your checks with no delays and no fees . This appears to be the best way to be able to ask for big BT's on applications in hopes of a higher CL.

When are you doing your AOR? This weekend I am going to write up a summary of results from my recent family AOR's that might help you. You can PM me if you wish.

$8000 overpayment on an $8000 CL.
October 2006
They took their time sending the check, but then increased my CL to $9000.

Technologist, I made this little summary on how to get the $ from BT to checking that may help out (keep in mind I didn't ask for a BT on any apps for me personally as I only had one credit card before my own personal AOR). Check with your bank first about the BT to debit card as I hear some banks accept this, some don't (I haven't had the guts to try it, but would like to collect a datapoint for my thread).

$3800 on a $6000 line, Requested check online and got it within a couple of weeks. No Hassle at all.

OP, if Citi is taking some time to cut the check, is it worth doing this ? Sorry, I'm failing to understand the reason and possible hassles if my overpay is much over the CL, though I see many posting pretty large amounts that what I would.

MikeR397 said: Technologist, I made this little summary on how to get the $ from BT to checking that may help out (keep in mind I didn't ask for a BT on any apps for me personally as I only had one credit card before my own personal AOR). Check with your bank first about the BT to debit card as I hear some banks accept this, some don't (I haven't had the guts to try it, but would like to collect a datapoint for my thread).

you cant bt to a debit card it wont work. i have seen idiots try it and it doesn't work.

dodgeman007 said: MikeR397 said: Technologist, I made this little summary on how to get the $ from BT to checking that may help out (keep in mind I didn't ask for a BT on any apps for me personally as I only had one credit card before my own personal AOR). Check with your bank first about the BT to debit card as I hear some banks accept this, some don't (I haven't had the guts to try it, but would like to collect a datapoint for my thread).

you cant bt to a debit card it wont work. i have seen idiots try it and it doesn't work.

apparently it works for hsbc debit cards, if i remember correctly from some recent AOR threads.

Technologist said: MikeR397 said: Technologist, do you have a HELOC? If so, you should be able to get a 16 digit credit card that links to it. In this case, you can send all the $ you want to the HELOC and withdraw it with your checks with no delays and no fees . This appears to be the best way to be able to ask for big BT's on applications in hopes of a higher CL.

no HELOC..... But I have also thought about "the trick" of giving a new CC issuer one of my "Checking Debit Card" numbers as the place to send the BT to.... which will, in effect, place the money directly into my checking account. Don't know which one to try it with though (I have too many choices:

Suntrust Checking
Wamu Checking
Wachovia Checking
BoA Checking
Local CU Checking
NASA Federal CU Checking
HSBC Checking

Don't know if this info is already available, or if I should start a new thread about that. I like the idea of collecting Data points, in specific threads, so that they can be easily checked / updated / used by many!

Thanks again for the replies so far (gonna do some really weird stuff this AOR, like NOT pay down the balance on several of my cards first.... just to see the affect!).

I tried using the CITI online BT form with a debit card. I tried several debit cards, and they were all refused, in real time. I believe the CITI BT application somehow has a way to differentiate a debit card attached to a checking account from a credit card.

Technologist, thanks much for the elaboration.

I do not seem to have no fee BT offers on any of my Citi anymore re-route elsewhere, and seeing some mentions of 30 day delay in processing prior to regular 7 day paper check timings, I'm putting this on hold. I guess those who have to use the reason 'C' have little choice though.

Another avenue to consider is a BoFA card.

The BofA NEA card has a $30 limit on BTs, and BofA transfered the BT funds into checking in 1 day!

This works if you have a massive BofA line - scattered across many is not a problem because BofA personal BT department is very quick to do credit line juggling and then BT.

So in summary:

1. Get a low max-fee BT 0% offer from BoFA,
2. Consolidate as much CL into that card as possible,
3. Take out a large BT,
4. Move funds from other cards into that card,
5. Possibly do step 3 again.

I know every time you do step 3 costs $30 or whatever the max is, but is still an approach.

P.S. I would not advise overpaying any BofA credit card, because I remember one thread where OP got in trouble for overpaying his BoFA card 4x the credit limit. Fraud department got involved quickly and they shut down all his BoFA accts: CC, Deposit, AU, and more.

ChumChurum said: Another avenue to consider is a BoFA card.

The BofA NEA card has a $30 limit on BTs, and BofA transfered the BT funds into checking in 1 day!

This works if you have a massive BofA line - scattered across many is not a problem because BofA personal BT department is very quick to do credit line juggling and then BT.

So in summary:

1. Get a low max-fee BT 0% offer from BoFA,
2. Consolidate as much CL into that card as possible,
3. Take out a large BT,
4. Move funds from other cards into that card,
5. Possibly do step 3 again.

I know every time you do step 3 costs $30 or whatever the max is, but is still an approach.

P.S. I would not advise overpaying any BofA credit card, because I remember one thread where OP got in trouble for overpaying his BoFA card 4x the credit limit. Fraud department got involved quickly and they shut down all his BoFA accts: CC, Deposit, AU, and more.

Not that your post is off topic (although talking Boa when I asked about citi technically is )

I am maxed at BoA for right now... I have over 60K in credit lines with them, and what you proposed is too risky for me.... and won't work for my AOR, as I need to use existing lines (such as citi) to BT the money into...

and @chessycatlane
No red for you from me.... it is confusing, but after a while you will get used to it... no degree necessary (I have non, nor do I work in finance).

The reason to OVERPAY a credit line is to get the $$$$ refunded... It doesn't work with BoA (as noted above), but DOES work with Citi (the whole reason for this thread).

I am going to attempt to SERIOUSLY overpay my citi card (by tens of thousands), then move the money into a HYS (High Yield Savings) account, and get between 5 to 6% on the money I borrowed (for 12 months or 15 months, at 0% interest). I may put it into the 7%, 7 month CD (you can find the thread by searching)....

AOR in a very short time now, thanks to all for the data points (I should've trademarked it, EVERYONE is using "data Points" now....)

and ChumChurum, thanks for the input.... even though I can't use it...

pdpyromaster said: Oh, also, I had 80k of BT going into my citi card, so I opened up a Citibank account with a 40k PURCHASE from my citi DPR card. Then I just let the 80k of bt's hit

can you do it the other way?

let's say your CL is rather small ($5k)
and you BT $10K into your CITI CC account (for a negative $10k balance)
can you then open a citibank account with a $15k PURCHASE?