I just got an offer from my citi (25K CL), for 4.99% til march with no fee, that they offer to send to my checking, or I can write a check to myself. I am thinking of doing this a day or so before my AOR and then pointing apps that only allow transfer to CC to this card. Even if I end up with a positive balance I can then cash it out. Does this sound reasonable? Could I even do this the day of my AOR? The day after? Does anyone have any experience with Citi on this. I am also thinking I can write a BT check to me, pay it off(or go over &request a check for excess), then write out another BT check to myself, then pay it off again with the BT checks that come that are to only go to a cc. Am I nuts for thinking this could work? With no fee, it should only cost me the interest until the other banks pay citi and I would have the cash the whole time and could be drawing more in interest than the fee. Somehow this seems like wishful thinking. What am I not thinking of? I guess citi could freak out if i cycle 50k or so through them and they just end up with a few bucks interest and a $0 balance on my account. I did read the BT laundering idea and pretty much saw this should work, but not this exact same scenario spelled out.

Scenario:

Have a $24900 CL AMEX.
Have a Chase CC with 0% capped offer with a higher CL than the AMEX.

BT 22K of the AMEX line to the Chase card *before* taking the Chase BT, so then the Chase card would have a credit of 22K.
Now write a 89% of CL Chase BT check to self *plus* the 22K BTed over from the AMEX.

Is that a good or bad plan? All the talk here seems to be about Citi...not Chase, so I worry a bit.

While applying for the BOA Iowa 25,000 world points card, I inquired about it and they said no direct transfer into checking.

It sounds like Chase does it though if you have been with them for awhile?

When I'm at the balance transfer screen for chase, and it asks me what account to put the transfer to, would I need to put in my Visa debit card # or my checking account #? I'm thinking its the debit Visa since there is no room for a routing # to go with the account #.

No, it hasn't. By tomorrow, it is 15 business days, so i'm going to call AMEX and check again. Any updates on yours?

TonySpero said:sleepy2076 said:I requested a BT from AMEX to HSBC debit/mastercard last 7/2. according to AMEX the bt completed last 7/5. When i called HSBC they said they have no record of receiving any funds. I checked online and showed nothing. I've called both AMEX multiple times and confirmed the debit/mastercard card number was correct. What are other people's experiences when they do a BT to hsbc debit/mastercard? Does it really take long and does it really have no record on the hsbc's side for awhile?

Did the funds show up? I'm in a similar situation, BT from BOA to HSBC Debit MC, 10 days have passed, called up BOA, they say it's done, called up HSBC, they say nothing received, nothing pending, it's a large amount, I'm going bats here, don't know what to do.

I'm getting concerned to. My last one was on 6/12 and it took exactly eight non-business days (only three days after the Chase transaction fee posts). I'm sitting on 10 right now on another I did by Chase and the transaction fee posted seven days ago. I hope they're not killing this method.

I'll chime in with another HSBC debit card problem on a balance transfer.

on 7/9, asked over phone to do a BT from Chase Biz cc to HSBC DC. 7/12, Chase reports that HSBC "received the cash" by wire. but nothing shows up on HSBC account.

7/21 I conference call with HSBC and Chase. Chase confirms that the transfer has occurred. HSBC CSR says I have to check with wire dept on Monday.

7/23 I conference call again with HSBC and Chase. HSBC wire dept has no record of a transfer. HSBC rep is adamant that no money was received. Chase rep then offers to refer to investigative unit to find out where wire went. Tells me to call back in 2 days.

From a liability viewpoint, I figure Chase wants to know where its money went (hard to lose track of 10K!). From my viewpoint, if they lost it, I can't be held responsible for this right?

Almost makes me wonder if someone is diverting funds over at HSBC (paranoid thought).

(Note that I've made several successful BT to HSBC DC before this past month.)

I look forward to seeing how others resolve this problem.

So did it go through? Sounds like this is dead now or at best July will be your last chance with a bunch of headaches. It would be nice is the CSRs would get the memo on how to handle this at least.

TonySpero said:...It's funny when I mentioned to BOA it's a DC, they did not have any objections, you would think the sending bank would care more then the receiving bank.

Why in the world would BofA care? They'll ACH the BT directly into your checking account with a simple phone call.

Tonyspero, congrats on getting the money to show up!

What was the key call/person to talk to?

I'm stuck talking to HSBC CSR's in India who can't even contact their own bank's wire department to verify if the funds were received from Chase and Barclays. Literally hung on the phone for an hour and the CSR kept telling me that the wire dept must be handling "higher than average call volume" (yeah, right). Then he calls me 3 hours later to tell me he still hasn't gotten through to his own bank's wire deparment and to try on Monday.

So I gave up and wrote a nasty letter complaining to the president that their bank lost my funds in its own wire department which HSBC itself cannot reach. This is so goofy that it's pathetic. How can you run a bank and (a) lose funds that come into it, and (b) can't even contact your own wire department (c) then ask you to investigate the originating banks. Hello, HSBC. Look in your own d--n bank for the money before blaming other banks!

If you have any tips that helped you, I'd be much obliged. This outsourcing of customer service has got to stop!

8/1/07 Update
I tried calling again on Monday. I tried calling the 716 area code number on the back of my debit card as suggested by TonySpero. Got transferred to Manila. The Filipina CSR supervisor was nice but still couldn't get in contact with the wire dept after another hour. She then tried calling Buffalo, NY HQ but after 10 tries, she only could reach India. Can you say bloody incompetent bank?

Tuesday, I receive a call from the Investigative Unit at HSBC Buffalo. Joe Gangarossa gave me a slap on the wrist about BT'ing to a debit card. Warned me that if I did it again, my account would be dropped. He did say that he would do a little checking. I called him back in a few hours and he said the funds would be released.

Wednesday, checked HSBC online and the funds are there finally! Time to get them out of HSBC before they lose it again!

I suppose this post could also go in the "Space Monkeys at HSBC" thread, but I wanted to share the experience with others and to warn them not to bother with BT'ing to HSBC debit card. For those who want to contact Mr. Gangarossa or at least talk to HSBC USA HQ: 800-528-0694 x5369.

Good Luck to all those in the same boat!

Citi balance transfer checks taking hell lots of time to arrive. I placed two requests in Jun, still no news. all requests got approved, the day after I placed the request.

Is there any one successful in doing BT from citi credit card to any checking account(eg: BOA)?