Citi Writes Checks for 0% Balance Transfers
So right after I wrote up that walkthrough for the Citi 0% balance transfer process, I thought I’d do the same for Discover card. The only problem is that if you want to take advantage of their 0% balance transfer offers, you have no choice but to send a check to actual creditors - you can’t get a check sent to you (something Citi does do).
So, if you’ve been thinking about giving 0% balance transfer arbitrage games a try, I recommend that you first go with Citi cards and then, after those offers have expired or are expiring, go with a Discover card offer and pay off your outstanding transfer amount on the Citi cards.
Now, you might be thinking that you can just “pay off” a credit card with a $0 balance and then request the overage back to you but that card will likely flag your account, investigate, and generally take a few weeks before they’ll send you the overage. Then they’ll yell at you for doing it because, let’s face it, that’s pretty shady. It’s much easier to just go with Citi and get the check made out to you in the first place.
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8 Comments - Share Your Thoughts
Last year I used Discover card to transfer a total of $9000 to two Citi cards, then asked for a over payment refund. No question was asked and it took two weeks for me to receive the refund check. I don’t about other cards, but with Citi cards, it’s very simple to get the refund.
screw them. who cares if you overpay the credit card. they still have to give you the money back.
I did this for a balance transfer, except I also sent in my monthly payment as well (so it was over the monthly payment I sent). I had no problems getting it refunded (aside from a slight delay, I think it was a week after I called I got the checks).
I had no problem getting a credit back from National City for what it’s worth.
You can get a 0% balance transfer check from discover. The only thing is you have to call them.I have done it couple of months ago.
Or you could pay the card you use on a daily basis into negative territory, then use up the excess balance over the course of a month or two.
Citibank also offers an easy way to get a check back from their website if you have a credit on the account.
So, it might make sense to get a Citibank card, even with a very low limit, to use with those lame credit cards that won’t send you a check. Just do a balance transfer to your Citibank card, then request a refund online.
Last time I tried the balance-transfer-then-request-a-check I was transferring from Discover to Chase. The transfer took perhaps a week, then Chase took about three weeks to cut me a check. And they gave me a hard time about it, asking why I had such a large credit. Now I have the check, and it will still take another week for it to clear my bank, then a few more days to transfer to my high-interest account.
That’s over a month of interest lost. I suspect going through Citibank to get the refund would cut the three week wait considerably.
I had them overpay my personal, normal-use CC that’s linked to my bank account. Then I turned right around and had my bank transfer the credit to my checking account. It took a few days tops. I then took that money and threw it into a high-yield savings account (duh).
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