0% APR update

This is the second in a series of posts on my experiences with credit card arbitrage. See others here: Part 1,Part 2 ,Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

Last week I decided to take advantage of a 0% APR credit card offer. Today I finally got my card. I went to the website and was easily able to activate it online. Then I stared trying to figure out how to turn the credit into cash. My initial plan was to just take a cash advance for the amount I wanted and have it post directly to my checking account. Sadly, it was not that easy.

USAA has a limit of 2500.00 on cash advances. I'm not sure if that is just my account, or an across the board limit. So I had to come up with a new plan of action. I decided that I would take the cash advance anyway and use it to pay off the rest of my car loan, making up the difference with my disposable cash. In this manner I stop paying more interest on my car loan almost right away. I made a payoff payment for today, which might have been foolish, because when I got to the final screen it said my payment would post to my loan account tomorrow. If it doesn't work out right, I may have some change left over in the account due to interest accumulation. I intend to keep an eye on it and see if the loan is fully paid off or not.

On a side note, USAA had an option under my car loan account to "pay using a line of credit". When I tried to access that option, it took me to the standard money transfer page, which doesn't access my credit accounts or my car loan. Very strange. If someone knows why they do that I'd like to know.

To take advantage of the rest of the limit I used the balance transfer technique. Some creditors will cut you a check directly, but the online forms wanted another credit card company to transfer the money to. You need a bill from that company that shows their mailing address. You enter in the company name, the address, how much you want to transfer, and USAA takes it from there. I decided to transfer the funds to my other Amex card. Once the transfer takes place, I will have a positive balance on my Amex card and will call them to request a check. Thanks to Mymoneyblog for this technique. The downside is that there will be a lot of snail mail and online transfer time. It looks something like this USAA ---> Amex ----> Me ----> USAA  ---> ING. Conveniently enough, USAA is based in San Antonio and my Amex P.O. Box is in Dallas, so hopefully that will be a short leg.

I'm also going to see if I can make another cash advance. Or maybe get convenience checks. While normally there are high fees associate with "convenience" checks, during the first 60 days they should all be free. I'll be watching closely to make sure that is the case.

Comments

[USAA Member]

So I did a Cash Advance of 45k from my CC with USAA but you cannot do it online as they only allow you to do the 2.5k. If you call in and ask they will do it for you. THey dont charge you anything for the cash advance. They do ask why you asking for such large advances, mine was for a funeral that I needed the info right away but couldnt get ahold of cash intime so the cash advance came in handy. :)