cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Discover now offers Balance transfer Straight to your Bank Account

tag
taxi818
Super Contributor

Re: Discover now offers Balance transfer Straight to your Bank Account


@Anonymous wrote:
Discover charges the 3% fee on 0% offers <<< I thought so. Thanks again

Yes correct. misquote.

was thinking of something else. They are charging 4.99 on op's offer. for 18 months. which is very good interest.

Citi is charging the 3% as well. but 0 percent on the loan it self.

Message 41 of 50
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Discover now offers Balance transfer Straight to your Bank Account

I'll check it once I get home. I may not even have an offer Smiley Happy But this is certainly interesting.
Message 42 of 50
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Discover now offers Balance transfer Straight to your Bank Account

I wish my hidden TLs would do this. 😣
Message 43 of 50
Ghoshida
Valued Contributor

Re: Discover now offers Balance transfer Straight to your Bank Account


@taxi818 wrote:

@Ghoshida wrote:

@taxi818 wrote:

@Ghoshida wrote:

Citi has had this feature for a long time. The first time (and the only time) I used this feature with Citi I thought it might attract cash advance APR so I backed down and instead just used them to pay off another CC, but then the CSR told me I could have as well transferred it to my account and pay off whoever I wanted to, whether a CC or not.

 

I believe this can come in handy in one of these cases:

 

(a) You don't want Discover (or Citi) to know who you're paying off (privacy or whatever reason)

(b) Your other debtor doesn't accept CC BT (or doesn't accept cheques, rather)

(c) You're short of cash, and the payment you want to make asks for a convenience fee >3% (or whatever the BT fee Discover's charging)

(d) You've found a wonderful investment opportunity and your cost of capital is easily way over 3% (or whatever's the BT fee) per annum. 

 

It's not considered a cash advance; it's not taken out of an ATM. It's rather a cheque that the bank (Discover) is sending to an address you specified. Traditionally, it used to be another credit card, but there's no reason it couldn't be another bank account, in this case, your checking account.

 

I don't really get the point of high APRs for cash advances. Take Discover's cashover option, for e.g. I could walk over to my nearby Randall's and ask for $60 while buying $1 in gum. Even if I considered the gum to be of zero value, I'd generally pay less than my cash advance APR. Why don't banks simply set a limit to cash advance per transaction, and treat it as a regular purchase? Sure, ATMs (especially out of network) may charge fees, so add those fees and that's it. 

 

If Discover could get into agreement with a large number of retailers, what's there to prevent it to get into similar agreement with a few banks whose ATMs will be available for cash advance at regular APR? What's the logic here? And yes, there's not going to be any extended warranty etc, but that's anyway accepted.


Ghos. this is about the best explination ive heard hear at my fico. instead of fearing the word cash advance. there are many ways around it. so banks should offer alternatives to the traditional. im gonna take Citi up on it and try something. I have an installment loan 4 months old however. it is as a negative in my fico.

negative factors i meant.

Short Credit history.

Installment loan balance too high in proportion to loan. of course it is.

Relevate has a thread about installment loan utilization. as im currently at 90 percent utilization on my loan since ive made 4 payments.

The interest is 13.99 percent.

So if i take say $500 from citi and pay that on the loan. it will not hurt me. as i can pay the $500 off in a day if i had to. no problem. But iwant to see the effect of bringing this loan down compared to utilization on the actual installment loan. if it will help my score. if not. ive not lost anything except $15 dollars which is the BT fee.

Here we go. will post results.


Cool Taxi. 

 

As I mentioned, make sure no purchases with Citi till all BT paid off. 

Let us know if that experiment helps your FICO.

 

I'm hoping that more banks will follow Discover's lead and get rid of the cash advance nonsense. Rather they should have a menu of choices: pay standard APR / no fee or pay upfront fee / no or low APR. 


I have 0 % for 12 months on both. purchases and BTs. so i don't need to SD it.


Ha ha you're good. Put that money to good use Smiley Very Happy

 

It reminds me of someone on the credit card apps page. Now (s)he wanted to get a bunch of cards and use their 0% BTs to fund some investments. It's a bit risky, but everything in the finance world is, just that the degree is different. 

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Card-Applications/Need-advice-on-app-spree/td-p/3831371

 

I need some spare time to think on investments too. Let me grow my savings a bit more, just not in the risk-taking mode with CCs really Smiley Happy

Message 44 of 50
taxi818
Super Contributor

Re: Discover now offers Balance transfer Straight to your Bank Account


@Anonymous wrote:
I wish my hidden TLs would do this. 😣

Only hidden i have is DinersClub. but i needed them for something else. TAXES. so they are out of use right now.

Message 45 of 50
bengalikejenga
Regular Contributor

Re: Discover now offers Balance transfer Straight to your Bank Account

Discover just became my all time Fav Credit Card for real for real.

 

Smiley Happy


Ex681 Tu694 EQ708
Message 46 of 50
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Discover now offers Balance transfer Straight to your Bank Account

They would be my favorite too if my CL with them was not 1/2 my average of ~20K
Message 47 of 50
core
Valued Contributor

Re: Discover now offers Balance transfer Straight to your Bank Account


@Ghoshida wrote:
I need some spare time to think on investments too. Let me grow my savings a bit more, just not in the risk-taking mode with CCs really Smiley Happy

One risk-free idea would be to take out a BT and stick it in Consumers CU checking which is paying 5.09%.  (CCU visa required though)  If you took out $20k and paid the $600 BT fee, over 15 months you'd end up with around $670 profit.  Sure, it's not as good as getting 10%+ from LendingClub/Prosper, but it is totally risk free.  Not really worth the FICO hit though for that kind of profit... especially if your Discover limit is low like mine is.

Message 48 of 50
Ghoshida
Valued Contributor

Re: Discover now offers Balance transfer Straight to your Bank Account


@core wrote:

@Ghoshida wrote:
I need some spare time to think on investments too. Let me grow my savings a bit more, just not in the risk-taking mode with CCs really Smiley Happy

One risk-free idea would be to take out a BT and stick it in Consumers CU checking which is paying 5.09%.  (CCU visa required though)  If you took out $20k and paid the $600 BT fee, over 15 months you'd end up with around $670 profit.  Sure, it's not as good as getting 10%+ from LendingClub/Prosper, but it is totally risk free.  Not really worth the FICO hit though for that kind of profit... especially if your Discover limit is low like mine is.


It's not a lot. $16k. 

 

Anyway, I just did a quick back-of-the-hand calculation.

 

So to get the 5.09% (which is pretty good), I need to do 12 debit card purchase per month and $1000 worth of credit card purchase per month. We'll stick to the 15 month timeline. Over 15 months, you get a return of 6.55% on your initial deposit, assume no further deposits or withdrawals. 

 

I'm assuming I'll be accepted. With my residency status, some CUs don't welcome me with open arms as far as CC are concerned. Anyways.

 

So on debit card, I can purchase say $1 coke cans from vending machines. The best I'd get on those is $0.10 from Discover Debit, i.e. 12*15*$0.10=$18.

Then on the credit card, which has a 3-2-1 structure, which is not bad (max CB of $6,000 per year, good deal) but not great, I won't be using it on gas / groceries (assume non-MS). So I'll end up using it for 1% categories and eat 1% loss compared to Discover (or Venture, or 0.5% compared to QS). So that's $1,000*15*1%=$150

 

So the profit has to be greater than $168. That means you need to invest at least $4,725 to break even Smiley Happy 

 

Oh that, and the FICO drop from the new inquiry. Assuming I value my HP at $300, I need to invest $13,165. Not impossible, but pretty risky putting that kinda BT on Disco Smiley Very Happy

Message 49 of 50
ddemari
Super Contributor

Re: Discover now offers Balance transfer Straight to your Bank Account

Bank of america offers this too. Direct depost option and it plays out like a balance transfer. Easier to write yourself a check though if u get them in the mail. The direct deposits can take like 5 days to post.
Message 50 of 50
Advertiser Disclosure: The offers that appear on this site are from third party advertisers from whom FICO receives compensation.