Need 100K cash Advance; Strategy Advice Please

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

@Thank you @JVille @marty56 & @SouthJamica for your answers. 

After giving thought to your answers, I'm thinking to abandon the strategy. Had the ask been for 25K would your answers be different? 

My goal to have that financial security/flexibility just in case if I need to use it. 

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Yes my answer would have been different.

I have found that with credit unions one can get good cards that have no cash advance fees, and decent interest rates on cash advances. 

But credit unions are very conservative about recent new credit, and getting $100k worth within a year just didn't seem workable to me.

[Anonymous]

Instead of trying to get credit cards, go to credit unions and see if you can get a "line of credit", ideally one secured against your home, but if not then you can get a "personal line of credit". The interest rate will be MUCH lower. 

I doubt you can get close to 100k, but you will get SOMETHING.

Personally I use lines of credit primarily as overdrafts on my main account. I'm not the most careful person in the world and now and then I mis-calculate and my account goes overdrawn by usually something like $20. Since I have the line of credit set up as an overdraft, it's no big deal -- all my bills and checks get paid and I wind up paying interst for a day two until I notice it and transfer money in from a savings account. I think I've used it 3-4 times in 2 years and never borrowed money from it for more than about two days at a time--but thanks to that setup I have 100% reliable payment of my rent, bills, etc., even though I screwed up a few times. It's my safety net!

But it's also there in an emergency if I need it. In my case I have a $10k line of credit here in the US, and I have a $50k CDN line of credit in Canada where I have a much longer credit history. The latter is really useful since I own a rental property in Canada and I've got access to that $50k if I have to pay for some sudden repair or similar expense with respect to the rental (has never happened, knock on wood, but it is there if I need it!)

So I'd say look into line of credit from various institutions and see what you can build it up to.

But I agree with others -- you should be saving for a rainy day and have cash socked away somewhere that you can draw on in an emergency. I really like the Ally bank "no penalty CD" for this -- I have my emergency money socked away there and I can get at it with a couple days notice without paying any penalty. In the meantime it generates at least some interst.

[Revelate]

The number of things you can't put on a credit card is vanishly small; just build your limits to whatever you feel comfortable with and swipe if you ever need to float a balance.

I can't really fathom a case where I'd ever want to take a cash advance without something going really really sideways in my life and by that I mean something of the not quite legitimate enterprise variety.

Also if you have to finance something, I'd much rather do it at currently 3.5% (secured mortgage as JVille noted) than 20%, but I'm not opposed to using a HELOC or similar method of leveraging my equity (even if it sits at $0 pretty much always, finacial safety net as you say).

Also why go for a cash advance credit card when you can just get a PLOC from Penfed or similar for a smaller APR?  Lot of ways to skin the cat not involving cash advances which lenders appear to hate.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Revelate wrote:

The number of things you can't put on a credit card is vanishly small; just build your limits to whatever you feel comfortable with and swipe if you ever need to float a balance.

I can't really fathom a case where I'd ever want to take a cash advance without something going really really sideways in my life and by that I mean something of the not quite legitimate enterprise variety.

Also if you have to finance something, I'd much rather do it at currently 3.5% (secured mortgage as JVille noted) than 20%, but I'm not opposed to using a HELOC or similar method of leveraging my equity (even if it sits at $0 pretty much always, finacial safety net as you say).

Also why go for a cash advance credit card when you can just get a PLOC from Penfed or similar for a smaller APR?  Lot of ways to skin the cat not involving cash advances which lenders appear to hate.

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I disagree with almost everything you're saying.

1. Buying stuff with credit cards and carrying a balance is not the best way to borrow; it's probably the worst way.

2. People's needs for cash often have nothing to do with purchases.

3. Aversion to cash advances is irrational. Of course cash advances are horrendous if there's a fee involved and high rates of interest. But many credit unions offer credit cards with no cash advance fee and a very low rate of interest.

4. Borrowing against one's home is the only thing that competes with carrying credit card purchase balances as the WORST way to borrow. If one runs into a financial problem one can easily lose the roof over one's head.

5. A PLOC from a credit union and a credit card from a credit union are not mutually exclusive.

6. Sometimes the credit card interest rate from a credit union is lower than the interest rate on a personal line of credit.