topic Re: Can I BT a large amount for 7-10 days? Cap One in Credit Cards

Can I BT a large amount for 7-10 days? Cap One

tussking — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 21:16:36 GMT

Will it affect me negatively with Cap One?

Re: Can I BT a large amount for 7-10 days? Cap One

Anonymous — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 21:19:08 GMT

Are you talking about a no fee, full purchase APR BT? Capital One would still get 7-10 days of interest income off of you so they wouldn't really be out anything. Can't see them getting upset about that.

Re: Can I BT a large amount for 7-10 days? Cap One

tussking — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 21:21:37 GMT

Yes, waiting on some funds moving things around. Moving 15k to cap one tonight and paying it off in 7-10 days.

Re: Can I BT a large amount for 7-10 days? Cap One

Anonymous — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 21:32:07 GMT

It's interest income they wouldn't have otherwise gotten, I don't see them taking issue with it at all.

Re: Can I BT a large amount for 7-10 days? Cap One

Stralem — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 21:55:42 GMT

Shouldn't be an issue for any of the major card companies, honestly. They're getting paid regardless, either via a tiny bit of interest or the transfer fee. I've not paid down a balance transfer as quickly as a week and a half, but I've paid off 12-month and 15-month transfers in as little as 2 months.

Didn't hear a peep.

Re: Can I BT a large amount for 7-10 days? Cap One

wwalter2718 — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 22:01:22 GMT

OK, here's one for which I have an answer that may actually be useful!

First, others who have assumed that interest would be charged immediately are probably wrong. Unless things have changed just recently, CapOne cards will actually do a BT as a pseudo-purchase -- they don't incur interest until the next statement cuts and the balance hasn't been paid off by the due date. Of course, if there's a revolving balance, this doesn't apply.

I took advantage of this odd feature a couple years ago. I had a 0% BT expiring on a Barclay card and a BT offer for just 1% BT fee on the same card. So I BTed a few thousand to CapOne, then as soon as it arrived there, I BTed it back to Barclay for another year at 0%. I had multiple BT balances on the Barclay card and, as each came due, I paid it off (pmts were applied to earliest-expiring offer, thankfully) and then sent it back. I did this probably half a dozen times, for a total amount of maybe $28k. It worked every time. Never paid CapOne anything. Life was beautiful.

Until it all went bad. CapOne decided that they no longer wanted to maintain a business relationship with me. They shut down both cards I had (and I'm pretty sure I never used the smaller one for these BTs) as well as a CapOne 360 account I had tried to open for a bonus.

Now, my Walmart card just transitioned from Synchrony to CapOne. I had a zero balance and essentially never used that 10K of credit line, but as soon as it showed up at CapOne it went pretty much immediately to "restricted" status and I got a credit-monitoring alert that it had closed (in addition the Synch acct, so 2 notifications). It still shows as open/current/never late, etc. but I believe it really is gone. That with a true FICO of 750 and up on all 3, perfect payment history, no derogatories, etc. So, I'm clearly on CapOne's black list.

So, if you do it, do it just once. Or don't do it.

Dio

Re: Can I BT a large amount for 7-10 days? Cap One

AllZero — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 22:15:54 GMT

^ Thanks for sharing your story.

Re: Can I BT a large amount for 7-10 days? Cap One

Anonymous — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 22:25:48 GMT

Interesting. I wasn't aware that they actually give you a grace period before charging interest. I suppose that would indeed change things since they wouldn't be getting anything from the BT.

Re: Can I BT a large amount for 7-10 days? Cap One

wwalter2718 — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 23:23:26 GMT

Yeah, that feature was quite useful to me at the time. I don't recall how I became aware of it; probably from this very site.

Notably during this whole period, even with repeated runs to within a few hundred dollars of my $32.9K limit on the Barclay card - BTs, BTs paid off, new BTs a week later, *many* times, mixed with actual purchases (yep, they gave the grace period on purchases despite their being mingled with BTs) - Barclay never made a peep. I still have the card (former SallieMae), although the super-cheap BT offers have gone away for now. Luckily, I don't need them now. 8-)

Dio

Re: Can I BT a large amount for 7-10 days? Cap One

NRB525 — Fri, 01 Nov 2019 00:12:42 GMT

OP what is the interest rate the $15k would incur if you leave it in place, and pay off when the funds are available? Is that a significant amount of interest cost?

Re: Can I BT a large amount for 7-10 days? Cap One

firefox100 — Sun, 03 Nov 2019 00:23:40 GMT

What about the 3 percent transr fee that Capital one charges?

Re: Can I BT a large amount for 7-10 days? Cap One

Anonymous — Sun, 03 Nov 2019 01:18:45 GMT

If you are paying a BT fee, your effective interest rate is through the roof for a 7-10 day loan. Getting 3% for lending money 7-10 days yields an annual rate near 100%. Of course it's not actually 100%, but the short period has an annual rate equivalent to 100%.

If the BT has no BT fee, then its fine.

Some don't realize BT fees are like prepaid interest. If your BT is for 1 year at 0% with a fee of 3%, and you pay it off, you paid them 3% of the initial balance in interest.

Re: Can I BT a large amount for 7-10 days? Cap One

Anonymous — Sun, 03 Nov 2019 01:43:31 GMT

@firefox100 wrote:
What about the 3 percent transr fee that Capital one charges?

There is no fee for a full APR BT which is why people think to use their Capital One cards for this purpose.

Seems to me if Capital One doesn't want people to move a balance there and transfer it somewhere else, they should put in a fee for doing the transfer.

Re: Can I BT a large amount for 7-10 days? Cap One

Anonymous — Sun, 03 Nov 2019 05:35:32 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@firefox100 wrote:
What about the 3 percent transr fee that Capital one charges?
There is no fee for a full APR BT which is why people think to use their Capital One cards for this purpose.

Seems to me if Capital One doesn't want people to move a balance there and transfer it somewhere else, they should put in a fee for doing the transfer.

Right

ive did this a few times with Cap 1 with no issues. Granted the amounts were only like 2k so maybe that played a role.

eRe: Can I BT a large amount for 7-10 days? Cap One

firefox100 — Sun, 03 Nov 2019 17:00:54 GMT

Is this correct if you do a balance transfer from Capital one account like a Quick silver to another creditcard that is not with Cap one at the regular intrest rate and pay balance off before account closes ther will be no intrest charge. for example Bt $ 5000 to Boa and pay Cap off with in 10 days ther will be finance charge.

Re: Can I BT a large amount for 7-10 days? Cap One

SouthJamaica — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 13:59:52 GMT

@wwalter2718 wrote:
OK, here's one for which I have an answer that may actually be useful!

First, others who have assumed that interest would be charged immediately are probably wrong. Unless things have changed just recently, CapOne cards will actually do a BT as a pseudo-purchase -- they don't incur interest until the next statement cuts and the balance hasn't been paid off by the due date. Of course, if there's a revolving balance, this doesn't apply.

I took advantage of this odd feature a couple years ago. I had a 0% BT expiring on a Barclay card and a BT offer for just 1% BT fee on the same card. So I BTed a few thousand to CapOne, then as soon as it arrived there, I BTed it back to Barclay for another year at 0%. I had multiple BT balances on the Barclay card and, as each came due, I paid it off (pmts were applied to earliest-expiring offer, thankfully) and then sent it back. I did this probably half a dozen times, for a total amount of maybe $28k. It worked every time. Never paid CapOne anything. Life was beautiful.

Until it all went bad. CapOne decided that they no longer wanted to maintain a business relationship with me. They shut down both cards I had (and I'm pretty sure I never used the smaller one for these BTs) as well as a CapOne 360 account I had tried to open for a bonus.

Now, my Walmart card just transitioned from Synchrony to CapOne. I had a zero balance and essentially never used that 10K of credit line, but as soon as it showed up at CapOne it went pretty much immediately to "restricted" status and I got a credit-monitoring alert that it had closed (in addition the Synch acct, so 2 notifications). It still shows as open/current/never late, etc. but I believe it really is gone. That with a true FICO of 750 and up on all 3, perfect payment history, no derogatories, etc. So, I'm clearly on CapOne's black list.

So, if you do it, do it just once. Or don't do it.

Dio

Great post. I had exactly the same experience. Thought those fee-free, interest-free balance transfers were great, until Capital One without warning closed all my accounts, including my checking account which I'd had for 15 or more years, going back to ING Bank.

They've never admitted that that was why they did it, and they never gave me a chance to just stop doing them.

Their "Executive Office" said it was a "back office thing", and the back office never tells them why it shut down an account.