topic Re: Discover question. Is this a bad thing? in Credit Cards

Discover question. Is this a bad thing?

Anonymous — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:10:33 GMT

Ok so while messing around witth the discover app on iPhone, I noticed that there's a send money feature, powered by PayPal.

The sweet benefits of this feature is that I can send money, using my discover card, to someone, who doesn't have to be a discover member. Best part of it all is that both sender and receiver are not subject to 3% fee that PayPal usually charges when the payment is funded by a credit card.

There is a limit of 1000 per month, and the transfer is charged at regular purchase apr, not as a cash advance. Cashback is earned on transfers!!!

Now in my mind, I can transfer this to my girlfriend, and pay the 1000 off immediately. If I do this each month, its effectively 120 in cashback + more usage on my discover card. The 120 alone is more than what BofA gives as bonus for paying on time for the better balance card.

However my main concern is that as sweet as this pseudo manufactured spending sounds, will it affect my CLI chances? Or will it affect anything negatively?

What about cash-overs at grocery stores as well?

Thanks!

Re: Discover question. Is this a bad thing?

09Lexie — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:21:04 GMT

It's a good question. I noticed it to and I wondered are they tracking it for whatever reasons that may be detrimental. I used the cash back feature once for $20 and it made me nervous. Decided not to do it again.

Re: Discover question. Is this a bad thing?

LS2982 — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:22:10 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Ok so while messing around witth the discover app on iPhone, I noticed that there's a send money feature, powered by PayPal.

The sweet benefits of this feature is that I can send money, using my discover card, to someone, who doesn't have to be a discover member. Best part of it all is that both sender and receiver are not subject to 3% fee that PayPal usually charges when the payment is funded by a credit card.

There is a limit of 1000 per month, and the transfer is charged at regular purchase apr, not as a cash advance. Cashback is earned on transfers!!!

Now in my mind, I can transfer this to my girlfriend, and pay the 1000 off immediately. If I do this each month, its effectively 120 in cashback + more usage on my discover card. The 120 alone is more than what BofA gives as bonus for paying on time for the better balance card.

However my main concern is that as sweet as this pseudo manufactured spending sounds, will it affect my CLI chances? Or will it affect anything negatively?

What about cash-overs at grocery stores as well?

Thanks!

I'm pretty sure that would lead to some kind of flag in their system and eventual AA or account closure

Re: Discover question. Is this a bad thing?

shakalaka — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:24:15 GMT

I use the feature often, but to different people. No one ever complained about this so far. But sending 1K every months to the same person could raise some questions ...

Re: Discover question. Is this a bad thing?

Anonymous — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:23:56 GMT

@LS2982 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Ok so while messing around witth the discover app on iPhone, I noticed that there's a send money feature, powered by PayPal.

The sweet benefits of this feature is that I can send money, using my discover card, to someone, who doesn't have to be a discover member. Best part of it all is that both sender and receiver are not subject to 3% fee that PayPal usually charges when the payment is funded by a credit card.

There is a limit of 1000 per month, and the transfer is charged at regular purchase apr, not as a cash advance. Cashback is earned on transfers!!!

Now in my mind, I can transfer this to my girlfriend, and pay the 1000 off immediately. If I do this each month, its effectively 120 in cashback + more usage on my discover card. The 120 alone is more than what BofA gives as bonus for paying on time for the better balance card.

However my main concern is that as sweet as this pseudo manufactured spending sounds, will it affect my CLI chances? Or will it affect anything negatively?

What about cash-overs at grocery stores as well?

Thanks!
I'm pretty sure that would lead to some kind of flag in their system and eventual AA or account closure

+1. I would be careful about abusing this feature.

Re: Discover question. Is this a bad thing?

Anonymous — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:24:33 GMT

Ah thanks. Guess I won't do it then.

I've been using cash over feature only because I needed cash though, and I've been paying my bill down almost completely. Hopefully this doesn't haunt me :/

Re: Discover question. Is this a bad thing?

LS2982 — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:25:26 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Ah thanks. Guess I won't do it then.

I've been using cash over feature only because I needed cash though, and I've been paying my bill down almost completely. Hopefully this doesn't haunt me :/

Thats exactly how you should use the feature and what Discover hopes you do: when you need it.

Re: Discover question. Is this a bad thing?

Anonymous — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:27:53 GMT

Thanks a lot for the info! Appreciate the help!
I was so tempted to do it this morning and I'm glad I asked lol

Re: Discover question. Is this a bad thing?

Anonymous — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:31:07 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Ok so while messing around witth the discover app on iPhone, I noticed that there's a send money feature, powered by PayPal.

The sweet benefits of this feature is that I can send money, using my discover card, to someone, who doesn't have to be a discover member. Best part of it all is that both sender and receiver are not subject to 3% fee that PayPal usually charges when the payment is funded by a credit card.

There is a limit of 1000 per month, and the transfer is charged at regular purchase apr, not as a cash advance. Cashback is earned on transfers!!!

Now in my mind, I can transfer this to my girlfriend, and pay the 1000 off immediately. If I do this each month, its effectively 120 in cashback + more usage on my discover card. The 120 alone is more than what BofA gives as bonus for paying on time for the better balance card.

However my main concern is that as sweet as this pseudo manufactured spending sounds, will it affect my CLI chances? Or will it affect anything negatively?

What about cash-overs at grocery stores as well?

Thanks!

Since it is capped, it's probably not too heavily monitored, but that leads to the question of how much you value the Discover: if for whatever reason they decided you had abused it and closed your cards, would the gains prior to that event outweigh that?

If you are sending to the same person each month, I would use an amount just under $1000, looks less suspicious!

Re: Discover question. Is this a bad thing?

Anonymous — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:48:38 GMT

Haha yea I don't want them to close my account lol. I'm wishing for an auto CLI or sp CLI so I guess I will avoid messing with this

Re: Discover question. Is this a bad thing?

Anonymous — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:54:24 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Haha yea I don't want them to close my account lol. I'm wishing for an auto CLI or sp CLI so I guess I will avoid messing with this

Yes, potential gains are far too small, the math for the TYP is very different....

Re: Discover question. Is this a bad thing?

pt2005 — Tue, 21 May 2013 00:01:02 GMT

OP: I strongly suggest you NOT do this.

You only gain $120/year, but you may end up losing more since it's going to your girl friend. It is hard to get the $$$ back, right?

Just my 2 cent.

Re: Discover question. Is this a bad thing?

Anonymous — Tue, 21 May 2013 09:46:56 GMT

@pt2005 wrote:
OP: I strongly suggest you NOT do this.
You only gain $120/year, but you may end up losing more since it's going to your girl friend. It is hard to get the $$$ back, right?

Just my 2 cent.

Haha she'll be paying me back as cash or something.

Thanks a lot for the advice though. I decided not to do this.

Just had my Discover statement for the 1st time after getting approved 2 months ago.

$249 worth of cashback They need to do some adjustments to fix my cashback rate (first 3k was calculated at 0.25%), so I should be getting $22.50 extra in the next statement.

Most of it thanks to ShopDiscover! A lot of the cashback rates are much better than fatwallet and I'd use shopdiscover whenever the rates are much higher than Chase UR as well.

Now I wish they gave me a higher CL so I can use it more haha.

Re: Discover question. Is this a bad thing?

navigatethis12 — Tue, 21 May 2013 11:51:31 GMT

I don't think they would close an account over something so small. There are people who do this and there have been no reports of account closures. They didn't come up with it for people not to use it.

Re: Discover question. Is this a bad thing?

knoregs — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:37:25 GMT

It would seem this would be a legitimate way to pay rent IF rent was < $1,000. I thought the cap was $500 though? hmmmm ~kn

Re: Discover question. Is this a bad thing?

culture — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:57:46 GMT

I don't understand the comments that this will raise flags. Why would they put something with a cap and then penalize you from using that service ?

Re: Discover question. Is this a bad thing?

youngandcreditwrthy — Wed, 22 May 2013 02:36:00 GMT

My cap is $500 too. I had seen this too, and the apr will be 0% if you're still in the promo period :-D

Re: Discover question. Is this a bad thing?

Anonymous — Wed, 22 May 2013 02:38:25 GMT

I'm using the iphone app and here's what it says:

"You can send up to $400 a day, and up to $1000 per month."

I'm debating whether to do it lol. Sounds like I can actually use this to pay for part of my rent.

Re: Discover question. Is this a bad thing?

Anonymous — Wed, 22 May 2013 02:49:42 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I'm using the iphone app and here's what it says:

"You can send up to $400 a day, and up to $1000 per month."

I'm debating whether to do it lol. Sounds like I can actually use this to pay for part of my rent.

Only if you use it to *really* pay your rent and not use the tactic described in your first post!

Re: Discover question. Is this a bad thing?

Anonymous — Wed, 22 May 2013 02:54:45 GMT

haha yea i know.

my rent payment is now more than $1000 (just moved), but I am thinking maybe I can do $800 a month since that's what I wrote on my app when I was staying elsewhere.