Chase CLI decline because of Venmo???

[Horses4Me]

Interesting datapoint that Chase card holders should be aware of.  History - saw a transaction fee for a couple of Venmo charges that I used to pay contractor businesses with.  I asked Chase and they said that they consider Venmo to be cash advances. They credited 3 of the fee's and thought that was the end of it.   Fast forward to a Chase CLI LUV button on a United Card. Declined due to having a cash advance on the card.  Fast forward to my Chase Southwest card, again with the CLI request button enabled.  Got the 7-10 day review notice, no credit pull, then a decline for the same reason "cash advance on one of your Chase cards."   Lesson learned, DO NOT use Venmo for anything if you plan on asking for a CLI.   Does anyone know how long they will hold that on the record for?

[sccredit]

My Venmo is set up to my bank account. I thought it was pretty common knowledge that sending a payment via Venmo (or similar service) would be considered a cash advance as you are sending someone the equivalent of cash. 

[Horses4Me]

Not necessarily.  AMEX does not treat as cash advances, and come contractors and small businesses use Venmo for payments, just like PayPal.  Previously got an AMEX CLI with no issues. Not sure why Chase is choking on it.

[JoeRockhead]

Chase obviously has their own rules regarding this, and many other things. They classify this as Cash-like Transactions  It's in their card member agreement as follows.

"Cash-like transactions will be treated as cash advances. Cash-like transactions include, but are not limited to, the following transactions to the extent they are accepted:
• purchasing travelers checks, foreign currency, money orders, wire transfers, cryptocurrency, other similar digital or virtual currency and other similar transactions;
• purchasing lottery tickets, casino gaming chips, race track wagers, and similar offline and online betting transactions;
• person-to-person money transfers and account-funding transactions that transfer currency; and
• making a payment using a third party service including bill payment transactions not made directly with the merchant or their service provider".

Most card issuers look at cash advances or anything they consider as a cash advance as a red flag. How long they will have your account flagged could be anyone's guess. Might be 6 months, might be longer. I guess someone with direct experience with this situation would have to answer that. Many people don't study, or even do more than glance over card memeber agreements. Seems like you made an honest mistake, I'm sure they'll let you out of jail eventually. Hope it all works out. 

[youngandcreditwrthy]

paypal didn't consider it a cash advance when I sent money with my card to someone... weird.

[SPChaser]

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@Horses4Me wrote:

Not necessarily.  AMEX does not treat as cash advances, and come contractors and small businesses use Venmo for payments, just like PayPal.  Previously got an AMEX CLI with no issues. Not sure why Chase is choking on it.

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Also Discover does not. They and Amex are only two I am aware of that do not treat Venmo as cash advances. 

[firefox100]

Why don't you try a recon with chase, also if you can give data points such as income and fico ul. If your income is good you say I don't take cash advances, just trying to pay some one.