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Balance transfer questions !!

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Balance transfer questions !!

Hey all.

So when you do a balance transfer TO a card, obviously that new lender can see you've transferred debt from another card to theirs. I.e. You get a new Amex, transfer $5000 FROM your BofA -- obviously Amex sees that.

However, when you pay TO another card using a balance transfer does that lender see it as a payment from another credit card company or just from you? I transferred a balance to my partners high limit Venture One (0% apr for year!) from my Amex ($1800) and on my Amex acct it only says "Electronic payment received -$1800 Thank you!" .. Reason I ask is I want to transfer the balance from my other Amex of $1,000 to this venture card but don't want to spook Amex by paying them off with other cards or lenders. So do they "see this" and can it provoke AA??

I've heard of people getting AA for over using BT offers (though I'll never get this - why offer consumers something only to penalize them for using it ? Makes no sense) but not so much from the accounts you pay TO using other accounts. My interest on my Amex cards are 17% and 14% respectively. The Venture One on which I am AU is 0% until next October and has a high limit.

Any thoughts oh wise ones ? Definitely don't want to spook Amex as they've been great to me !!!
Message 1 of 19
18 REPLIES 18
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Balance transfer questions !!

I'd like to know this answer as well
Message 2 of 19
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Balance transfer questions !!

I want to make a large purchase that I can jump from card to card while paying off, but not if it will hurt me
Message 3 of 19
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Balance transfer questions !!

Somebody here has to know the answer to this. Anybody !?
Message 4 of 19
NRB525
Super Contributor

Re: Balance transfer questions !!

It has been more than an hour since the opening post... Smiley Tongue

 

AMEX only cares that you pay them. If you don't pay them, they get kind of snippy for some reason. But as long as they keep getting money to pay your balance, they are happy.

 

BT of this size are not going to be looked at by anyone, they are small. If you were trying to regularly BT $50k around, say 4 or 10 times, and your typical balance was $1k, you would get a phone call most likely. For these transfers, no one cares enough to call Smiley Happy

High Bal Jan 2009 $116k on $146k limits 80% Util.
Oct 2014 $46k on $127k 36% util EQ 722 TU 727 EX 727
April 2018 $18k on $344k 5% util EQ 806 TU 810 EX 812
Jan 2019 $7.6k on $360k EQ 832 TU 839 EX 831
March 2021 $33k on $312k EQ 796 TU 798 EX 801
May 2021 Paid all Installments and Mortgages, one new Mortgage EQ 761 TY 774 EX 777
April 2022 EQ=811 TU=807 EX=805 - TU VS 3.0 765
Message 5 of 19
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Balance transfer questions !!

I just want to avoid a financial review or any kind of AA from Amex for "moving around debt" or using BT offers. They seem to randomly pinpoint people for weird things. But then again many lenders do!!

I guess your take on this then is that as long as Amex gets their money, they don't care where it comes from? It seems that BT payments post like a regular payment and show no notation of being a BT
Message 6 of 19
B335is
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Balance transfer questions !!

Agree with NRB. Firstly they want to be paid. If you start racking up substantial balances on other cards they (and others) may become concerned.
Message 7 of 19
NRB525
Super Contributor

Re: Balance transfer questions !!

The AMEX FR is more likely to turn up when you are bringing debt onto the AMEX card. Paying down, or BT off to another card, seems that's on the "good side" of their equation.

 

And yes, I've done a few BT off of my Delta Gold card recently to wind down the low APR period, and they just show up as "electronic payment", which is what the BT Destination bank is doing. As far as I know, there is no transaction designator in the ACH payments system that does much to identify the type of payment involved, probably not able to identify a BT different from a regular payment.

 

That's probably an important point to make. ACH = Automated Clearing House. The transactions are not directly from one bank to another, they have to go through the central payment clearing hub, so that creates certain requirements to make transactions generic.

High Bal Jan 2009 $116k on $146k limits 80% Util.
Oct 2014 $46k on $127k 36% util EQ 722 TU 727 EX 727
April 2018 $18k on $344k 5% util EQ 806 TU 810 EX 812
Jan 2019 $7.6k on $360k EQ 832 TU 839 EX 831
March 2021 $33k on $312k EQ 796 TU 798 EX 801
May 2021 Paid all Installments and Mortgages, one new Mortgage EQ 761 TY 774 EX 777
April 2022 EQ=811 TU=807 EX=805 - TU VS 3.0 765
Message 8 of 19
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Balance transfer questions !!

Ah yes you're correct !!! Thank you for the insight. Love this board !!!!
Message 9 of 19
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Balance transfer questions !!


@Anonymous wrote:
I just want to avoid a financial review or any kind of AA from Amex for "moving around debt" or using BT offers. They seem to randomly pinpoint people for weird things. But then again many lenders do!!

I guess your take on this then is that as long as Amex gets their money, they don't care where it comes from? It seems that BT payments post like a regular payment and show no notation of being a BT

 

I would think on the Amex financial side of things that they can tell which payments come from your checking accounts vs. which payments come from another lender. In both of my Amex accounts, there is a coding difference on how things are paid. If it is from a BT from another lender, it says "check." If I pay it directly from my checking account, it says "online." There are also other designations for types of payment. Given their sophisticated systems, I'm sure they must be able to see the origination of the "check., and that this type of payment comes in coded differently as check vs. how normal payments from me read. If I can see it, I'm sure they can see it. Whether it matters to them at all, I have no idea.

Message 10 of 19
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