Balance transfer questions !!

[NRB525]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

@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.

---

Ok, so here's a little quiz: Of these three payments on my Sept 13 AMEX statement, can you tell me which of them were payments by me, autopayments, or BT from another CC?

[Anonymous]

I can't, but I sure hope Amex can!

[Anonymous]

First one is your checking account. Second is auto pay.

Third is a BT?

[NRB525]

The first one is a BT from SDFCU on my $500 secured card.

Second, obviously is initiated by AMEX, autopayment.

The third is a BT from Capital One.

If one mails in a check, that is a different payment route, so yes, that could be distinguished. Most push type electronic payments such as these, however, don't have much extra info. The source bank is just sending funds identified to go to a particular account at AMEX, with a specific accountholder name. Why the source bank is sending the funds is not relevant: That bank customer requested it and it's gone through the authorization procedures at the sending bank.

[Anonymous]

---

@NRB525 wrote:

If one mails in a check, that is a different payment route, so yes, that could be distinguished.

---

I think that is why the notation on one of my payments reads "check", because it was a balance transfer payment from another bank. 

The balance transfer payment in my account definitely looks different from all of the other payments.

[Anonymous]

Good thread. Thanks for all helpful info. I'm transfer $2k form Wells Fargo to New Discover IT card and was wondering how this worked myself.

[Anonymous]

I'm interested in buying a motorcycle on a CC with a no interest for 18 months deal and paying it off over the 18 months and then taking what's left after 18 months and popping it on another card with a similar deal until paid off

[Anonymous]

By my calculations I should only have to do the transfer once, but I dunno if 4 or 5k would be too much of a transfer

[UncleB]

As a data point, whenever I've done a balance transfer, it looks the same as it does whenever I make a payment using my own bank's bill pay service.  Sometimes it just shows, "Payment", other times "Electronic Payment", but in all cases it's the same as me paying the bill like I always do.

My lenders (including Amex) are simply happy to get paid by any method that's valid... I can't imagine them preferring one method over another.

The only thing I'm really concerned about is the timing... if there's a doubt as to when the BT will be processed, I'm always sure to make the minimum payment myself (to make sure the payment isn't counted as 'late'.)  If I think the BT will be timed correctly, I still watch the account closely until it posts to make sure there's no problems.