Citi Balance Transfer question

[dmjohnson]

Hey guys. I had asked this previously, but received no responses. My question is, for anyone who may have done this before in regards to Balance Transfers. I have a Citi AAdvantage account with around a $15k balance and a $29k limit. Occasionally, I get Balance Transfer offers from citi off that card. They do offer to transfer the balance to a checking account. What I am thinking about doing a couple months from now after getting UTI down below 45%, if we get an offer, is taking a balance transfer off that card to my checking account for the amount of my current balance, waiting for the BT to post to the card, then paying the BT amount back to the credit card. My hope is that because of the way payments are required to work, and any payments going to the larger interest rate balance, that it will knock out our larger interest balance and I them am paying towards the BT balance at the promotional interest rate. Currently there is an offer for 5.99% promo APR, but I do occacionally get 0.99% offers. It wouldnt be an issue to get the BT paid off before the promo period ends. Just looking for input from anyone who may have done this or inquired about this. Mainly wondering about if it would raise any red flags with Citi, or if they will take a stance of "No, this was done deliberately so your promo APR is gone" or something along those lines. Thanks for any input!

[SouthJamaica]

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@dmjohnson wrote:

Hey guys. I had asked this previously, but received no responses. My question is, for anyone who may have done this before in regards to Balance Transfers. I have a Citi AAdvantage account with around a $15k balance and a $29k limit. Occasionally, I get Balance Transfer offers from citi off that card. They do offer to transfer the balance to a checking account. What I am thinking about doing a couple months from now after getting UTI down below 45%, if we get an offer, is taking a balance transfer off that card to my checking account for the amount of my current balance, waiting for the BT to post to the card, then paying the BT amount back to the credit card. My hope is that because of the way payments are required to work, and any payments going to the larger interest rate balance, that it will knock out our larger interest balance and I them am paying towards the BT balance at the promotional interest rate. Currently there is an offer for 5.99% promo APR, but I do occacionally get 0.99% offers. It wouldnt be an issue to get the BT paid off before the promo period ends. Just looking for input from anyone who may have done this or inquired about this. Mainly wondering about if it would raise any red flags with Citi, or if they will take a stance of "No, this was done deliberately so your promo APR is gone" or something along those lines. Thanks for any input!

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I would take a hard look at the fine print, to see if you would be violating any terms and conditions of the deal.

[NoMoreE46]

You basically are thinking about buying down the interest rate on your current balance (going from ~26% to hopefully reset the same balance down to 6% or 2%) by exercising a BT from the same issuer. 

Banks are keen to this subversive tactic.  
Read the offer carefully as noted.

[CreditCuriosity]

Playing with fire as echoed by others you aren't the first person that has thought of this or tried this to save $ on their dime.  Just open another cc although to get a 15k SL or ideally higher so you aren't maxed is the issue though.

[JtAlmond]

You're talking about doing an in-house balance transfer ??  If you can pull it off-- fine.  What I've been seeing is people wanting to do a balance transfer but the card they selected only gives them a small limit to work with.  They want you to work your way up into the higher spend level then transfer just a part of the sum you have in mind.  What's worse from what I've gleaned from these forums anyway is that some companies will chase your balance down to card closure time.

[Drifter73]

I would imagine that the first algorithm flag would be using the same bank account to make a Citi payment that a Citi bt deposited in a short amount of time.

The second flag would probably the same or close to the exact amount being paid that the bt was for.

One or both of the above may trigger a manual review, which could lead to more flags or account suspensions/closures.

Citi is pretty clear in their terms you can not bt one citi product to pay another Citi product.

As others mentioned, it's playing with fire.

Maybe focus on a different lender for the bt to be safe.