@Anonymouswrote:
I didn't make my initial explanation clear enough. I take my bill on the 0% card, but instead of paying the bill to the card issuer, which they will not need until the promotional period ends, I send the money to my brokerage account. Then when the promotional period expires, I cash out the brokerage account and send in the due payment. This last time I had a remaining balance in the brokerage account of about $450 after pulling out the credit card payment. That left me with on the Freedom Unlimited with 48,000 ultimate rewards with Chase [counting the sign-up bonus] and $450 in brokerage
You should be careful about a few things here.
--First, and most importantly, this may be a violation of your cardmember agreement. When a lender deposits funds into your checking account and puts the balance on your credit card for a 0% balance transfer offer, one of the conditions is usually that you actually use the funds to pay off the balance of other cards. It would be worth double checking.
--Even if putting those funds into your brokerage accounts is permitted by your cardmember agreement (and your broker, for that matter), that 0% loan isn't really free. There is usually a 3% (or even 5%) balance transfer fee. You'll also have brokerage fees to deal with. Between the two, you may have a tough time breaking even before the interest-free period ends. And if the market happens to be having a down week when your payment comes due, you could very easily end up losing money, without the ability to ride out the downturn.
--It's also worth keeping in mind that you will have to make nominal payments to your credit card every month during the 0% period. The payments are usually relatively small, but it's still something you need to account for.
The combination of all those factors make me think this isn't a great plan. Maybe better than taking the money to Vegas or the track, but not by much.
