How do you do a BT?

[rmduhon]

Mom just got her Citi DC yesterday and there were 2 blank checks with it. Are those for cash advances or is she supposed to fill them out and send to the cards she wants to do a BT with? I've never done one so I'm clueless.

[Anonymous]

The blank checks can be used to send as payments to creditors.  However, I tend to use them in the other way -- you can write the check to yourself to deposit the amount you are transferring in your bank account and then you make the payments as normal from your bank account.

Edited to add - I have not done this with Citibank, but have with Capital One and Bank of America (and also have checks I've recently received from PNC and Discover).

[NRB525]

When DM was filling out the card application, did she ask for balance transfers to be sent already to the other two cards? If so, then she does not want to also use these checks for the same purpose.

Read the terms and conditions (ALL the terms and conditions) on those blank checks. You want to make sure it says they will be treated as a Balance Transfer, and not a Cash Advance. Most likely they are a balance transfer check, but there are additional fees and perhaps higher interest if they are treated as Cash Advance.

When in doubt, call the customer service reps to clarify whether any balance transfers are already underway.

If you decide to use the checks, then yes you can use them to send to DM cards to pay / transfer balances.

I prefer to do this on-line. On her Citi credit card account page, there should be a submenu to get to Request a Balance Transfer. I find this allows me to specify the bank, card number, and payment address of the bank, and ends up being more convenient than trying to paper-mail something.

[rmduhon]

I'll check with her to see if she did that during the app. I don't think she did but I can't say for certain. I know I'd prefer to do everything online too. It's just the first time I've seen checks with a card.

[Anonymous]

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@rmduhon wrote:
I'll check with her to see if she did that during the app. I don't think she did but I can't say for certain. I know I'd prefer to do everything online too. It's just the first time I've seen checks with a card.

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Citi sends checks all the time. Most likely the checks are BT ones and they're easy to tell if they are because they'll have the BT terms attached to them.  They're easy to use if you desire by just depositing them into your bank account.  Most banks will put a 2-3 day hold on them before releasing the funds.  It's pretty much the same as doing it online.