PenFed Balance Transfer

[Blu617]

Hey All,

I was curious if this would work. I just got a PenFed PCR and Gold Card. The Gold Card has a 15 month BT offer. I'm in the process of making a large purchase (a vehicle) and I was wondering if I could write one of the BT checks to the dealer to take advantage of the BT offer? This may be a stupid question, I'm just not very familiar with using BT checks.

Thank you

[SoCalGardener]

---

@Blu617 wrote:

Hey All,

I was curious if this would work. I just got a PenFed PCR and Gold Card. The Gold Card has a 15 month BT offer. I'm in the process of making a large purchase (a vehicle) and I was wondering if I could write one of the BT checks to the dealer to take advantage of the BT offer? This may be a stupid question, I'm just not very familiar with using BT checks.

---

There are no stupid questions!

You need to read the fine print on the BT offer. It will spell out any limitations that may exist for using the money. For example, almost all banks restrict using a BT from them to pay them, in other words, you can't get a BT from Amex and then pay off your Amex CC with it. There are all sorts of limitations, and they vary by bank, so go back to the actual offer and read its terms and conditions. That should provide your answer! As long as it doesn't explicitly exclude vehicle purchases, you should be fine.

[NRB525]

While you may be OK from the PenFed fine print to write one of those checks to the auto dealer, the auto dealer is going to look at it as funny munny. As a Balance Transfer Check, it is still open to be declined by PenFed, and by that time you've driven the car home.

A better path will be to see whether PenFed allows you to write the check to deposit to your checking account, then when you are certain the funds have nestled in your checking account, you can write a check to the dealer with confidence. The dealer will want to call the bank to confirm funds.

[SUPERSQUID]

---

@NRB525 wrote:

While you may be OK from the PenFed fine print to write one of those checks to the auto dealer, the auto dealer is going to look at it as funny munny. As a Balance Transfer Check, it is still open to be declined by PenFed, and by that time you've driven the car home.

A better path will be to see whether PenFed allows you to write the check to deposit to your checking account, then when you are certain the funds have nestled in your checking account, you can write a check to the dealer with confidence. The dealer will want to call the bank to confirm funds.

---

Those penfed bt checks can be used to deposit funds into your bank account. last week a csr instructed me i could do so, to the op before you do anything just call them and ask.

[pip3man]

OP instead of writing the dealer a check using the BT check, make the BT check payable to yourself and deposit it in your regular bank account. When the funds becomes available, you may then write a check to the dealership directly from that checking account. Just remember to factor in the BT fee and the transfer amount cos both total can't exceed your limit otherwise the transaction will be declined. I have a bunch of those BT check from PenFed sitting in my drawer and they personally asked me to use them to write a check to myself but I really have no need for that.