Is there a credit card that will allow you to earn rewards when you use their courtesy or convenience checks to pay for another bill such as an auto loan? Ford Motor will not accept credit cards - so I cannot get mileage rewards for my monthly payment. Is there a way to get the rewards and avoid fees or interest?

Howard Frankel, [email protected]

I am not sure if someone has said it already, but Welcome to FT.

I am not sure that there is such a thing, although your topic and miles for mortgages are issues that have been discussed here.

Some had solutions, but most of them involved too much time and effort.

I would love to see if that could be done, but I don't think it is feasible.

Maybe there is a promotion out there that I am not aware of.

The general rule is that the checks don't earn points or rewards. However, once in a while, a card will have a sign-up teaser that allows the checks to count. (I want to say Midwest Airlines' credit card has such a promotion, but I am not 100% certain.)

In theory, you could open such an account, write a big fat check to Ford Motor Credit, and then cycle the debt into one of those cards that has a 2.99% life-of-loan teaser rate. I've been seeing a lot these lately, and it's crossed my mind to push my car loan through a couple of mileage cards and into low life-of-loan teaser cards.

But my car loan is already under 5% and is direct-debited from my bank account. So I decided that the hassle of opening four or six new cards, moving money around, then keeping track of 4-6 new websites and online payment processes, and then closing down 2-3 of the accounts after the fact wasn't worth it to earn maybe $250-300 of undetermined future value.

In short, I didn't want to screw with what is currently a seamless process.

My experience is the same as pinniped -- occasionally, an airline credit call will have a 'special' but they are gettting rarer and rarer. About 4-5 years ago, I could count on at least one per year from someone. Haven't even seen one in at least 2 years.

It would seem that specials for opening an account be the only options left.

The other route is the Charter-One gift card route (see recent thread), but that is extremely time-consuming if you are talking big bucks.

[This message has been edited by DaDOKin DC (edited Mar 19, 2004).]

You might check with MBNA America. They have a host of credit card brands. Years ago they offered the Tower Records Visa which gave a rebate on all balances transfered.. and (sigh!) no balance transfer fee. It's worth checking with them to see if they offer similar on other cards.

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"to travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries"

NEW GM Card applications give points for the first 3 BT checks that post in the first 90 days.

Got three the other day offering up to 7500 miles (1 mile per dollar, max of 2500 per check). The max transaction fee is $50 per check.

shot, with one $50 fee. Better than the 3x$50=150 in fees for using those checks to get just 2500 miles each. Newly approved apps for SouthWest Credit Card gives rewards for BTs and checks too I believe.

you don't carry balances on your cc's.

Just create a credit balance on some CL.