Buy with Credit Card, Return & Get Cash?
 

Has anyone out there found any stores that let you buy merchandise with a credit card, then return it and get cash rather than having the charge taken off your card?

I've never found any such stores, but if they exist it seems like it would be a good way to gain miles.

A related question is what happens if you buy an item with a credit card but then cancel the card before trying to return the item to the store? Would the store tell you that you couldn't return the item because the card you bought it on had been cancelled?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

A store will not do this because they pay a fee to the CC company for each transaction. If they gave you cash they would lose this fee. The best you could do is store credit.

If you card is no longer valid they may let you get a credit on another card.

alaska airlines/bank of america has a debit card that earns 1/2 mile/$.

home depot will take debit cards and if you return that $1,000 worth of unused bricks you bought, you could get back cash, but keep the miles!

if you ever have something returned to a cc or debit card where the acct is closed, you will someday get a check for the amount, but this could take a while.

so go buy a car with your cc, return it, cancel your card and get everything!

i recommend none of the above although they all can work...

;)MM

Won't work for long. Stores nowadays are pretty much all connected to a returns authorization service, too many returns and you'll be red flagged. Why else do you think Homedepot, Target and many others want ID to do a return?

NORDSTROM will do this

could be but I beg to differ as all my many legitimate purchases from HD are on my UAL visa and believe me when I say I have bought a good 5k and returned a good 2k in the past 3 months as a do it yourselfer!

example: buy some joint compound and a boat load of tape, priomer and sand paper, only to find out you do not need it all and can return the unopened tape, and paper... There's $30...

the next day: 20 2x4s at $2.50 each and I just needed 6 because I changed my plan or my neighbor had extra wood, etc. So returns happen again...

This goes on and I do return things there all the time. The charges and returns happen on my card all the time. I have not been flagged or anything.

So doing it unintentionally would not really be noticed, I think.
Now, mine are only small money but again, I have returned a ton of money. I was about to buy a gas fireplace from them but ended up building something else anyway. that would have been a $500 return right there.

Returns being done by a person depend on where you live in relation to the HD and the time you may have to do work, so anyone in home improvement mode knows all about over buying and how that is ok--especially since you CAN return to stores like these as long as you did not use something and you return it in a timely matter. Now adays they dont even need receipt! just the cc you used to buy it and your ID. The ID is for marketing purposes and to check that you are not some former shoplifter, a manager once told me.

:)MM

Costco

....good way to gain miles......!?!

I would never do this. It's unethical .. may be worse!

This should more likely read: "Nordstrom employees who are ignorant of their store's policy will do this." I do not believe that it is not any store's policy to give back cash on a credit card purchase, due to merchant agreements and transaction fees.

The thread linked by UpgradeMe has more info on these types of schemes, and why they generally won't work as the OP has asked.

Mike

I think the real question here is the risk worth the reward.. Say you could flip 1000 miles a montht his way - big whoop if it has an impact on your credit down the road. I'm all for schemeing miles, but I don't think that the payout from doing this is worth the time and energy let alone the risk of getting red flagged and making life harder for yourself for a few thousand FF miles.

peace,
~Ben~

This can't have any impact on your credit as long as you are paying off the credit card in a timely fashion. The card company doesn't really care whether you're returning your items or not; they only care if they get paid on time. Of course, in this case you're actually circumventing their cash advance rules, but the card company really has no way of knowing whether or not you returned the items. Your credit score is safe, although the particular store will probably not like this practice if it's being done intentionally.

Most CC companies charge not only a percentage off each sale, but also a flat "per transaction" fee. Thus, stores actually have to pay this fee even for returns, although they get back the percentage portion. Depending on the value of your purchase/return, the store may actually save money by paying you cash rather than refunding your card. This is why certain large retailers like Costco or PetSmart will pay cash for small returns (typically under $10), while refunding your card for larger purchases.

The main reason stores prefer to refund your card rather than pay cash is for liability protection for the store and the consumer. It protects the store from scammers who would use a bogus card to make a purchase, and then attempt to get cash from the bogus transaction... and protects the consumer from thieves who steal your card and/or your purchase (assuming they also stole the receipt, e.g. if they stole the whole bag with the receipt in it) and attempt to return it for cash. It also protects them from consumers who would get the cash refund and then contest the charge with their card company, though this is much less likely.

The only stores I've found that pay cash for returns are Costco and PetSmart, as mentioned above, and in those cases ONLY for really small purchases; both stores always ask for the original card for larger returns. (I should not that I've never deliberately tried to get cash back, it's simply that the clerks just handed me cash on those occasions.) You'll find that the easiest way to get more miles and/or more cash back is to take advantage of bonus offers... it will be nearly impossible to find a retailer who will pay cash back on large card purchases, and doing this with smaller purchases isn't worth it JUST for the extra 10 miles you might get.

How would that impact your credit?

I had the same thought
 

I was thinking the exact same thing. If one has to stoop to these kind of measures to get miles, then the person should re-examine their situation.

Unless you could charge a car or a boat and return it for cash this would be a hard way to earn miles. There are easier ways.