Alternative to CC convenience checks
 

Long time lurker, first time poster here!

So my landscape guy is finishing up a project that's the price equivalent of a compact car. He offers a 8% discount if I pay him cash. (You can probably discern the reason for that one!) Anyway, I owe him a final payment of $6k next week and I'd rather not dip into my emergency fund so I was planning on depositing a CC convenience check into my account and then pulling out the $6k.

I'm wondering if there's any creative minds here who could suggest an alternative course of action. Thanks

How much is the balance transfer fee?

Credit card convenience checks almost always have an immediate 3% fee plus immediate grace period free interest. If it were me, I'd dip into my emergency stash.

The only alternative I could think of would be to go the Bluebird route, but that's limited to $5,000 per month and you'd have to so some questionable things like write and cash checks written to yourself--and you most certainly wouldn't be able to get it all done by next week.

Wish I had better advice, but I think your stuck paying cash--or high interest/fees.

One idea: buy a bunch of visa or MasterCard gift cards and use them to buy money orders after you assign pins to those cards. There will be fees (perhaps $5.95 per $500 Visa gift card and $0.75 for a Money Order of up to $1,000 at Walmart), but it would be an option--and it'd be fast.

Yeah, the best convenience checks I have are 0% for 18 months, but with a 3% upfront fee.

If the balance transfer fee is 3% the convenience check will end up costing you $180.

I'd use your emergency cash to keep from paying that fee. You can always buy $1,000 Visa gift cards for example, use them to load up a Bluebird account, then transfer from your Bluebird to your bank account to replenish your emergency cash.

However, you have to take the APR into account because the amount you pay in interest may outweigh the amount saved by doing the above.

Sorry CMHFlyerOH, I was writing my post before I seen yours.

If he owes the $6k next week, that's beyond the BB load limit for the month :(

Moderator action
 

Thread transferred to Credit Card Programs forum because the questions pertains to real spending, not Manufactured Spending.

Looks to me like an 18 month loan for 3% interest isn't all that bad, I'd say do with the 0% interest checks.

Alternative to CC convenience checks
 

Have you asked if he'll accept Visa gift cards? Maybe throw in an extra $50 for letting you do that....

If you could get him to wait another week or so (and if you have Chase CC's), you could order the chase GC's (fee waived right now) and go the MO route.

Once you get the GC's, set the pin, do MO's and deposit into your bank to WD.
I think most reports are that they are taking close to 2 weeks for arrival right now though.

I actually did ask him if he'd accept GCs and that was a definite no-go. He also needs to pay his crew so putting it off a week also isn't going to work. Ugh. So I decided I actually would dip into my emergency fund and pay him that way. It'll save $180 in fees but more importantly preserve my credit ahead of the churn I'm planning.