Credit card rewards
 

Hello all,

I have a chase visa that gives reward miles and there is no limit with 30$ annual fee. Lately I found one local bank I do business with that allows buying CDs with CC (no AMEX/no discover/no diners club) as purchases. So in the past two months I have bought 200K CDs. This sounded too good to be true since if am getting at least 4% miles rewards (4 times) +2% interest if I repeat next month. Are there any laws against doing such acts (Bank fraud?) or is this bank just being stupid? The most unblievable thing is the customer service guy said you can also open regular saving account (no limit on how many you can open) with CC as well which in theory will allow people get 1% return on the CC limit (i.e. no cash/little cash to deposit).

dama

You left out the part about sending the money to Nigeria to pay the taxes so you can send us the $387 million being held for us. :D

There are some issues with your reasoning.

If the credit card company (Chase Visa) indeed coded those CDs transactions as purchases (instead of cash advances) in the last two months, you would have received the miles by now (assuming both billing cycles had closed). Otherwise, you would have been hit with both the transaction fee (3%, I think) and high APRs. Can you verify not only Chase didn't charge you for cash advances but also you got the miles?

You didn't mention the catch. For those who don't want to pay any interest on credit card charges, all the balances have to be paid off each month. If you do have available fund ($200K+) floating around to pay everything off monthly and play the game in the coming weeks, by all means, go ahead.

I know some banks will accept initial funds from credit cards (Citi Bank for one). Such transactions will be treated as purchases but come with a cap. Some cap at $250 or $500. I once funded my Citi checking with a citicard under this scenario.

If you don't have elite status, I believe there's a cap on the miles you can earn from credit card charges per year. I think the cap is much lower than $200K.

I am not aware of Chase not imposing caps on charges using as initial funds. If you were using the visa/debit card, that's another story. BTW, judging by the $30 annual fee, it sounds more like a visa/debit card. If that's the case, you only earn 1 mile per $2 purchases.

Please visit our Credit Card Promgrams/Partners Forum and see how FTers take advantage of the miles-earning opportunities as well.

Welcome to FT!

There would be no reason for this restriction because Diners Club cards issued in USA and Canada are Mastercards.

Not necessarily. Chase issues so many cards with similar names and slightly different features that it's hazadous to generalize. For example, Chase Freedom Plus is a Visa Signature credit card with a $30 rewards program fee.

http://www.firstusa.com/cgi-bin/webc...lus&page=index

The Chase "miles" can be exchanged for BA or UA miles 6000:5000. While there is no limit on the number of Chase "miles" earned, there is a limit on transfers to UA, 100,000 per calendar year.

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Care to share the name of the bank?

I have not received the miles but I did received chase visa rewards points and I am planning to convert them to United Miles. There is no cash advance fee or transaction fee. My concern is if there any laws/rules against this kind of transaction.

Is there anyway to move this thread to Credit Card section?

If Freedom Plus is the exact card that you have I think the limit applies, but if it is another card the rules could be different.

I suggest you click the triangle shaped icon in the lower left corner of your original message and request that the discussion be moved to Other Credit Cards.

I'll go ahead and move this to the other CC forum.

Regards,

Flipside

OP, Can you post the name of that local bank and the location? Thanks.

Sorry I cannot do this since I cannot tell if churning bank accounts for rewards is legal or not.