As a responsible thread founder I have to remind you guys that the benefit of having the cash for a short period of time is equal to 0 as long as interest rates remains close to zero.
The other point - comparison to cashback card - is a valid if eternal question: what's better, cash or miles.

Finally, I'm deeply offended by my zero-cost variation being ignored, is this because we assign zero value to Northwest miles http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

This discussion has caught my attention since I missed out on the Citicash offer.

1) I think it is implied in the previous discussion, but would someone confirm that a deposit on this product from a credit card is treated as a purchase rather than a cash advance?

2) I don't see any restrictions in the terms and conditions that would prohibit carrying out "neophyte's" idea. Am I missing something?

3) If I want to keep all activity at US Bank to minimize costs, are there any suggestions on how to accomplish this without drawing undue attention to my actions?

4) Does the name on the Visabuxx card have to be different than the name on the funding credit card?

Thanks for any input.

I'd love the miles, but...that is so many trips to the ATM (3 per week, doing several transactions each time). Maybe if they have an ATM in the building where you work it would be worthwhile.

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Middle_Seat

I would find it kind of odd and disturbing to be waiting in line at a atm machine as someone feeds in a card takes out $100.00 and then puts in another card and takes out another $100.00 and so on and so on and so on. Someone may also think some type of fraud is going on and take your plate down and waste the precious time of our police force as they investigate this suspicious activity.

This type of withdrawal activity would be very suspicious since it would look like a real atm fraud that actually occurred recently. The fraud involved someone skimming atm card information from a private atm machine. The thieves then made a bunch of fake cards with the data they skimmed and the FBI was literally chasing them around new york city on a holiday weekend as they emptied out atms with several cards.

If you could withdrawal, more money at one time this method may be worthwhile but with the limitations involved and the likely chance you could draw the wrong kind of attention and be wasting precious time of our law enforcement I do not like it. I do like the thought that went into this method!

1) Yes, it's treated as a purchase rather than a cash advance.

2) No, there are no restrictions that would prohibit anyone from carrying out neophyte's idea. I've been doing it for a little over a month, and did it for about 10 months with the Cit Cash Card. It works like a charm, and I'm very satisfied.

3) I don't think you need to do anything to hide your inentions. When I was doing it with Citi Cash Card, they initially froze my card b/c they suspected someone had stolen my card or there was some fraud going (lots of charges in short amount of time and constant withdrawls from ATMs). But I was very honest with them and told them exactly what I was doing. After they understood, they unfroze my account and I went on my way. With Visa Buxx, I currently have 6 cards (2 in my name, 2 in fiance's), and it's working fine. The only thing I did was I opened the cards over a 1 month period of time, versus opening them all at once. I hoped that would keep them from freezing my account and going through the process of explaining what I was doing. But nothing happened, and I'm using all 6 successfully.

4) It doesn't matter what the name on the funding credit card is. My two funding cards are both in my name, and some of the Visa Buxx cards are in my name, and some in my fiance's.

For the US Bank Visa Buxx card, it's once every 4 days. So basically it's twice a week. And luckily for me, there's a US Bank ATM on my way home from work, so it's not out the way for me at all.

Well, I've been doing this kind of activity for a year now, and haven't run into any problem like this at all. I do try to find a time when the ATM isn't busy. And if there's people at the ATM when I get there, I'll often sit in the car for a couple of minutes to wait. So far so good.

When I just applied for the product, it specifically asks for your teens SSN, and if you use the same SSN as yourself "the parent", an error message comes up. How did you open 3 cards under your own Parent account w/o having 4 different SSNs, 1 for the "parent" and 3 for each "teen" ?

I opened up 3 with myself as the parent and my fiance as the teen, and another 3 with her as the parent and me as the teen....worked like a charm.

:P
For me currently, the cashback is the right choice, as I am at the 2% tier on my cashback credit card. It takes 50 Free loads of $500 to get 25k miles on the NW Visa credit card. 50 loads of $500 on my cashback gives $500 - 50($2 load fee) = $400 in cashback. So its a choice b/t $400 or 25k Worldperks Miles(a domestic awards ticket). At 1.5% it means choosing b/t $275 and 25k miles.

Howerver, I did my initial $500 load with the NW Visa to escape the extra $5 enrollment fee and $2 load.

Alternatively, if someone really needed to fly business or first to Australia for Free using miles, their choices could be different for good reason.



[This message has been edited by Alcibiades (edited 09-26-2003).]

I see, 6 accounts with 1 card in each.

exactly.

At the bottom of the applications it has "promotion code" - do we know any?

Maybe some secrete code to wavie the annual fee. Who knows it?

if the weekly maximum withdrawal is $300, how can you guys get more than 1200 miles per card, per month?