236Dakota

Oh for crying out loud, why didn't you go for $24,750@:-)

buschoi

^ I always get the same response, too, and ask me to look around the whole branch, with 4 other tellers standing around with no other customers. I simply tell them they deserve it since they are so nice.

AA_CPA

not to spoil the excitement, but what if the credit cards see what's happening, and contact the mint for itemised purchase orders - if they then see that a "cash equivalent" was ordered, what if they try and charge for cash advances....?

chewy3

It seems to me the credit card company doesn't want this party to end either - they're getting serious transaction fees from the mint. The only case they would be concerned is on an individual basis if that person were a risk of default (hence some financial reviews occurring).

buschoi

I believe some credit card issuers are aware of what is going on. I got a financial review by AMEX in July, and they explicitly asked me what the transactions with the Mint were for. I told them they were coins and faxed them whatever they wanted. 5 days later (on a Saturday) they called again telling me I passed the FR and my account was then unfrozen.

They get a share from the credit card transactions, and as long as they don't see much of a risk in our record, they probably would just let us continue.

ToSRQ

What is the typical CC cut? 3%?

youreadyfreddie

Ha! Brilliant! I love the display! You should have put a quarter in there for scale.

thehawk75

And what would happen if Xlarymo from the Delta Quandrant in the Ramziam Galaxy pointed his inter-stellar death ray at the planet Earth for violation of the Zandoo-Zxhiba accord title 102, sub section 803 ?


If we're going to use our imagination here, how was that?

Ok, seriously...

It's not going to happen. CC companies are making out quite well on this deal with the merchant fees they are getting to collect.

Also, if they were to start to consider these cash advances (AMEX btw already does consider them cash equivalents, but, still awards points, without levying fees of course), they certainly can not retroactively recode everything from months (or in my case year) ago as cash advances, especially considering most if not all of us are paying everything off each statement cycle, or in some cases paying off the charge as soon as it appears. There's no justification of calling it a cash advance (retroactively) when it's clear that the money wasn't even being used as a cash advance. Hell, since I use the coins as part of my AAdvantage churn, there's about 8 cards in there that are now canceled. Would they also decide to recode these and then come after me for fees on a now closed (and settled satisfactorily according to the credit burros) account?? Any CC company that tried this would immediately find themselves with a few (or many) hostile customers, and, being that some of us are churning $10K+ per week, we're now talking serious 'fees' that a retroactive cash advance fee would entail. It actually goes beyond the limits of a small claims court. Looks like messy litigation for a something that has not harmed but in fact rewarded credit card companies. Thus back to the point of why they would want this to end? And don't give me this because the guy with a $150K credit limit might decide to load the 1.41 Tonnes of coins onto a cargo ship and depart to some South American country without an extradition treaty with the US....

chewy3

Depends widely on the merchant, and the type of credit card. It can range from 1-5% (so called 'unqualified' credit cards charge the merchant more such as rewards cards and foreign credit cards). I'm going to guess that it's somewhere in between for the mint on average.

rc408

2 different Chase locations asked if I was doing this for the miles today. They both took the deposits but said "No more."

AA_CPA

Well, I think disputes related to credit cards are bound by mandatory arbitration, rather than using the courts....

While it's true the companies are getting their processing fees, 20% advance fees are much more than the 3% processing fees....

channa

3% processing fees, they'll keep getting 'em. 20% cash advance fees, they'll get nothing.

ned

No wonder my 5K are back ordered.

pierre mclopez

....have we moved from the mundane to the sublime?

How would an innovator find higher levels of enterprise?

Johnny Rocket

Had an interesting conversation with the Mint today as one of my orders bounced because of an expired credit card.

I called up them up and I asked if I could replace the order on the NA's.

"Sure", she said. "How many do you want?"

"How about fifty thousand?" I asked.

"Okay, that's fine. You can have as many as you want."

"So what's my total?" I ask.

"That'll be $12 million dollars please!"

"NO!" I exclaimed, laughing heartily, "I meant $50-thousand dollars... not 50-thousand boxes!"

Nonetheless, my $50k order also didn't go through so I am hoping one for $20k might!