travis bickle

accounts I referenced say "US MINT SALE".
Each of the CC accounts I referenced have "CASH ADVANCE $0.00""

I do not know how to make it any plainer.

Remember, 50% of the people you meet are below average.

mrpickles

What appears to be not understood by members of this forum is that ALL cash equivalent purchases will appear on the statement as a purchase.

Cash Advances are transactions which usally occur "inside" a branch and will post as a CASH ADVANCE. Your cash advance is usually 25% of our total available credit line. YMMV.

A cash equivelant is a "purchase" that does not incur immeadiate transaction fee of 3% and immeadiate interest calculations. Cash equivelant is defined as cash, coin, gift cards, money orders, travelers checks, gold, bonds, etc.

Just because a cash equivelant transaction appears on the statement as a purchase does not immeadiately indicate that the transaction will earn miles and/or reward points. The true test is when the data is transmitted to the airline mileage program or points progam and the miles or points actually post to your account.

benmaller

I should have described my question better. My coin transactions also list as US MINT SALE, however (at least in my AMEX accounts) you can expand the transaction and it give more detail on the transaction, i.e reference number, merchant address, phone, number, etc. One of the things it lists is a category. My question what does it show as the category? Something like "Government Services" vs "cash equivalent". Sorry for the confusion.

craz

Chase yrs ago didnt charge any % at all when using the BA CC to puchase Savings Bonds ( this goose was killed too), anyway it went thru as a Purchase but due to how they coded it you ended up not getting any Miles.

So its possible that a charge can go thru as a Purchase and yet still no Miles or pts be had, and no extra fees ,% or anything will be assessed.

IMO its still very much a YMMV issue

Aitchly

When I lowered mine (over secure message not CSR), Citi noted that I would not be able to raise my limit for 6 months. And this had no effect on churning AAdvantage cards, which they handed out credit 2x the limit on the -0- cash advance card

fs2k2isfun

Actually, that's only true if you have a normal distribution. But I won't sidetrack this thread with a discussion on statistics

aviators99

Yes. In my other posts (including the FAQ) I mentioned that the two ways to do it without a PIN are to use CC "checks" or to "go to a bank", which for an online bank, the equivalent would be what you say.

The point is that "cash advances" are not relevant to this thread *at all*.

Happy

How the cash advance amount is set, depends on issuers.

Citi is 30% of your credit line, Chase is 20%. BofA / FIA cards are 100% - this may explain why BofA is so trigger happy to cut people's credit lines, close people's account.

Citi is the only issuer allows you to set the cash advance to 0 - it only prevents you to ask for credit line increase for 6 months, which of course, does not equal to "never". It has 0 effect, as another poster points out, on using the card's credit line to fund a bank account.

<<A cash equivelant is a "purchase" that is similar to a cash advance but incur immeadiate transaction fee of 3% and immeadiate interest calculations.>>

I am not sure you mean Cash Advance or Cash Equivalent. Only Cash Advance would do the thing you describe, i.e. incur immediate transaction fee of 3% and immediate interest calculation - not only on the Cash Advance itself, but ALL OTHER PURCHASES on the card that have not been paid. In other words, you automatically lose the grace period if you make a Cash Advance on your card.

Cash equivalent does not do the same thing as Cash Advance. However, you are right about that even Cash equivalent is coded as Purchase - it can still earn 0 mile / point if the issuer further sub-code it. You would see on your statement whether the cash equivalent purchase earns you anything. Nothing earned, nothing got transfer to your related account. The level of sub-coding is at the card issuer's end. The related account takes in whatever the CC company transfers to it.

travis bickle

I am sure that others -- as well as myself -- benefited from the detailed explanation.

Since you said that the "true test" is when we review the point program, it seems that we are all going to have to sit and wait [and hopefully cut back on misleading posts -- which I too have been known to make].

To benmailer -- the purchases I made from the mint show up as "OTHER SERVICES - GOVERNMENT", absolutely no mention of "cash equivalent".

However as mrpickles stated it seems we should all wait to check our CC statements with our Points Program statements.

and, fs2k2isfun, are you implying that the FT population is skewed?

PatMike

So basically, it doesn't matter that it shows as a purchase on your online statement...we won't REALLY know for sure what's going on UNTIL our statements close for these latest of December shipments.

Instead of all the hypothesizing (and calling cc companies !), why don't we just report what happens AFTER our statements close.

dayone

Amen, brother.

My suggestions:

1. Stop feeding the trolls.
2. At least 20% of what is posted on this thread is bunk.
3. Don't believe that anyone knows the universal rules for all CCs.
4. Read before you post.
5. Don't order if you don't understand.
6. YMMV.

AlohaDaveKennedy

Pay attention folks to the way the system works. The account takes what the CC company transfers. How the account handles it depends on the programming logic behind the account. Common sense tells you not to identify accounts which continue to award benefits because their system does not make use of the additional coding. Have fun on the Easter Egg Hunt along with those looking to identify such accounts for reasons other than to achieve modest reward.

crabbing

these two terms both contain the word "cash" but their origins and meanings are different.

a "cash advance" is when you receive cash or a negotiable instrument (e.g., check) directly from your credit card issuer.

a "cash equivalent" is a transaction that an awards-accruing credit/debit/charge card has specially coded so that it does not accrue awards. the term appears to have originated with amex, from whose travel centers one can purchase traveler's checks that are not cash advances (in fact, purchasing amex traveler's checks for awards was the most recent big "loophole" prior to the mint deal).

most cash advances are cash equivalents, although cash advance fees are so high they would wipe out any awards accrued. but a cash equivalent transaction cannot be a cash advance unless it involves direct receipt of cash or a check from the issuer.

ingy

One of my blog readers just got his statement.

"Just got my spg statement and 5500 SPG points transferred over to spg from amex, $18,000.00 mint purchases did not accrue points!"

I bolded the word not

gpapadop

"Just got my spg statement and 5500 SPG points transferred over to spg from amex, $18,000.00 mint purchases did not accrue points!"

Soundtrack in the background by Jim Morrison and the Doors singing: "This is the THE END..."

You know it's not good when something like this makes it to the top of the Most Emailed and Most Viewed article in the Wall Street Journal!