I like that it is free and that I can receive credit card payments to me without paying the credit card fees. I've also used it to pay someone instead of writing a check therefore getting miles for a refund. So it does a good job for it's intended purpose.

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Ms.DtG

pardom my ignorance,but after racking 2 million points with IF,I have become complacent and neglected smaller possibilities.As I near 50% depletion of said miles I need new ideas,and ci2 sounds good.Where can I get the full nine yards on how this deal works

www.c2it.com

The idea is that some credit cards will post c2it charges as cash advances, and some will post as purchases. (Citibank-branded cards all seem to fall into the latter category).

If you have a mileage-earning card that posts c2it charges as a purchase, you can move money from your credit card to your c2it account and earn miles. Then you move the money from your c2it account to your checking account, and write a check to cover your credit card bill.

The catch is that if Citi decides that you're not using the c2it account in the intended way, they will shut down your c2it account without notice. And no one has determined exactly what will and won't trigger this action.

This could be a clue: the Terms & Conditions available on the c2it website include the following paragraph, numbered XIX.6:

6. You may not send or receive funds to or from yourself or any other c2it members for the purpose of earning mileage, points or any other bonus on any of your or other c2it member's linked Card Accounts or Bank Accounts.

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"Yes, but at least mine will be found in a first class seat." -- Peattie and Taylor

Has anyone determined whether AMEX counts C2it usage as a purchase or cash advance? I have AMEX's Hilton Hhonors card.

Someone said that Citibank cards always show C2it charges as a purchase, which would be logical. But -- has anyone had any contrary experiences? I have the Citibank Hilton Hhonors card and the Citibank Dividend Platinum Select card.

amanuensis, C2it does not take AmEx.

Also, the issuing bank for your Citibank HHonors Visa is a different Citibank. I read somewhere that they might actually post the transaction as a cash advance.

Your other Citibank card should work though.

[This message has been edited by FT wannabe (edited 12-24-2002).]

can i get a list of which mileage earning cards can be linked to c2it,and why does c2it care that you get miles from another credit card,is not the original card issuer liable for the purchase of these miles as opposed to c2it?

C2it doesn't care about which card you use, but you'll care if your card treats it as a cash advance. The Hilton Visa treats it as a cash advance I have been told, but the AAdvantage card and all the others out of South Dakota seem to be OK as well as the AT&T which got bought out by Citibank. What c2it told me is that you can call your credit card and if MC ask them how they treat merchant code 6529, and if Visa, code 4829.

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Ms.DtG

They care because they must pay a 1% fee to the issuing bank for each transaction. c2it appears to be eating this cost, hoping to make it up on the float in certain cases or in other ways, some of which may not yet be revealed. That is, perhaps they are trying the old dot com trick of capturing market share first, and figuring out what to do with it later.

The reason they must pay a 1% fee is that they are submitting the transaction as a purchase. The fact that some card issuers are treating these as cash advances is a separate matter, and is covered in other threads.

It is true that the issuing bank is responsible for buying the miles from the airline, but this is covered by the 1% fee they receive from c2it. It's true that c2it pays the 1% fee whether or not there's a mileage card involved, but only a mileage card is going to create the huge incentive to route funds over and over in a circular manner. Non-abusive uses of c2it are unlikely to generate huge amounts of transactions that won't lead to further loyalty.

I just did another modest c2it transaction, for this sole purpose of earning some miles.

But I expect to be shut down sooner or later. It won't bother me, since I've already accumulated thousands of miles doing this that I otherwise wouldn't have. When the time comes that they shut me down, I'll just move on to other ways of accumulating miles, which offers just constantly come and go.

Still, I don't feel any guilt doing this. I'm not accumulating tons of miles doing this, and Citibank still makes enough money off of me from other business I give them. This is all a "good customer bonus" I decided to give myself, since they for sure, won't give it to me even if I asked.

burgerwars - but if you knew that the next transaction would shut you down, but it wouldn't if you waited two weeks - wouldn't you like to know that? What the yearly limit really is - what other transactions make it all right? I don't want to get shut down, but I don't know what will shut down. If I had known that they were going to no fees, I would have been less greedy in the beginning and I wouldn't have gotten shot down. At that time I didn't think how I coule have people pay me and I didn't realize I could transfer to my checking account..so transfers took place between my dad and myself and that got shut down. Thank goodness they didn't shut down my husband's account because now I'm able to use it to get paid.

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Ms.DtG

Would we be able to send money in a chain to a few FTers? Like would I be able to send $1000 every two weeks to some FTer ("B") who would repeat the same to another FTer ("C") who would in turn send it back to me. It's a college trick. Mark Cuban did it.

It would be nice to know what the limit is, and do my transactions accordingly. I've read things here like "$20,000," but have also read people getting shut down at $10,000. So what I do is a couple of modest transactions per C2IT statement period. I'm not going to say the amounts, because the C2IT people might read this, but I'm far from being greedy.
We all would like to know their precise thresholds. My feeling is, there isn't any, but instead they look for transaction patterns in customers' accounts.



[This message has been edited by burgerwars (edited 12-26-2002).]

I was happy to use c2it while it lasted. When they closed my account for 'abuse', I just said, "Thanks for the miles & the memories.

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Play the travel game 3 vacations into the future!

Brendan - how much did you do before they shut you down. I think we are all looking for some paremeters. And what kinds of transactions were you doing.

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Ms.DtG