I got shut down by them after four months, $10K.

Of course it works, but I'd think people who are smart enough to be here would know to run non-trivial transactions: pay for action once in a while, use more than one account, never repeat themselves - use your fantasy, for Pete's sake !

neophyte is correct in his/her statement. Don't go into your c2it account and simply transfer funds out of your Mastercard/Visa and then place then into your savings/checking account, you need other transactions, such as paying for an auction or requesting for auction funds from a winner. While I've only owned my home since Janaury 2002, I've certainly transfered more than the amounts noted above. While one does need to be careful of the "c2it police", as someone else called them, being careful and performing other transactions helps in not having your account flagged.

edg1: As noted above, the reason for simply not moving all the money possible from a credit card, then into c2it and then into a checking account is noted above and in other posts.

Do they still have $30K limit per yr.?

I've been mulling this over and had another thought. Tell me if it's feasible- I've never used the "convenience checks" they send with my credit card statement.

1. Get an airline/hotel credit card to be used only for this purpose so you don't have balances for any other reason. This will minimize finance charges.

2. About the 25th of the month, write a check from your checking account for the mortage amount plus whatever cash advance fees the credit card company charges. Send it to the credit card company.

3. On the first of the following month, pay your mortgage with a check drawn against your credit card account.

Downsides: you lose interest on your mortgage payment during the time the credit card company has it, and you incur a cash advance fee.

I'm a little unclear about what happens if you incur other charges on the card during the month. My concern is that if you send, say, $2000 for your mortgage but you have $500 in unbilled charges on the card, you have only a $1500 credit left to offset the check you wrote for your mortgage. You pay finance charges on the rest.

Are there any other holes in this?

99.9% of "convenience checks" do not earn miles. Additionally, the fees that the banks tack on to the use of these checks are pretty hefty.

Must I use a Citibank issued MI/VI or can I use any mielage earning card of my choice?

I answered my previous question by calling c2it. They said that is must be a Citibank credit card; however, there is a difference between Citibank USA, South Dakota, North America, etc. Some do treat the transaction as a charge and some as a cash advance. How do I know if my Citibank Hilton HHonors Visa will work? What cards are everyone else using?

How do I know if my Citibank Hilton HHonors Visa will work? What cards are everyone else using?

It won't be treated as a purchase, as that card is Citibank USA--only Citi SD (NA)(AAdvantage, Platinum, Cash Rebate, Sony, etc.)

For McDonalds purchases, you can also buy vouchers first using a credit card, register them with Upormise to get 3% credit for college savings, then pay with the vouchers. Just another way to make your money go a few extra "miles" for you.

This may have been mentioned before. I have always preferred Costco over Sam's Club because Costco accepts my Amex Delta SkyMiles card. Sam's only accpets Discover.Yesterday I purchased (with a credit card) a "shopping card" at Walmart as a gift for my son, only to find out that the shopping card can be used for purchases at Sam's Club. The lady at Walmart said they have been available for three or four years.I couldn't sleep last night thinking about the miles I should have been getting for purchases at Sams (computer,TV,etc)!

Join Upromise as well, & if you can find a McDonalds that actually stocks the gift certificates, you can get 3% in your child's Upromise account at:

http://www.upromise.com/indexPromo.html
However, most MCD don't stock G.C., & even though they have the signs up, they know nothing about the program in the stores.
YMMV

Will someone with the Hilton Signature Visa by Citibank please call the company and ask them how they treat the merchant 4829 (C2it). Do they treat it as a purchase or cash advance. If you are using a MC the code is 6529. Citibank gives out lots of different cards that give different things. You can see this at their web-site. However I have not seen the Hilton card there - only at the Hilton web-site.

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Ms.DtG

If you just leave the customer service number for the citibank hilton visa card, I will call. thanks

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Ms.DtG

You can't use your Citi Hilton HHonors card becuase they treat it as a cash advance. This is a different Citi from the one that markets AAdvantage cards.

Thanks. I think it is odd, but can you do?

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Ms.DtG

Credit cards are coming to McDonald's and other fast-food chains.

An updated WSJ article on Nov. 26 says the following:
"After years of testing, McDonald's Corp. will make it possible next year for customers nationwide to pay for their burgers and fries with plastic. Other big chains are conducting their own experiments with credit and debit cards and are expected to follow suit once McDonald's gets into the game."

(Registration required)

Just got back from Orlando and the McDonalds' TV or radio commericials down there touted using credit cards.

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AA, Onepass, Skymiles, Hhonors, Starwood

http://money.cnn.com/2002/11/26/news...alds/index.htm

Excerpt:

"The Wall Street Journal says the change is in response to the preference of customers who don't want to carry cash and who want to receive frequent flier miles or other perks that come with the credit or debit card purchases."

In Chicago, McDonald's accepts speedpass which is linked to a credit card of choice. I buy gift certificates with the speedpass, use the coupon to get upromis money in my daughter's account, then use the certs to buy food, keeping the change. Change comes in handy for parking meters.
I've begun to offer c2it to my clients as a way of paying me using a credit card. That keeps my c2it account a legitimately used entity. My original c2it account was closed down. They didn't close down my husband's. I opened a separate e-mail address for payments, it's listed under his account. Also opened another checking account which has him as primary but joint with me. The money ultimately gets into my business checking account. I've also used it to reimburse ovoerpayments rather than writing a check. So far I have 3 people paying me this way.

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Ms.DtG

Just discovered that a local McDonalds takes credit cards in addition to the speedpass. What's interesting is that they have no CC symbols anywhere. It was only when I asked if only debit cards were accepted, was I told they accept CC. Yes I buy the gift certificates with the upromis coupons on the back. Every little bit helps.

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Ms.DtG

just wondering if this is still legit..I know c2it started charging fees for some things...I'm really looking for a way to pay my rent and earn miles...tia

[QUOTE]Originally posted by raffy:
Once you have established your c2it account, you need to register your Citibank issued MasterCard or Visa and begin transferring funds from the credit card to the c2it account. Since c2it, also a Citibank product, processes these transactions as a sale, as opposed to a cash advance, there are no fees to pay, but one earns miles for the transactions. Once the funds are in your c2it account, you then transfer the funds into your checking account, write a check to your mortgage lender from your checking account where your credit card funds have been transferring into and that’s how you pay your mortgage with a credit card and earn points.

Thanks Raffy. Went to c2it.com under "fees, limits and transaction timeframes" for more particulars. Apparently once linked one can transfer up to $2,000 every 5 days from one's credit card to a linked checking account. According to Citicorp the transfer from your M/C or Visa is NOT considered a cash advance but rather a "purchase." The amount of funds permitted as transfers is only limited by one's credit limit. But a word of warning. Transfers or sending of cash to accounts OTHER THAN the one[s] linked incur a 2% transaction fee [assessed by c2it versus your credit card].

I am going to try out your program and thanks for the heads up; I actually find it TO BE a potential big deal and pretty ingenious since some of us have more than one mortgage!

Due to new policy changes, it looks as though we are now restricted from adding/transferring cash from the credit card to the C2it account.

Is this what others are getting as well or is there another method that I am unaware of?

Hmm, are there McDonalds's outside Chicago which take credit cards for certificates?

Gottabee - that's the way I read it too. The C2it gravy train ran out of track a couple of months back when the stopped allowing funding of an account with a credit card, but only a funnelling through directly to a payee.

I haven't read the rules in a while, so I'm not sure what would happen if you set up a second account and paid that one directly from your main account, then transferred the money from account #2 back to checking. I think C2it added a transaction fee, which makes this action not worth the points earned, but I'm not positive.

If anyone knows of any other opportunities, I'm always on the lookout (but just haven't been able to find anything)

Mark

Savings bonds now must be held for one year.

ok....

Back when I wrote my recipe for earning miles in 2002 via C2it -> Credit card --> Checking account, there were no fees, however, now over a year later, Citibank has indeed implemented a fee for these transactions.

Further, while BofA has stopped allowing debit card customers to earn miles with the purchase of money orders, Chase Manhattan Bank offers a debit card which it seems that no one, including myself, has tried out as a mileage earning possibility when charging money orders. I would assume that they implemented the same rules as BofA did back in January 2003, however, I've not seen any posts from FT'ers who have this card, which is affiliated with Continental Airlines.

Since there are no Chase Manhattan office in the SF Bay Area, it is too troublesome for me to try this opportunity, but I think that it might still exist, should someone ever try it out.

Mypoints.com now has a CitiBank Visa offering 0% APR for the first 12 months, to include balance transfers to pay off another credit card. Read the fine print, don't be late on a payment as the fees are quite high. See if this plan would work.

1. Apply for the Mypoints card and find determine your credit limit.
2. Take your airline card and buy savings bonds to equal your Mypoints card limit.
3. Payoff the airline card with the Mypoints card.
4. Make a minimum payment each month for 12 months.
5. At the end of the 12 months, sell the bonds and payoff the Mypoints card or, if you can find another cheap card <2.5%, payoff off the Mypoints card with that card.

I haven't cashflowed the entire process, but if you had a cheap enough card, you could then cash in enough savings bonds each month to pay your mortage payment, buy the same amount of bonds each month and pay your credit card bill with your mortage payment.
I get numerous offers for cheap intro. rate credit cards, you would have to be under 2-2.5% to make it worthwhile. Of course, 0% is the best. After 24 months you would have a revolving door savings bond program.

You could get out of the program anytime by selling the bonds. I think you can sell <12 months, you forgo the interest.