It's all the rage at fatwallet.com

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/mess...hreadid=235655

The low down:
1. Buy a preloaded "gift credit card" up to $500 with your mileage card. The purchase is not a balance transfer.
3. Cash out the gift card for a money order at your local post office.
4. Deposit MO back into mileage card
5. Goto 1.

Waaaay too much labor involved for 500 FF miles. Is there a way to do it with $5000 or $10000 at a time? Then it might be worth all of the machinations involved, but then again rolling into a bank or post office with 10 or 20 $500 gift cards asking for cash might raise an eyebrow or two.

It seems to me that if there truly was a large loophole here, it would get shut down pretty quickly by the banks. Banks are a bit like casinos in that The House Never Loses, and any scheme to break that rule gets snuffed out pretty quickly.

It think those electronic gift cards work as credit cards, that is, the point of sale system recognizes them as a credit card when a purchase is made. That being the case, credit cards are not accepted as payment for money orders by the post office, because that WOULD be the same as a cash advance.

One big problem: The Post Office only accepts PIN based debit transactions to buy a money order. Using a preloaded Visa or MasterCard will result in a PIN based transaction fee in addition to the money order fee. So it's far from free. In looking at their fee schedule below, given there is only a $1.00 difference between getting cash out of an ATM, and making a PIN purchase, even when considering a bank's additional non-customer ATM fee (minus a postal money order fee), it is probably just easier to try to withdrawal most of the money from your gift card out of your bank's ATM in one transaction, and then immediately deposit it into your checking account. It sure beats lining up at the Post Office and then traveling to the bank. Still, a lot of work, with some costs involved.

Charter One Gift Card Fee Schedule

ATM Withdrawal/Cash Advance Fee $2.00
This fee is charged for each ATM withdrawal or cash advance obtained.

POS Transaction Usage PIN Fee $1.00
This fee is charged each time a POS transaction that requires the use of the PIN is made.

Expired Card Fee $10.00
This is a monthly fee charged against any unused monetary value each month after the Card has expired. This fee commences at the expiration date.

Refund Processing Fee $10.00
This is a fee for processing the return by check of any unused monetary value upon expiration or reported loss or theft of the Card.

Inactivity Fee $2.50
This is a monthly fee charged against any unused monetary value each month the Gift Card remains inactive after six months.

[This message has been edited by burgerwars (edited Dec 06, 2003).]

michaelr....

This worth a test of one card to see if
in fact you can avoid the ATM fee, thanks.

I posted this FYI, personally, I am not doing it. Check the link I posted in the first message. It contains all the information you need.

I think $2 per 500 airmiles is very inexpensive though. Cheaper than buying pudding...

Also, this is a very inexpensive way to get a cash advance, etc, etc.

Actually not. The pudding deal was $1.25 per 500 AA miles. Plus you had pudding and/or a tax deduction at the end of it. And you could buy the pudding by the case, so a bit more efficient.

OOPS. Must do better research next time.

But hey, throw in a credit card double miles promotion and, voila, you get $1/1000.

Actually, there is a much simpler way. Some shopping malls will accept credit cards for gift certificates. These are sold at the Mall Customer Service center and are good at any store in that mall. Many stores will give you cash back in change for the Mall Gift Certificate.

It can be as tedious as the Gift Card deal. You also need to make sure that the store will give you cash back, some will only give "store gift card". You buy a decent size gift certificate and then make a small purchase and get cash back. I would rather buy a Auntie Annes Pretzel, or a Mrs. Fields Cookie, or an Arby's roast beef sandwich for my $2.00 than just pay the ATM fee.

Regarding the ATM fee, there are several banks in New York City where there are no ATM fees. Two are Signature Bank (which I use all the time on the corner of Rector St. & Broadway, opposite Trinity Church) and Washington Mutual (many locations, including Chambers and Broadway). So if the ATM fee is stopping anyone from doing this, maybe this is helpful.

Well, this has been covered by skydve1 alreay...

In Atlanta and a number of other cities there's also Washington Mutual. Publix and their Presto machines also are a staple in much of the South. (Credit union members get good at sniffing these out, as CUs typically don't have many ATMs of their own).

And before the economic conservatives start chastising me for expecting something for nothing, I should remind everyone that even the surcharge-free ATMs get an "interchange fee," which has been around for many years and is typically passed to customers at $1.25-1.50 a shot or waived for minimum balances (I get 5 free a month). ATMs that surcharge are adding a second fee in addition to that. Sorry, but I don't believe in being charged twice for using an ATM once.