Alphaguy

I disagree... I have excellent credit, a small CC number and BofA gave me twice as much of a line then Juniper and I applied for that a month or two afterwards.

When I asked Juniper for a larger limit for the same (not enough line problem, they said I was "too new" Given I have 4 times the line on my CN Card, I shrugged it off.

Good thing its free and I get 1.5 miles this year... I'll reconsider then...

KevAZ

Thanks for the insight, that does make a difference. Yes, there is a way to pull back funds through ePay. No idea of your situation but the only time a bank has grounds to freeze funds on the first transaction is if your history is showing numerous disputes.

I was very surprised about your comment of low credit line. Barclays has a history of providing a lot more than their competitors. They provided me with $35,000 off the bat. Perhaps they are looking at someone else's history? It happens!

LowlyDLsilver

Only one dispute on my record, and it was a valid one. I'm not so concerned about the limit, as the way I saw it was that when I knew I would be using the card heavily I could just pay it ahead to get around the low (4K) limit and still get the miles. Eventually that would have corrected itself as they got more experience and adjusted it upward, and the only other card I keep would have covered me if I ever hit the limit in a far away place. But holding funds that have already cleared doesn't sit well with me.

BTW ... pulling back funds that were sent to cover an obligation such as a CC payment sounds like something we call "felony fraud" around these parts??

It's one thing sitting next to Bubba for an hour on a CRJ ... and quite another sitting next to him for years on a cot at the crowbar motel

Have a good one:

KevAZ

Here's a real life situation that is on my record. I always pay $X amount per month to make sure I cover the vast majority of my credit and when I get a sec I will cover the rest once I've reviewed it. I found an error on my account a little over a year ago to the tune of $4,400. My correct charge amount for the month was $5,200. I sent them $6,000 as my regular amount at that time as I had just bought a house, sold a house, sold land, etc... Rather than letting the error ride, I pulled my payment to 5,200 so they didn't sit on my cash. The error was corrected with Expo/Home Depot and all is well. But I did pull back $800 that month and a dispute was flagged. Not a problem to my credit history but it would be if they saw a regular pattern. It's an interesting scam that only lasts so long, but if my dispute went in the retailer's favor I can only guess that the "ding" would have had more weight.

I would ask for a reason in writing from Barclays. You can take it from there. Good luck! ^

21A

I'm confused by what you're describing here. Are you referring to a charge on from Expo that you disputed with your card issuer, or a payment on your credit card that you disputed with the issuer?

Also, it's my understanding that transaction disputes on credit card accounts are not reported as part of your credit history, assuming that payments on the non-disputed amount are made on time. Can you give more information on why you believe they are?

zlc

Here is the problem, you are using your banks bill payment function, right? This is equivelent to writing a check, not ACH! The good part is, you save the postage, and don't have to worry about lost in mail, the bad part is, you lose your float since the money is taken out of your account right away, however, the receiving bank still considers the payment was a form of check which they can legally hold for a few days to a few weeks depending on account history and/or amount.

On the other hand, if you setup the payment through Juniper, they will initiate a ACH debit transaction on the due date to withdrawal money from your checking account, the payment is posted right away and won't hit your checking account until at least the next business day.

This is what I have been doing with all my credit cards, never had a single problem.

21A

Not always. Many banks do pay some payees electronically. (Citibank's site is nice in that it tells you which method will be used for a given payee. perhaps others do this too.) In any event, it should be possible to ask the bank how a particular payment was made.

zlc

There are paper checks and there are electronic checks, but it's still a check.

jan_az

I have been using Juniper since before US Airways. I have been very pleased with their service

And a note to the OP - overpaying by that much is often a "red flag"

21A

What do you mean by "electronic check"? If you mean a substitute check (in the Check-21 sense), then no, it's not the same thing as an ACH transfer at all.

zlc

An "electronic check" is basically a payment from Bank A to Bank B on behalf of customer A to customer B, the actual transfer of money may be done via ACH or the like between the two banks, but as far as customer B concerns, he just received a payment from customer A in the form of a check though no physical check was presented.

ElementK

No problems at all with Juniper thus far -- though I've only had to deal with customer service to set up autopay and a few transaction questions.

For me a perfectly normal customer service experience thus far.

21A

This is true, but in this case, I believe what I said before is still true: an ACH transfer is guaranteed funds and unlike presenting a paper check and waiting for it to clear, the bank has no reason to hold the funds after receiving the ACH. I may be wrong, though.

zlc

But the OP did not initiate ACH, he did the bill pay, which is treated as a form of check, thought may be "electronic", may be already cleared, but it does not change the fact that it's still a form of check, which the owner of the account can claim mistake or "fraud", etc to get the funds retracted even after clearing the account.

JGill

I did not anticipate the flurry of responses.

In my case, I transfered as much as I could on a balance transfer to get the miles, then realized that I needed to buy a US Airways ticket, so I paid $500 electronic transfer from the Juniper Website, and it was credited the next day, but I still had insufficient available credit. I called, and was told that since this was my first payment, it would be "held" for 10 business days.

Now, I had a similar issue with Capital One, if I paid on their Website, but ~not~ if I paid from my bank's Website: I suppose COF sees the situation different if I originate a payment from their Website, or I send them (ACH) money from my bank's Website.

So, with this thought in mind, I sent $800 the next day from my bank's Website (ACH from Citibank). It took two days to post, and still no available credit. I called again, and was told that since I made two payments in a month, that my account would be reviewed for money laundering and that payment would be held for "10 to 14 days."

I waited another week, and made another payment (hoping...) and still no available credit. So, 1-1/2 weeks later, I called again, and asked, "is there nothing you can do to free-up some of my credit line so I can buy a US Airways ticket." "No."

This is why I call the US Airways MasterCard, "customer dis-service." I cut the card up and closed the account. I did, however, in my 3 weeks as a customer earn nearly 20,000 miles.