Discover Miles Card: How I Got My Free Money
How To Make Money From 0% APR Balance Transfers
I just finished setting up my free money from my recent Discover Miles Card application. As mentioned in my best 0% APR offers list, it offers 0% APR for 12 months on both purchases and balance transfers, no balance transfer fee, and 5,000 (now they offer 12,000!) free miles after the first purchase. Here is a real-life example of my post on how to do these deals.
1) Applied online, and requested a $7,500 balance transfer (BT) to a Citi card, and a $7,500 BT to an American Express card on the third page after the 7 steps. (It’s there, you can put in junk to test if you want) I always ask for more than I think they’ll give me. They ended up giving me a $11,000 credit limit, with a $5,000 BT to each card ($10k total). Not bad as I already have balances elsewhere. It took some time for the application to go through, but it went through smoothly.
(Note: I would usually just send it to one card, but I wanted to make sure American Express still worked for negative balances.)
(Note 2: Per the Terms and Conditions, you need to request the balance transfer with the application in order to have no balance transfer fee. If you wait until you already have the card, there may be fees.)
2) I got the card, and activated it. One day after getting my card, the two $5,000 balance transfers showed up in both of my Citi and AmEx accounts.
3) I secure messaged Discover to make triple-sure that I had no balance transfer fee to pay, and that I could make both purchases and balance transfers at 0% APR for a year. I got a message back in 24 hours that confirmed it. Gonna keep a copy of that message just in case, but I’m just paranoid like that.
4) I went online to Citibank and requested a credit balance refund as shown in this post. They had to “verify the payment was legit”, but approved my check in a couple days. No humans, easy as pie.
5) I called American Express and said I had an overpayment and asked for a check be sent to me for the overpayment amount. They approved it over the phone without any trouble at all. Two $5,000 checks coming my way in about 5 business days!
6) I paid my cell phone bill with the Discover, so I’d get the 5,000 miles for the 1st purchase. These are Discover-specific “miles”, so I’ll need to figure out the best way to cash these out. It seems 10,000 miles give you a $100 credit on a plane ticket, but there are other non-travel rewards too. Therefore, I estimate the bonus 5,000 miles to be worth $30-$50. I can do this without worrying about interest because the purchases are also at 0% APR for this offer.
7) Once the first statement closes, I’ll set up my automatic online billpay as described here, and I’ll be pretty much set. Even though Discover uses two-cycle billing, as long as I pay it all off before the 0% period ends I’ll be safe.
(Although two-cycle billing is less desirable than other billing methods, it shouldn’t matter here as long as I pay off the balance within the correct deadline. What two-cycle billing does is eliminate your grace period, but balance transfers have no grace period anyways.)
Total time spent: About 20 minutes
Total potential money earned before taxes: ~$490
~4.5% interest x $10,000 x ~12 months = ~$450
5,000 bonus miles = ~$40
This is a rough estimate, but interest rates will also rise as the year goes on, so it should balance out. Typing this post took longer than it took to do the deal, so I hope it helps some people out 
Find more in Credit Cards | 1/7/06, 11:51am | Trackback
January 7th, 2006 at 12:42 pm
Congratulations! I am going to do the same thing in a month.
January 7th, 2006 at 6:09 pm
I think you may have posted on this earlier but, have you noticed a hit to your credit score as you are moving this money around?
It seems like the CC companies would start figuring out a way to “ding” you for banging them like a screen door in a hurricane.
Hazzard
January 7th, 2006 at 6:28 pm
Believe me, I’m not even that bad. There are plenty of people out there with $75,000+ in balance transfer money out there. Right now, I’m only at $20,000, although I’ll probably go a bit higher.
Also, I’ll probably put some of this money in 6-month T-Bills to increase the return some more for me.
January 7th, 2006 at 11:14 pm
http://www.netbank.com/pro342.htm
Make $75 by opening a $1500 Money Market account for 30 days.
January 8th, 2006 at 8:16 am
Thanks for the reminder Jonathan, I just called them this morning and a very nice rep lady led me thru activating my card I received in October.
She also let me initiate the transfer to my Citi card and said I had until Jan ‘07 to pay it off. Original docs said Nov ‘06 but she said there was a rebuttal to my account that extended it two months. Nice!
January 9th, 2006 at 9:18 am
These posts of yours, where you lay out something step by step, always bring me money one way or another. They are MUCH appreciated!
January 9th, 2006 at 3:41 pm
banging them like a screen door in a hurricane???
doesn’t seem like that big a deal to me.
tie up your money and get a few bucks.
why not just work a few more hours?
seriously though, it seems like the amounts are petty and not worth time and effort.
do you think they will add up over time?
how long have you been doing this?
January 9th, 2006 at 3:46 pm
Oh, and of course my credit score dropped, but I haven’t experienced any adverse actions from it. If you need pristine score for an upcoming event like buying a house, don’t take out a ton of 0% money. For me, I’m fine with it. The good thing is that any credit hit is only temporary, since as soon as you pay off the balance, your credit will pop back up. It’s not like I stopped paying my bills or something
A - Why work a few more hours when I could spend 20 minutes on this?
January 10th, 2006 at 10:18 am
Do you think sending a BT to a debit card would work?
January 11th, 2006 at 11:18 am
I think what you’re doing is well worthwhile. I have been doing this for years, and have made several thousands of dollars. Right now, I have about $80,000 out there earning interest at 3.8% (ING Direct) - all of it costing me 0% interest on the payout side.
Thank you for validating this activity - no one I know does this, and when I tell people, they either think its not worth their time, is dishonest, or they’re fascinated but never actually do it.
As for it’s pettiness or usefulness… I work hard at my job all day - this is done in my spare time; to me it’s more useful than watching TV or playing video games.
January 14th, 2006 at 3:05 am
Be careful about sending excess payments to amex (i.e. laundering 0% BT through them).
They, and MBNA are famous for being trigger happy about financial reviews.
When I did a BT with Discover, I had them send me a check in the mail. You appear to like doing a BT with the application - as you think it will get you a higher credit line. In this case, have discover pay off a 0% BT with Citi - as citi will allow you to go online and request another 0% BT check sent to yourself.
Much safer than sending 5k to a card with a 0 balance, I think.
January 24th, 2006 at 11:54 am
Thanks for this post! I never would’ve thought of paying off a card with a $0 balance and then requestnig a refund if I hadn’t read this, especially since I didn’t see an option for getting a check in the mail like Chris. I just did this with the Discover Platinum Gas Card, which has similar terms as your card. They also offer $20 cashback after the first purchase (it’s not advertised but was told to me over the phone when I activated), so I bought the girlfriend her Valentine’s Day gift. I won’t have to pay it off until close to the next one!
January 24th, 2006 at 1:21 pm
I’d be careful that there was no balance transfer fee on that Gas card - the Discover Miles card I have listed is the only Discover that I’ve seen with no balance transfer fee. I may be wrong, but just a heads up =)
January 24th, 2006 at 9:30 pm
Okay, now I’m up to date on all my reading (including comments)on your blog, which is great. Somewhere out there it was mentioned that balance transfer money needs to go to a card or cards where the BT$ would not exceed the credit limit on the receiving account.
If this is true I have a couple of questions.
1) Why does it matter if cash (essentially) greater than your credit limit is coming into your account? Is it because that means it’s being laundered, so to speak, in the eyes of the CC company?
2) If my limit on the Citi card I use is 8G and I currently have 2G in charges outstanding on that card, does that mean I can’t transfer more than 6G onto that particular Citi card? And when it does come into an account with an existing purchase balance does it automatically payoff the existing balance?
3) Does the BT amount allotted correspond exactly with the credit limit awarded? I just signed up for the Simplicity card online and it said something like $6800 credit limit. Does that mean that I can expect to be able to have access to a 6800 balance transfer? Must be yes because that’s why you’re pushing your credit limits over to one card, right?
Thank you!
February 3rd, 2006 at 3:08 pm
1) I don’t know if it does matter. Did I say it does?
2) If you transfer money onto a card, it’s just the same as you sending money to it, so yes, it pays off the existing balance first.
3) Not exactly, but close. For example you may get a $11,000 limit like I did for this card, and they’ll allow you to transfer up to $10k from it. They say the reason for the difference is to leave you some spending space, but watch! Purchases on a BT card are often at a higher APR. Not this Discover one (so you can get the 5,000 free miles), but many of them.
February 3rd, 2006 at 4:21 pm
I thought I read somewhere in a comments section that money going into an account can’t exeed the credit limit. The wording was fuzzy so I guess I misunderstood the point.
Have you had much luck getting cards to increase your credit limit from the start to give you more BT money (I know you will consolodate limits from cards with the same company)? Since companies seem to be such willing participants it seems they would not have a problem breaking off a little bit more for you if you asked. I just got my first card (Simplicity) and they increased it 40% for me at activation.
June 3rd, 2006 at 12:19 am
That’s a good strategy, I haven’t been as aggressive as I could be in getting the highest credit limits.
June 10th, 2006 at 8:40 pm
I have a question, what if I don’t have another major card to do the BT with? Can this work with regular department store cards? (ie Filene’s, Express, Banana Republic)
June 22nd, 2006 at 6:41 am
No you cannot do this with a department store Jonathan.
You can send basically any credit to an existing credit card. The credit limit only has to do with the maximum you can charge to your account. It does not have anything to do with the maximum you can have as positive balance.
As other have said read the fine print and ask if the BT are actually free. Most are not free and begin at 3%-5% and begin around $5 minimum and $75 maximum. Some cards allow you to write checks to yourself for free, “ASK” and this way you can pay whoever you want with the credit card. Also you can probably send some of the BT to a debit card.
There are numerous ways to take advantage of this offer. It is true that you will take a temporary hit on your credit report. I think I went down about 50 points or so when I opened a few 0% credit cards, but now I’m up close to the mid 700s and that’s only because I’m still too young to have an longer credit history.
August 22nd, 2006 at 6:54 am
I applied for Discovery Miles card and D. representative called me to verify my Identity and asked if I am a Permanent Resident.
I have my SSN, do tax returns and legally working in the U.S for 5 years and still on the process of getting my P.R, due to the long and complicated procedures of Homeland Security in immigration issues …
My concern is applying for a credit card, does the immigration status hold a biggest weight of getting the approval?
I had read all of the terms & conditions, disclosures about the card, there is no words mentioned “this credit card is for U.S. citizen only”
Anyone can help me?
Thanks a lot
August 23rd, 2006 at 2:41 pm
Hmmm, seems to me the credit companies would start looking for this activity and say you can’t BT more than what is owed on the account. Wouldn’t all the companies be willing to create this reciprocal rule to prevent this? Maybe they get something out of it, anyhow.
September 12th, 2006 at 12:02 pm
has anybody successfully transferred 0% BT money from Chase to American Express recently. i read some posts above how trigger happy Amex and MBNA is…
i am looking forward to take advantage of 17 months 0%, NO BT fee offer from chase and all my citicards are full for that easy route of cashing the cheque.
any experience with Amex plz post it !!
September 19th, 2006 at 3:16 am
Great blog! I did a balance transfer in Oct./2005 and it worked out very smoothly. It was a direct deposit into my checking account within 2-wks. I used this money (~$8.5k) to buy a pre-construction condo which I close on in a few weeks. I currently owe approx ~$7.4k on the mbna card (due: 01/2007), which leads me to a question that I have:
* I want to take another balance transfer to payoff this balance on the MBNA as well as excess funds of another 10k to place in a high-yielding MMA or 6-mo high yield cd. What’s the best way to go about this request and does anyone know of another CC company that can currently do this?
September 19th, 2006 at 3:29 am
Question about the following ‘popular’ Balance Transfer term/fee:
“3% of the amount of each balance transfer, $5 minimum, $75 maximum.”
Just so that I am straight here, if I took $10k BT on a card with this term, the maximum BT fee would be 75$??? Yes, No….Thanks
September 25th, 2006 at 12:45 pm
The maximum BT fee will be $75 ..in your case
October 2nd, 2006 at 3:36 am
Thanks Ashley
October 10th, 2006 at 4:09 pm
Did you get an immediate decision when you applied online or did you have to wait to find out what amounts they approved?
October 10th, 2006 at 6:57 pm
Sorry, I don’t remember.
October 16th, 2006 at 5:54 am
I applied for this card about a month ago. Had to wait until they called a few days later to find out what BT amounts they approved.
Have those who applied for this card had to make monthly minimum payments? I thought the point of most 0% cards was you didn’t have to pay any money for the first promotional year but I got my first statement a day or two ago and Discover wants a 2% minimum payment this month on the BT I took out. Not that I’m losing too much money with my “investment” of “free money” degrading at 2% each month but it does seem like a bit more of a hassle than I previously thought.
October 16th, 2006 at 11:49 am
Scott - Yes, all cards charge minimum payments of approximately 2% each month. For more tips see my HowTo post here.
October 16th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
Thanks Jonathan. I think I must have just seen one too many discount furniture store commercials.
October 24th, 2006 at 4:55 am
What a bunch of crap with the Bonus points for the AT & T Universal Card promotion — The ad states 10,000 points. After satisfying the requirements they only rewarded my w/5600. When I complained they said that I had to:
“Customer Service Wrote:
Our records indicate that this account is not enrolled for 10,000 Thank You bonus points. If you have a letter of solicitation for the same, please send us a copy at the address listed below and we will investigate the matter for you.”
Does anyone know How do I get a letter of solicitation from an internet ad?
October 24th, 2006 at 8:47 am
E-mail Citibank online and send them the link, or call them up and tell them. I have also printed out the page and sent it to them in the past. They should credit you the bonus if you respond.
October 29th, 2006 at 1:17 pm
I had 2 questions about BT’ing..
1) If you just opened a Citi card, can you request a BT check, then BT from another card to Citi and request a 2nd check? Basically doing this for all the cards that don’t give you a check. Requesting a check multiple times.
2) I know some card applications ask if you want to BT while you’re applying for the card. Can you always BT later or do some apps require you to state a BT upon application?
Thanks
Alex
October 29th, 2006 at 2:00 pm
1) Yes
2) It depends on the card, you’ll have to read the Terms and Conditions. It’ll either say something like “Balance transfers with application…” or “As long as you make the balance transfer within XX months”.
November 4th, 2006 at 1:26 am
Just to clarify/elaborate on a previous post, if I open “Citi Platinum Select Mastercard” as you advertise to be one of the best deals, and get let say 11K total with 10K for BT, I can then request that 10K as a personal check to me or direct deposit to my bank? even if I don’t have a Citi bank account?
Also, more importantly, you mention that even if APR is 0%, you still have to pay the minimum to the credit card, in the case of Citi Platinum Select MC with 11K limit which 10K is used for BT, what is the minimum payment would be?
Thanks,
Reha
November 4th, 2006 at 11:04 am
“…I can then request that 10K as a personal check to me or direct deposit to my bank? even if I don?t have a Citi bank account?”
Yes, with Citibank you can.
“what is the minimum payment would be?”
The minimum payment is about 2% of the balance, so in your case it would start out around $200 and decrease a little bit with time.
November 4th, 2006 at 1:14 pm
I am confused…if that is 2% of the balance, then you effectively getting your investment minus that amount…so in your case above, your 4.5% investment is really down to 2.5%, why don’t you take that 2% into account? As you can see, I am a beginner…unless, that $200 fee is over the length of BT not every month…I appreciate your time in answering Jonathan!
November 4th, 2006 at 1:21 pm
The 2% is not a fee, you are repaying the principal that you borrowed. Credit cards companies have to charge a minimum payment, otherwise the balance would never decrease with their usual huge APRs.
For example, let’s say you borrow $10,000. The first month you’ll be earning interest on $10,000.
Then you’ll need to a minimum payment of 2%, or $200. You can take that out of the $10,000 you borrowed, and now you only owe $9,800. So the 2nd month you earn interest on $9,800. And so on.
November 4th, 2006 at 3:00 pm
Thanks for the explanation. My mistake, I went back to your 4 part description again and notice the 2% you mention, but at the time, I did not realize what that was. I got confused between what I thought it is a fee instead of paying the principal. Thanks for your patience!
November 4th, 2006 at 3:36 pm
No problem, you’re not the first one with that question
November 15th, 2006 at 12:17 am
I recently stumbled to your blog and I like what you have to share. My only hesitation with the BT’s is the effect on credit scores. I don’t know for sure, but I thought the number of accounts and the average life of the accounts were a factor in determining credit score. So by opening these accounts, even if you close them after the introductory period ends, you would permanently lower your score because the number of accounts in your credit history has increased. And if you keep these accounts open, it will also lower your score because of the high revolving credit. Has anyone check their credit score after doing this to know if its worth the extra cheese. Keep up the good work!
November 15th, 2006 at 3:12 am
Just did this BT. $xx,000 in BTs. Split between two Citi card accounts. They maxed out my limit with the BTs. Only drawback with this is it took over a month from time of application until I got the checks into my banking account and then into ED from where next week it will go into Treasuries. Thankfully my bank did not put a hold on the check else it would be longer to get the money earning interest. Wish Citi would do a bank transfer for the credit refund. But who’s to complain since I am making money on this. Free money is free money. Worked just as you said. Thanks Jonathan. Now to take advantage of some Citi BTs at 0% and no BT fee that I have 12 months to act on.
November 19th, 2006 at 11:41 pm
Hello, I looked at the Discover Miles CC application and there isn’t a place where you can request a balance transfer. Can someone tell me how this works to do the bal. xfer with the application? Thanks, Tim
November 20th, 2006 at 11:29 am
Hey Tim, you enter the balance transfer request right on the second page of the application. You can even put in junk (although you have to fill everything in) and get to the 2nd page.
Update: The balance transfer request area is now on the third page, after the 7 steps and the “Submit” button. If you’re still wary, just fill in the blanks with made-up numbers and click on Submit - you’ll see it. Here is a screenshot.
November 27th, 2006 at 1:19 pm
Are there credit cards that charge 3% as transaction fee on the BT amount without any max limit. (say $300 for 10k BT). Any comments
February 3rd, 2007 at 11:34 pm
My largest credit line is with chase. Does anyone have any experience with a chase balance transfer.
February 4th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
[...] Click here for a step-by-step guide of how I got my money indirectly with the Discover Miles Card. [...]
March 1st, 2007 at 4:15 am
Does anyone allow for a balance transfer directly into a bank account without a check, (does Citi do this?) or else a credit card who will send the overpayment amount directly to my bank account? I am currently working overseas so it is a little more complicated for me to get a paper check and deposit it.
March 8th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
Does it matter how much you send to Citi? I noticed you broke up your transfer into two checks. Why did you decide to do this instead of just sending it all to Citi? Thanks.
March 16th, 2007 at 12:13 am
Anyone know if the initial balance transfer on the Discover Miles CC is still fee-free?
March 16th, 2007 at 10:12 am
I just checked right now (March 16th), and it is still fee-free. Look in the Terms and Conditions for this sentence under Introductory Offers:
“If you make a balance transfer with this application, there is no balance transfer transaction fee.”
March 16th, 2007 at 11:55 am
Am I just blind, or is there no longer a spot on the second page of the application for requesting balance transfers? Do I have to call to request a BT during application?
March 16th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
I don’t see a way to request a balance transfer with the application. I’m not hitting submit on this.
March 16th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
The balance transfer page is now the third page, it looks like the “old” first page got split up into two pages… You can put in junk, hit submit, and see it if you’d like. No need to call. Of course they want your balances
In fact, here is a screenshot that I just took of it: screenshot
March 22nd, 2007 at 11:07 am
just did it, got a 7600 balance transfer, citibank said they will get me the refund in 2-4 weeks. long wait : P
i wonder if i can just have them transfer into my ing account?
April 6th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
Hi Jonathan! I would like to thank you for this blog and for helping people out.
Three weeks ago I applied for Discover miles card and requested $15,000 balance transfer. Two weeks later I’ve got the card with a balance transfer of $7,000 to my citi card and $5,000 to frontier (not full $15,000 but still great). I called both cards and will receive checks within two weeks. I will invest it all, so again thanks for your help.
April 17th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Anybody done this with a HSBC card? I have the HSBC Direct account and have made paymets to the CC from the Direct account using the online interface. It appears I can go the other way just as easily.
April 27th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
Just got the card and logged into the discover card website. I clicked on ballance transfer and my offer showed a 3% transaction fee that is capped at $75
April 27th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Per the Terms and Conditions, you need to request the balance transfer with the application in order to have no balance transfer fee. If you wait until you already have the card, there may be fees.
“…If you make a balance transfer with this application, there is no balance transfer transaction fee.”
April 30th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
So I think they must have just changed the Terms and Conditions so that now there is a 3% ($75 max) fee.
I am annoyed because:
I applied on April 25th, luckily printed out a copy of the terms, and just got my card today. But it listed a balance transfer fee. So I called the number to activate it and ask some questions, and they said there would indeed be a fee on the balance transfer I requested. They also said there was nothing I could do about it unless I had an “invitation number” that would verify the no fee offer. I said I had a printout, google cached page (from April 22), etc. of the terms. All they could do is send an email to the Balance Transfer guys, who should contact me in 1-2 weeks. Then I suppose I’ll have to send them a copy of my terms, which is a little silly because, being a printout of a website, it is something one could easily alter. I assume I will be able to get my $75 back, but that definitely makes the work/money ratio quite a bit higher.
I guess I should be happy I got the offer while I could. Maybe the no-fee offer will come back, but for now I guess it’s gone for this card.
ps. I just started reading your site about a week ago, and I think it is great. It has definitely given me a push to start investing in things other than CDs and my one money market fund. Thanks!
May 1st, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Has anyone expierienced any trouble with am ex overpaying card and getting refund check recently?
May 4th, 2007 at 8:07 am
I am very close to attempting my first balance transfer but a possible problem I face is that I currently am only holding 3 cards Citibank Platinum Select, Chase, and a recent Chase Freedom Card ($250 after first purchase). I guess my question is how many times I can add transfers to any one card.
You are mentioning that Citi is the easiest to get the transfered cash out of but what type of frequency would put up red flags, in other words if apply for and am approved for both ATT/Citi and Discover Miles today and I do a BT to Citi on the Discover could I then do another BT to Citi after I’ve made my first purchase with a the ATT/Cit. Or would it be better to request that transfer to go to one of the Chase cards. Also within card families can Balance transfer be made sucessfully. I have always had credit cards but I never use them so balances are always zero and even if they were used they’ed be paid in full every statement.
Any comments would be appreciated… also how easy is it to get BT funds out of Chase and into my personal high yeild (5.36% APY) bank account.
May 5th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Matt, I had the same problem. I applied for Discover Miles Card and made BT with application. They gave me $6000 credit limit and charged $75 for BT to Citi. (I am still waiting for credit refund from Citi). Can anyone give me link to that page with (NO BALANCE TRANSFER FEE WITH THIS APPLICATION). Because they changed terms recently. Or, Matt, could you send your saved page to me: nardoit@mail.ru.
Thanks!
May 10th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
Roman,
I have uploaded a copy of the terms here: link
It is in Microsoft Document Imaging format, which I think comes with Windows nowadays. If you need it in another format I could probably convert it to a PDF. They are from April 25. I am not sure how long the file will stay there, because this is my first time using that service.
My balance transfer just went through yesterday, and the fee was there. I sent a message to Discover (and sent them a copy of the terms) and they responded that they are looking into it.
May 13th, 2007 at 9:08 am
TAKE NOTE: The Discover Miles card now charges their regular fee for the initial balance transfer (3%, min $10, max $75). It seems to have changed sometime in April.
I had the same issue as the last 3 or 4 comments: I applied while it was still fee-free and was then told there was a fee when I checked during activation. I told them that my application claimed there was no fee on the initial transfer, and I got sent to a balance transfer rep. The rep asked me to provide the “invitation number” on the application I had used, and I said I’d call back with it.
After much looking, I couldn’t find any such number on my application screenshots, nor on the current application. I DID however have screenshots that clearly stated “If you make a balance transfer with this application, there is no balance transfer transaction fee.” I called back and asked for the balance transfer rep, described the situation, and asked her to investigate, stating also that I did not want the balance transfer if there’d be a fee, and perhaps not even the card in that case…
A few minutes later she came back saying that “it turns out there was an error in the application you used, but it was our mistake, not yours. As such we will waive this initial balance transfer fee to match the erroneous terms and conditions of the application you used.” I asked three or four times how I could be sure of that, and she assured me the conversation was described on my account notes (the notes that they keep about each person’s calls). In the end I didn’t have to send a screenshot or find the mythical “invitation number”, I just had to spend an extra 15-20 mins on the phone, and the rep was nice.
So… if you applied while there was no transfer fee you should be able to get the fee waived, and if they don’t I imagine you could ask that they simply cancel it (they’d probably rather waive the fee). And if you’re only applying now, keep in mind that the standard fee applies and you might want to find out how much credit they’ll give you before requesting the transfer, depending on your situation.
May 15th, 2007 at 7:14 am
Matt, thanks for the link. I got your terms.
I called CSR yesterday and was told they did adjustment. Checking my balance I see know that they returned me my $75! No hassle.
Moreover, I do not owe minimum payment for last month at all for some reason. I suspect that is an error. (I have $5000 balance). But I got what I wanted.
Thanks everyone for help again.
May 16th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
Hello Roman, are you from Champaign?
May 17th, 2007 at 9:29 am
Hello Tim. No, I am from Wisconsin. Why?
May 17th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Hello Roman, I know a Roman in Champaign, IL, just wondering. Another thing you can do is move your credit card due date to the end of the month. That way, when all the money is due at the end of the 6 or 12 mo. period, you will get extra days of interest. Also, do Everbank.com @ 6% for 3 mos.
May 17th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Hello Roman, I know a Roman in Champaign, IL, just wondering. Another thing you can do is move your credit card due date to the end of the month. That way, when all the money is due at the end of the 6 or 12 mo. period, you will get extra days of interest. Also, do Everbank.com @ 6% for 3 mos. Then 3 online billpays with them, and then close the account at the end of that time, and you will get $50 for closing the account. Tim
May 29th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Be careful with this deal. I signed up about a month ago when there was no transaction fee. I received my 1st statement today with a $75 transaction fee listed. I just got off the phone with Discover and they’re “investigating” it. Will take 5 business days and then it’s my responsibility to call them back and see what they found. Makes me wonder how many people don’t read their bill carefully or forget to call back and get charged when they shouldn’t have been.
June 4th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Thank you Matt for posting the previous terms online. I too signed up before the terms changed and they charged me $75*2 for my balance transfers. I called up the CSR, they asked me to fax them a copy of the old terms, and a week later, they took off the charge.
Johnathan - great blog - but can you please remove this card from your list of recommendeds as their terms have changed?
Thanks!
July 17th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
I assumed that I would be paying a $75 transfer fee when I set this card up a couple of months ago, but with $6800 @ 6 or 5.5% it was worth it. Much to my suprise Discover credited me $75 last month and even sent an apology note. Wow.
Now if I can figure out how to get the 1200 miles…
Great card.
August 12th, 2007 at 9:39 am
I have 0% for balance transfer until the last day of the billing period during Oct. 2008. So when exactly do I need to pay it all before the 0% ends since it’s a two-cycle billing period? 2 months before Oct 2008?
August 12th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Also how does Discover calculate the minimum payment? Is it really 4% now?