Cashback credit cards and ebay

meu01108

This idea hit me out of the blue and there must be something i have not considered that is bound to make the idea fail - first and foremost is it leagal?

I was reading about cashback credit cards and for some reason i was on ebay looking at stupid stuff that was expensive and was thinking to myself who would buy this stuff for that price

Then it hit me, if you where to buy a stupid item form a friend (pencil for £300) you could make cashback on this. Your friend then uses a cashback credit card to buy the same itme back making himself money and clearing the debt on your card

This process could then be repeated over and over making the pair of you money every time

Does anyone have some reason why this wouldn't work or if it is legal - i dont want the police turning up at my door

NickX

meu01108 wrote: »

Then it hit me, if you where to buy a stupid item form a friend (pencil for £300) you could make cashback on this. Your friend then uses a cashback credit card to buy the same itme back making himself money and clearing the debt on your card

But how much of a fee of that £300 will eBay take ?

Also to pay by Credit Card, do you need a paypal account, and they will charge again ?

I think this has been suggested before, and the general opinion was that the fees involved would wipe out any saving from using the cashback card.

meu01108

Cheers

Good to know before i rush into anything

LongTermLurker

Fees are well in excess of 1% and yes, Paypal does charge to use it.

Ebay also frowns quite heavily on people who collude in transactions, as it makes a mockery of the trust relationship and the sellers' feedback rating.

Putting £300 into the Ebay fee calculator on a Buy It Now deal suggests total fees and charges of £26.10 = 8.7%

Take off the 1% cashback and you only lose £23.10 per transaction :rolleyes:

edindie

If you buy something in a shop and then get a refund, would the cc provider cancel the cashback?

LongTermLurker

edindie wrote: »

If you buy something in a shop and then get a refund, would the cc provider cancel the cashback?

yes, although it may be possible to get the refund credited to a different card, perhaps by saying it has been cancelled? Not sure and potentially fraudulent/immoral.

JimmyTheWig

edindie wrote: »

If you buy something in a shop and then get a refund, would the cc provider cancel the cashback?

I believe so.
It would, in effect, reduce your balance on your next statement and so you would earn less cashback that month.
[I don't know what would happen in you didn't make any purchases that month and so had a credit balance?]

lisyloo

yes, although it may be possible to get the refund credited to a different card, perhaps by saying it has been cancelled?

This may not work in some instances.
Some comapnies are absolutely insistent that you use the old card (so they get their fees back).

JimmyTheWig

LongTermLurker wrote: »

yes, although it may be possible to get the refund credited to a different card, perhaps by saying it has been cancelled? Not sure and potentially fraudulent/immoral.

That is certainly against "the rules". If you buy on card you can only get a refund back to that card or get an exchange / vouchers, etc.
But sometimes shops make mistakes and give a refund in cash, etc. In which case you pocket the cashback. But it's few and far between. You'd have to return a lot to make it into a plan to make money. And returning that amount of stuff might make someone notice and woner why you are doing it - at which point you might get suspected of fraud?

Eydon

LongTermLurker wrote: »

yes, although it may be possible to get the refund credited to a different card, perhaps by saying it has been cancelled? Not sure and potentially fraudulent/immoral.

Unless it's B&Q and Egg Money! For some reason B&Q can't seem to do refunds to Egg Money cards - the transactions were always declined.

A couple of years ago, I bought a kitchen and bathroom from B&Q for £13k. Paid with my Egg Money card and got £130 cashback. Several months later, after B&Q had messed me about for the umpteenth time I ended up cancelling the entire order. B&Q sent me a cheque for £13k, which meant I kept the cashback :T

Not really fraud - it was their choice to send me the refund via cheque.

Of course B&Q may have fixed their systems now.

meu01108

Instead of using ebay

can anyone think of a service where you could transfer itmes between one another for a lower charge than what you would get back in cashback (say you earn 5% caschback)???