Avoiding cash advance fee on a credit card!

shew

Hi everyone,

I'd be really grateful if anyone could help me with this. I have recently signed up to a credit card with a "0% for 9 months on purchases" credit card. I did this because I need to send money to someone abroad by Western Union and I stupidly thought this would be covered. However, according to Western Union it is likely that the credit card companies will charge a cash advance fee for this... I want to send £1000 - so I don't really want to have to pay another 2.5%, when using a debit card would be free. Unfortunately, I don't have enough money to send it through my debit card right now.

So... is there any way of avoiding the cash advance fee on the credit card for this? I'm new to all this so would be grateful for any advice! Thank you!

Reaper

Haven't been in the credit card area for a while, hi everyone!

Anyway, back to the issue...
I'm afraid you have gone for the wrong type of card. What you need is a card which offers 0% on balance transfers, not purchases.

You also need the card to be capable of doing an "SBT" (or own another card which can).

Click on the "Super BT" link in the blue box above to read about this.

Whatever you do - don't do a cash advance. Not only will you be charged the fee but they will start charging you interest from the day of the transaction - you won't even get the time to the next statement interest free.

shew

Thanks Reaper - I'll read that section now!

grumbler

Reaper wrote:

...I'm afraid you have gone for the wrong type of card. What you need is a card which offers 0% on balance transfers, not purchases... You also need the card to be capable of doing an "SBT" (or own another card which can). Click on the "Super BT" link in the blue box above to read about this.

I don't know any SBT card that don't charge 2%+ for BT at the moment. The only way to avoid this charge is to use 0% BT card without charge and a mule card (Egg Money, for example). See 'Stoozing' link in the blue box above and
http://www.stoozing.com/0fees.htm
http://www.stoozing.com/full.htm

Whatever you do - don't do a cash advance. Not only will you be charged the fee but they will start charging you interest from the day of the transaction - you won't even get the time to the next statement interest free.

Also for many cards interest rate is higher on cash advances than on purchases.

shew

Thanks Grumbler! You've been very helpful. This is turning into a right palaver! I think I'm tempted just to try to find a way to pay with my debit card... So I better start hoping the lottery's lucky tonight!

asharon

If you have an egg card transfer it to there and then to your bank. Alternatively balance transfer it to nay card and make that one in credit then phone them up and ask them to give you your money back as you paid by mistake or whatever, no excuse needed at all really then use it from your account at the 0%.

shew

Thanks Asharon! Thanks all of you for your help. I've another question.... Following your advice I now want to get a balance transfer card. I've had part time employment since being 16 through college and university, and was with my last job through university for four years. However, I have recently finished my degree and I am about to start a new employment on Monday. I now need to apply for a balance transfer card. I've got 2 credit cards at the moment, neither owe anything, but neither have 0% balance transfer capability. (I do have large student loan debt and student overdraft). Given that on the application form I'm going to have to put current employment as less than one month(!!!) do I have any chance at all in getting a credit card off them? Because if not, I don't want to waste an application in terms of my credit report. Thank you for any advice everyone!

mm66

shew wrote:

Hi everyone,

I'd be really grateful if anyone could help me with this. I have recently signed up to a credit card with a "0% for 9 months on purchases" credit card. I did this because I need to send money to someone abroad by Western Union and I stupidly thought this would be covered. However, according to Western Union it is likely that the credit card companies will charge a cash advance fee for this... I want to send £1000 - so I don't really want to have to pay another 2.5%, when using a debit card would be free. Unfortunately, I don't have enough money to send it through my debit card right now.

So... is there any way of avoiding the cash advance fee on the credit card for this? I'm new to all this so would be grateful for any advice! Thank you!

One possibility is to use paypal. The party that you have to pay can invoice you and you could pay via paypal using your credit card. as long the invoice is for right reason the transaction is treated as a purchase.

The downside might be that paypal might charge a fee to the recepient to get the money out but that might be lower than the cash advance charges etc.

shew

Thank you mm66 - this is certainly something to consider. However, with regard to my other question do you think I'd be eligible to get another 0% balance transfer card due to my employment status? Can you or anyone advise me? I really don't want to risk applying if it's going to lower my credit score. Thanks a lot!

shew

Hi everyone, my saga continues. I applied for a capital one 0% card but got refused for some reason. I just did a credit score check with equifax and got 439 (out of 600 I think) which they say is "good", so I'm not sure why capital one don't want me! But back to the issue at hand, I want to apply for another 0% card, but need to do it asap so I can sort out this money transfer thing I need to do, in order to avoid a cash advance fee - any suggestions? Will the fact I'm going to have to say I'm with my current employer less than one month mean that I'm going to be rejected by everyone?! I don't want to decrease my credit score by any more rejections.

Any advice gratefully received. Thank you all!!

icebergx

I think you should go for Egg Money.
Hopefully the limit you get on it should cover the £1000 you want to transfer.
You should do a do a balance transfer from your Egg Money Card to your bank Account (no 2% charge) and then pransfer the money from your acc. by whichever means you choose.
Also, if your score is high enough, you'll get their 6.9% rate in future which is very good. Even if you only get their 15.9% rate, it's still usefull for future purchases as you can earn 1% cashback.
If you go down this rout, a word of warning. When they ask you how you intend to use the card, make sure you select the option 'I want to prepay my spending on to the card' as this is the original intention of the card and may effect your APR.

Egg are also 'supposed' to be less strict in terms of acceping applications (but I can't confirm this).

There must be a better way to transfer the money than Western Union?