0% cash advance??

moatmeister

Can any one clarify what happens if..............

I take out an expensive high interest rate cash advance on card "a"

And then do a 0% balance transfer of the above ontpo card "b"???

stephane_2

Well..as long as card A is not from the same provider as card B...then it will be fine, you'll be able to transfer card A to card B and benefit the 0% offer

chexum

Yep, what stephane said. You could also be much more limited by the card issuer, and the ATM operator in how much you can actually withdraw in one go, in one day, and in total, so anything higher than about £300 may not be easy, and getting more than £1000 could be difficult.

What happens afterwards is more interesting - these days, most credit card providers send more details about how you used the account in one month to the CRAs, including:
- end (or statement) balance
- total payments out
- total payments in
- total of cash withdrawals
- count of cash withdrawals
- whether the (or part?) of the balance is at a promotional rate
- whether the payment was the minimum required

And the nasty thing is that using cash withdrawals on a credit card *may* be interpreted as a debt stress, so at least for a couple months, all other lenders may be watching your every step and think twice before offering or extending your credit limit - so it's generally recommended to use cash withdrawals as your last step. It's a bit interesting though that some cards are actually designed for this (cf. Halifax Clarity), so you may need to look real desperate to really be affected - difficult to tell...

savagej

If you go into a bank with a passport and ask for a cash advance (whether it be Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, credit, debit or prepaid), they will be able to put it through for the amount of cash up to their limit for carrying money out of the door and up to your cash advance limit. They might question you about why you are not using your own bank etc, you could do it inside your own bank you dont have to use an ATM. Or if the credit card is with a company that does not have branches go to any bank. Response may come in saying you can't do this, but you can. They will also ask you why you are doing it and do you know the cost involved.

moatmeister

Thanks

as you say, the implications are no doubt "difficult to tell"!

They really go out of their way to make it as difficult as possible dont they!

Venusflytrap

chexum wrote: »

It's a bit interesting though that some cards are actually designed for this (cf. Halifax Clarity), so you may need to look real desperate to really be affected - difficult to tell...

Good point to raise as I wonder myself - I only withdraw holiday cash with my clarity and pay all my balances in time and in full each month, but I am apprehensive about how future lenders would view my credit worthiness with several cash advances reported on my credit file each year. The clarity has no unique distinction from other standard CCs in terms of how the cash advance feature is reported to CRAs, so how do lenders judge who is cash strapped or just benefitting from the USP of the card when on holidays?