circumvent cash advance. 31 December 2011 at 6:00PM in Credit cards 23 replies 3.2K views

jon142

Hi All,

Sorry if this annoys anyone on here however i feel i should share it.

I was in Argos the other week and i paid for something on my CREDIT CARD £199. i happened to be getting a refund early this week and i inserted my card. however i actually inserted my DEBIT CARD. so the refund of £199 was paid for on credit and now its sitting in my bank as cash. ( THIS WAS A MISTAKE )

however if i actually withdrew £200 as cash... i would have a massive charge.

has anyone else ever done this deliberately to obtain a cash advance. is it fraud or anything like that?

Seems too good to be true and also so so easy.

So i bought something else today £499 TV - SAINSBURYS. REFUNDED IT same day. £500 is now heading back to my bank again. all this was bought on 0% credit. however now i will get the cash in my bank?

let the horrible comments commence....

JON142:money:

izools

The retailer should be checking that the card being refunded to is the same as the one you used to pay - they should check the card number against the receipt.

You've been lucky, and most certainly in your faour. Good work on the Sainsbury's purchase!

I guess if you bank with someone like First Direct who have near identical credit and debit cards you could easily do the old switcharoo without the retailer noticing

Gromitt

jon142 wrote: »

I was in Argos the other week and i paid for something on my CREDIT CARD £199.

i happened to be getting a refund early this week and i inserted my card. however i actually inserted my DEBIT CARD.

So you put the £199 on your credit card and got the refund on your debit card? Well done! Thats one way of circumventing the cash advance fee for sure. Not sure how many companies would fall for it though.

chattychappy

jon142 wrote: »

is it fraud

Yes, if you do it deliberately when they ask for the original card (or it's clear that they want the original card).

By offering a different card you are misrepresenting it was the original card and in doing so hoping for gain and/or possibly exposing the retailer to the risk of loss. (They might not get their CC merchant fees back, which are likely higher than on a debit card.)

This is an offence given in S2 Fraud Act 2006. But note - there is no way anybody would prosecute unless you were doing it on a grand scale or this was scooped up along with other offences.

But you did ask.

londonTiger

I was at the other end of this, i bought something from republic and selected the wrong card type but the transaction stll went through,

I wanted to pay with my mastercard, but changed my mind and paid with the visa, but i already selecting mastercard and left it on mastercard and put in my visa card details in the rest of the form.

but i had to return the item, because it wasn't suitable, i drive down to the store and tried to refund but the girl at the cashier didn't let me, i asked the manager to come down, she wouldn't let me either. despite the fact that the last 4 digits [only visible ones] and the expirey date matched, they still couldnt give me a refund because the cad type was wrong.

I even had my driving license which had my name and address on, [i had a postal receipt from republic because I ordered via mail, which had my name and address too], they wouldnt even budge on that, all for a poxy £30 tshirt

You know what the worse thing was, i don't think the cashier would have noticed, i noticed the mistake while i was queing up and getting my cards ready. then saw the mistake on the receipt. So as soon as I went to the cashier I notified her of the problem, and reassured her that it's just a mistake with the card type. She wasn't going to budge, i guess honesty isnt always the best policy, and if I just stayed shut up I would have got my rightfully deserved refund there and then. Most cashiers probably just match the card numbers and dont bother to look at all the other bits of info.

I then phoned head office after i left the store, and complained, she reiterated that the manager wasn't "comfortable" with this and was in her right to refuse to refund a T-SHIRT. The head office said since I bought online I should return it to the warehose via post, and they'll refund it directly to the card that was used originally to pay with, they sent me a freepost envelop.. great/

weeks later no refund, then one day the T-shirt lands back into my letterbox.. republic forgot to pay their RMA BILLLS!!! so the courier refused to deliver the items to republic and bouched it back to the customers.

I was fuming, phoned up republic to get an answer. But in true republic fashion, no gesture of good will or vouchers for the inconvenience and stress caused to me, just a lame apology [tht they probably said to hundreds of other customers who had their packages bouce back] and sent me a new return envelope, and then after 2 months since originally purchasing a TSHIRT and requesting refund, i finally got it.

I haven't been back since to republic. I used to spend £500-£1000 a year in their stores mainly buying gstar clothes, now i just got straight to the gstar boutique in department stores or gstar stores themselves in large shopping malls.

way to go republic some way to lose a customer

Vikipollard

I think I'm most struggling that a T-shirt cost £30.....:eek:

lisyloo

The vast majority of comapnies want the same card. This is to get their merchant fees refunded.
You've been lucky to get this through.
Some people may also have to consider the petrol charges vs the cash advance fees.
BTW - you shouldn't be getting a MASSIVE fee for a cash advance just a small one of a few pounds, so make sure you don't spend too much on petrol/parking when going to the shops.

creditcardhelp11

So what you are saying to do - get a 15 month 0% for purchases card. Use it to buy an expensive item then go to the store with your debit card and get the cash refunded to your current account? Then you have the cash for 15 months at 0% with no 'super balance' transfer fee of 4%?

chattychappy

I'm sure some of the CC insiders on this board can enlighten us further. But I do know that at least some operate systems that watch out for unusual transaction patterns. What you might get away with on a small scale, as a one-off, or mixed in with more conventional transactions you might NOT get away with on a grander scale.

jon142

creditcardhelp11 wrote: »

So what you are saying to do - get a 15 month 0% for purchases card. Use it to buy an expensive item then go to the store with your debit card and get the cash refunded to your current account? Then you have the cash for 15 months at 0% with no 'super balance' transfer fee of 4%?

Yes. Hit the nail on the head!

YorkshireBoy

creditcardhelp11 wrote: »

So what you are saying to do - get a 15 month 0% for purchases card. Use it to buy an expensive item then go to the store with your debit card and get the cash refunded to your current account? Then you have the cash for 15 months at 0% with no 'super balance' transfer fee of 4%?

Might be a lot easier to go the Sterling travellers cheque route if you're using the M&S card. There's a 1% fee, which will impact your profit, but think of all the petrol/parking costs you'll be avoiding.

Plus you get your cash upfront, thereby maximising the benefit for the full 15 months (if you've a large limit).