circumvent cash advance.

Shiggaddi

On a similar theme, this would work for gaining extra cashback or points.

Last year, I paid for something on my Egg card (now taken over by Barclaycard, but not tested out their systems yet) but received a refund just after the statement date as the order was not fulfilled in the end. I had not spent any more money on the card that month, so since the cashback due was a negative amount, their systems treated it as a zero amount, so I lost no cashback. This didn't work on my Capital One card, as they are able to deal with a negative amount of cashback.

In months where I have made purchases on my Egg card in the same month as receiving a refund (or receiving the refund in the same month as the transaction), then Egg did deduct the refunds from the new purchases for calculating cashback, but if the refunds were more than the purchases, then the cashback would still be zero. This has only happened about once or twice a year, so definitely not on a grand scale.

Shiggaddi

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

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).

But will they treat the purchase of travellers cheques as a transaction, or a cash advance. There are some credit card companies that will treat these transactions as a cash advance, and also treat gambling transactions as a cash advance, and pay no cashback, and then add interest from day 1, and charge a fee. You might think it's just adding money to an online bookies, but gambling transactions could include buying entry, meal and drinks at a racecourse.

jonesMUFCforever

Until OP shows proof it happened I might just think its all been a dream - he will wake up soon.

YorkshireBoy

Shiggaddi wrote: »

But will they treat the purchase of travellers cheques as a transaction, or a cash advance.

M&S treat it as a purchase on their own card, providing you buy from them (online/phone/in-store bureau de change).

Taken advantage of it several times.

Shiggaddi

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

M&S treat it as a purchase on their own card, providing you buy from them (online/phone/in-store bureau de change).

Taken advantage of it several times.

I believe the cost can be reduced further by the fact that the M&S card offer rewards in the form of M&S vouchers for spending on the card.

jon142

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Until OP shows proof it happened I might just think its all been a dream - he will wake up soon.

How can i show proof? upload my statement and current account statement? no thanks.

Some shops are smart to this such as CURRYS. PC WORLD ETC.

They have your card details stored in the system. so you can't use the wrong card.

Some companies don't print your card details on your receipt and instead give you a separate receipt for the card. these companies are prime for this because it just says *** CREDIT CARD - £49.99 *** and doesn't give any details.

trust me it works if you don't believe me try it yourself.

opinions4u

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Until OP shows proof it happened I might just think its all been a dream - he will wake up soon.

I have had this happen inadvertently to me.

If you intend doing this on a more commercial basis there is a flaw. Retailers don't have to refund goods that aren't faulty.

Pick the wrong store and you could get stuck with something expensive that you didn't want.

Shiggaddi

Well, time to look at the potential gains alongside the risks, costs, and time.

If you buy something for £500, and have the item refunded to a debit card, then if you have a 1% cashback card, you end up making £5, plus the benefit of having £500 refunded and sitting in an interest paying account before the credit card bill arrives.

If instead you have a 0% on purchases card with 12 months remaining, then that £500 could be put into a savings account paying around 3% interest, or 2.4% after tax, meaning you'll make a profit of £12.

Obviously these figures change depending on how much you spend, or how long your 0% is, and even if the 0% card pays cashback or rewards for spending.

Now, the risks are firstly, if as opinions4u pointed out, retailers don't have to refund you unless the goods are faulty, however most stores do have a refund policy so best check that out first. In this scenario you could end up £500 out of pocket and something you never intended to buy.

Also, the retailer could insist the refund is made onto the original card, and in this scenario you would have just wasted your time (plus petrol and parking etc if making a special trip)

Even if you've managed to get the refund put onto the debit card, how much time did you take to get to the store, and what about petrol and parking.

At the end of the day, the amount to gain is very small, but there's plenty of risks involved, and if you're planning on doing this on smaller amounts, then you gain even less for the same amount of work.

If of course you're in the same sitation as the OP, and you bought something and changed your mind, then you have nothing to lose by "accidently" giving them your debit card for a refund, but going out my way to buy things on a 0% credit card, in the hope of a refund to a debit card is definitely not worth it.

thegoodman

Shiggaddi wrote: »

Also, the retailer could insist the refund is made onto the original card, and in this scenario you would have just wasted your time (plus petrol and parking etc if making a special trip)

Even if you've managed to get the refund put onto the debit card, how much time did you take to get to the store, and what about petrol and parking.

At the end of the day, the amount to gain is very small, but there's plenty of risks involved, and if you're planning on doing this on smaller amounts, then you gain even less for the same amount of work.

If of course you're in the same sitation as the OP, and you bought something and changed your mind, then you have nothing to lose by "accidently" giving them your debit card for a refund, but going out my way to buy things on a 0% credit card, in the hope of a refund to a debit card is definitely not worth it.

I agree. It's not worth the time. As per your example on £500 you may make £5.00 for that: you will need to make the purchase, after a few days need to return back to the shop for refund, able to get the refund on another card if not possible back to zero than go to another shop to make the purchase. The process may take 2 to 3 hours, is it worth it?

londonTiger

how bought this, instead of going to great lengths make a couple of quid. Set up a web business in your spare time, and make a £100 extra a week in passive income.. some of the penny pinchers on this board go to ridiculous lengths to claw back pennies.

It's ridiculous, you then realise you spend 2 hours saving £5.. which is £2.50 p/h.. is your time really worth £2.50 an hour??