Crafty way to withdraw cash with much lower fee !!!??

markyboy

If I was to buy my own credit/ debit card reader (£12 ??) and link it to myself, and then used my 0% credit card to pay myself however much (at around 1% ?? free from card reader) and then banked that money and stoozed it for the length of the 0% credit card offer (... or in other words made a purchase - to myself) is this allowed or had anyone else done/ thought of this ??

tripled

For the cheap card readers, fees are typically closer to 1.7%, although there are some exceptions.

To take payments, you would need to go through KYC (know your customer) checks where you will need to prove your identity and explain what the card reader will be used for. This information will also be used to determine your merchant code (which tells the card company what category the transaction falls into, e.g. leisure, retail, financial, gambling).

Once you get through that and put through the transaction, there is a risk that the card reader provider will freeze the funds (a new customer receiving a large transaction which doesn't fit the profile described as part of the KYC checks) until it can be proved the transaction is legitimate.

Assuming it goes through successfully, you will have probably have breached your credit card provider terms and conditions. If caught by their systems, then they will probably close the account and cancel the promotional rate. They may even flag it as attempted fraud, which could make it harder to bank or get credit in the future.

In short, yes you could give it a go, you might get away with it, but it's probably not worth the risk.

kempiejon

Years back I knew a pub that did cash back on credit cards, £50 here and there on a zero interest deal but not a big amount. Muleing via a fee free money transfer card to current account then a balance transfer card zero apr to clear the mule card. Might cost a few days interest.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6652588/crafty-way-to-withdraw-cash-with-much-lower-fee

No need to buy a card reader, most you can do it with your phone as long as its modern enough.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81858468#Comment_81858468

With the likes of Zettle and SumUp etc the checks are relatively light and normally all done digitally, as a sole trader had a card reader up and running in under 15 minutes.

They may pause payment of monies if your first transaction is for £15,000 but it's unclear the sort of values the OP is talking about.

Of cause many people have done it for years just using a PayPal account, more for emergency needs for monies than with the intent of stoozling. Some have done similar using "Friends & Family" options to mitigate the fees but some lenders have allegedly treated these as cash advances so defeats the purpose.

Would love to know which term you think it would breach? It's certainly not in the spirit of the agreement but havent technically seen any term that says you couldn't do something similar with a friendly merchant providing you the cash less the fees they've had to pay.

tripled

It would fall under the general term of abuse, which is deliberately vague.

Much easier for the bank to notice transactions going through to a reader that is registered to your own name than to a legitimate business, or even a mate. Also much less likely to get flagged as suspicious by the terminal provider if it's a payment to an established merchant.

If they are looking to stooze I would assume they would be putting through thousands, not a few hundred quid, doesn't seem worth it otherwise!

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81858546#Comment_81858546

With the likes of Sumup the transaction will look something like "SumUp*WhateverBusinessName" so not exactly an easy match to Mark Boy or whatever the OP name is. Certainly the wife's reader shows her trading name not her personal name (and she's a sole trader)

born_again

There was another thread just recently, can't find it. Where someone set up a trading acc like this. Which gave a bonus for a certain amount being paid through. They got their partner to pay them for shopping via it to boost money through it.

Did not end well account closed & a struggle, ongoing to get the £300 back the partner paid…

clairbear_3

yes you can do this but you cant send money from your card its classed as self funding which will result in account closure but you can send from OH card without problems