Credit Tips: Cash Advance From Credit Card

Posted On: January 1, 2006

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Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 11:41 pm
Post subject: Cash Advance From Credit Card

Paul Taylor
Date: 2/27/2001 10:54 pm CDT

I need about $20,000 for business purposes and want to finance my need by rolling over low introductory rates as long as possible. My question is the following: Currently I have one card with a $15,000 limit which has a $5,000 balance which is only a couple months old. In order to get approved for an additional $20,000 there seems to be two strategies. One would be to draw this card down to its limit while I apply to other credit card companies. Alternatively, I could make a bunch of applications and wait until I have my financing lined up, and then draw them all down at once. Under the first scenario other card companies might view this as debt they could refinance and view it favorably. However, on the other hand the other companies might conclude that I do not need any additional debt and deny my credit application. Which is the better strategy?

A separate question I have that someone might comment on is that on the card I have they allow you to write balance transhper checks to yourself. So my thought is to simply write checks to myself with this card and use the others to refinance this balance, freeing up my credit line so I can do this again. My question is, this seems to good to be true….is this common? Am I missing something?

I should also point out that I have perfect credit, good job and no other debt than the one I mentioned.

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Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2004 11:41 pm
Post subject: Cash Advance From Credit Card

Board Monitor - CA
Date: 3/7/2001 9:11 am CDT

Paul,

I will address the second part of your question. This is a common practice. Just make sure that the check that you write to yourself does not include any hidden fees and be aware of the interest rate. Read the fine print! If you plan on transferring the balance to another card, then obviously the interest rate is not terribly important (though transfers usually take a few weeks and many balance transfer checks begin accruing interest immediately - i.e. there is no grace period).

Hope this helps! Let us know how things turn out.

Best Regards,
Curtis Arnold
CFCCT P.R. Dir.
http://www.cardratings.com