Want To Make Some Money On A Credit Card?
Back in November, I posted a story about Citibank offering a MasterCard with a 0% balance transfer. The offer is a great way to get the bank to loan you some free money. Well, it seems Citibank is doing it again! Please note; this offer is only available in Canada. There is a US version of this offer but it carries a “setup” fee, which will offset the 0% interest.
To get the 0% Citibank MasterCard promotion, go to the Citibank website and enter access code P6N, then fill out the application. Make sure you don’t get the credit protection or you’ll lose money on this deal. There is a field for you to fill out the balance you wish to transfer from other Credit Cards. You can fill that out now or wait until they send you the Credit Card and balance transfer checks.
I originally asked Citibank to transfer $10,000 of Visa balance but they only give me a $5,000 limit. Still, $5,000 to use interest free for a year is a great deal! To find out exactly how to take advantage of this deal, check out my Making Money off Citibank MasterCard post.
While 0% Credit Card offers are great, banks are not in the business of losing money and have many tricks up their sleeves to charge interest on you. I covered some of those tricks in my How Banks Use 0% Balance Transfer To Trap You post.
Source: Stephen Fung
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- Posted in Investing
- 21 comments what's your take?
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No line lives in Canada.
I think I found my comment problem: I opened a few posts at once, and I think the captcha session/key or whatever gets messed up. I reloaded this page fresh before posting, so I hope this doesn’t get trashed too.
Reply to this commentI live in Canada
Great idea, but way too risky for me. Good find though for those of us who like to work the system. I know a few people who might be interested in reading this.
Reply to this commentWhy bother with all this crap. The little bit of money you make/save is not worth the headache and worrying about it. Just pay the Credit Cards off, and don’t worry about it. Debt free is the only way to live.
Reply to this commentDebt free is the only way to live? Who taught you that? Your mom? Being free of bad debt is good but for me, I can never have too much good debt.
Reply to this commentJohn’s right on this one.
Living debt-free lets you sleep at night.
Living with good debt lets you sleep on huge piles of money at night.
That being said, being able to sleep at night is fine for me for now.
Reply to this commentJohn, what sort of good credit to you put on your Credit Card? Stuff for your business?
Reply to this commentMy Credit Card bill gets paid in full every month. On average I charge $10K each month. By transferring the balance to a 0% card, that frees up the $10K cash I was going to use. Now I can invest that free cash.
If I put it in an RRSP (401K or IRA in the US), I’ll received a $4,000+ tax refund which can be used to help pay back the 0% interest loan. I’ll only need to come up with $6K. Instant 40% return on money plus whatever the RRSP investment makes!
Ronnie - Do you consider making a 100% safe $4,000 return a “little bit of money?”
Reply to this commentI agree with Ronnie. Good debt is the same as bad debt. As long as you pay interest it is evil bad debt.
Reply to this commentI’ve written about this on my site as well as I play the 0% offers for some money each year. Last year I had about $24k from Citibank earning me 4.50% and this year I have $12k from American Express earning me interest.
There isn’t a headache at all, as I schedule the payments to be made automatically and I sit back and make money courtesy of the Credit Card companies. And the annual earnings aren’t too shabby for the few minutes of work it actually takes.
Reply to this commentAh, I see where this is going. Nice!
Reply to this commentThat darn credit protection! They will not live that down. I know it makes them money, but it takes a least 3 times before they actually know the real meaning of the word “NO!”
Reply to this commentI am a big Dave Ramsey fan and I don’t like borrowing money or going into debt. If you have never heard of Dave Ramsey or don’t know much about him check him out at http://www.daveramsey.com/
Reply to this commentQuote: Why bother with all this crap. The little bit of money you make/save is not worth the headache and worrying about it.
Actually, I’d have to disagree with that. Most people run around with a “I want to win the lottery” mentality. They are waiting for the big one, the big heist, the big find, the #1 stock of the year/decade, whatever.
In most people’s cases, this won’t happen. Why? Because:
1. if you can’t manage the little wealth, you’ll never be able to manage great wealth
2. the little ‘crap’ really teaches you to open your eyes, see opportunities, assess risks, and understand more about the ‘game’.
3. once you have a solid foundation in the ‘little’ things, you’ll be ready to start climbing more than the foothills of wealth.
But this is definitely NOT a “When will my ship come in?” game for you. It’s a game of little victories, before you launch into a greater offensive.
MY 2C.
Reply to this commentThanks for this!…Gonna help me pay off my xmas debt a bit easier!
Reply to this commentI dont mind taking debt when I need it - but ‘earning’ from that is probably a little beyond me !
Reply to this commentI will try to avoid debt whenever I can. Debit card works just fine for me. Plus its easier to use.
Reply to this commentI have used this strategy and it works. Granted, 10K is not much but it is free money. If you get a higher credit limit (or combine 2 cards limits) you can have let’s say $50K to use for free. Best to put it all in a high rate Money Market (you can get 4-5%) so you make a little pocket change.
The downsides:
Reply to this comment1. Biggest: DO NOT use the card. Any purchses you make will continue to accrue interest at the card’s going rate until you pay off the zero balance.
2. Dont forget to factor the set up fee–some can be as high as 3% which means that’s your interest rate (not 0%) & they’re getting it upfront. Many will cap the fee at $75. A few, like Bank of America, run promos with no set up fee, usually when they issue a new card
I think the most important instruction to give to readers who may be interested in making some extra money courtesy of citibank is to immediately cut up the card they give you to make sure you don’t use this card.
Also, if you can’t get at least $5000, then it really isn’t worth it.
Reply to this commentBeen doing it for six months. Easy money. Just have to make sure you have the cash flow to meet the min. payment each month otherwise you have to dip into principal.
Reply to this commentBeen doing it for six months. Very easy money. Just have to make sure you have cash flow to make min. payment every month otherwise you may need to dip into principal.
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