Years ago it used to be possible to open Citibank checking accounts and fund the initial deposit via credit card. The charge would post as a purchase and not a cash advance (as long as you didn’t use a Citibank credit card, ha!). And there was no limit to the deposit other than your credit limit.
At the same I funded a new Citibank account with my United Visa with an initial deposit of $80,000. Three times. Then they told me they didn’t want me doing that anymore. 🙂
Lots of smaller banks still let you make the initial funding of a bank account that you open online using a credit card. And much of the time those charges will post as purchases, meaning they earn miles, rather than cash advances (which not only don’t earn miles but cost interest — credit card deposits with Suntrust code as cash advances).
Most banks will limit these deposits to fairly small amounts, like $500 or $1000, and may not be worth doing. I don’t blame them because they’re paying credit card interchange fees to do this.
But some have higher limits, and some let you open more than one account this way.
I believe in sharing deals. But I don’t generally write about small credit unions that allow funding via credit card because those small banks will notice the increased volume, it’s a real cost to them, and I genuinely expect exposure of the opportunity to lead to a change in policy pretty quickly.
Deals that are going to die anyway quickly though I’m happy to pass along to folks who want to get in right away. And here’s one such instance.
There’s a thread exploding now on Flyertalk about the Catholic Credit Union which allows you to open an account online and fund it up to $10,000 via credit card. The transactions post as a purchase. You do have to accept the statement that you’re a Catholic to open the account.
So $10,000 is charged to your card, you can use this to meet minimum spend requirements for a bonus this way or just earn 10,000 miles for the transaction, and the funds are then in your bank account.. and thus should be available to pay off the credit.
With the huge attention this bank is getting on Flyertalk and on other deal sites I do not expect the opportunity to last for long.
Chase is good about posting charges as purchases rather than cash advances. There are reports that Barclays handles things the same way. Avoid Citibank cards, though, they’re notorious for treating these charges as cash advances so their products are to be avoided in funding bank accounts.
Their page to signup is currently unavailable so it might be dead Already
100 max opening deposit now.
People there are already mourning the loss as the ‘join us’ button brings up the following message,
THIS PAGE IS CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE
Evidently too many people became Catholics overnight and tried to get their piece of the mileage pie.
Snooze and lose. I tried three different AmEx’s and was denied by all, when I tried to switch to Chase it told me I had exceeded the maximum attempts with that funding method.
Switched over to my wife and got all the way through to funding only to find they’d reduced the max deposit using a CC from $10,000 to $100.
Inb4 shitstorm.
Wonder if the $10,000 funding will be honored?
eom
In for $6k first thing this morning but nervous Chase won’t be happy…
Gary for Pope!
If it’s a “real cost” to a credit union, then it’s a “real cost” to a bank.
Dear Mr. Leff,
I believe that you crossed a significant ethical line with this posting. The posting was deceptive, created a false equivalancy between a small credit union and a major wall street bank (Citibank), and failed to consider the enormous harm to the credit union that could result from hundreds of your readers engaging in this scam.
1. Deception. Nowhere in your post do you state that the credit union in question is a tiny little credit union initially based out of one parish–Oceanside Christopher. Instead, you state that this is “The Catholic Credit Union,” which creates the impression that this is a credit union run by a large mainstream institution– THE Catholic Church–with billions of assets. Oceanside Christopher CU has as much of a financial relationship to the Catholic Church as View from the Wing has to The New York Times.
2. False Equivalancy. Scamming Citibank is not the same as scamming Oceanside Christopher credit union. Citibank has around $191 billion in assets and $2.9 billion in net income as of Oct 2012. Oceanside Christopher has $276 million in assets and just $1.6 million in net income. Citibank is a multinational financial giant that exists in order to make billions of dollars for its top management and large shareholders, nearly all of whom are multi-millionaires or billionaires. It specializes in providing large loans to the world’s largest corporations and in creating and trading complex financial products. Its top executive makes over $3 million annually. Oceanside Christopher is owned by its members, who are those that hold checking and savings accounts at the credit union. It exists in order to provide its members with basic financial services. Currently many of its loans are to help victims of Super Storm Sandy get back on their feet: small personal loans, home loans and auto loans. Its top executives make less than $150k annually. Please recall that the Oceanside community was one of the hardest hit by Sandy.
3. Harm. If a large number of your readers scam Oceanside Christopher as you suggest, then it could do significant harm to a small credit union that earns just $1.6 million annually. The checking account offered by Oceanside Christopher to its members contains several attractive features: no min balance, free checks, free visa branded debit card with free withdrawals at certain atms, the ability to fund opening with credit card, etc. It does this in order to forge long term relationships with its customers. Most of its customers use the credit union to get loans. If hundreds or thousands of your members flood the Oceanside Christopher with applications, it will create significant disruptions at such a small CU, and will cost real money that could better be used making loans and providing services to those members who are trying to get back on their feet from Sandy.
In the future I hope that you take more care, and recognize the difference between scamming a wall street giant like Citibank and a small credit union like Oceanside Christopher.
I think Gary needs to head for a confessional.
I clicked on the link to this article thinking it was something with BofA or Chase or something. After reading the article, I have to agree wholeheartedly with msmcmotown.
@msmcmotown:
Relax.
Gary’s a blogger, and at some point, there’s no fighting the “I’m gonna get MINE” blogger mentality.
He says he doesn’t like to post about these types of accounts, worries about the harm it would cause the institution, notes that you have to lie to get an account, and says it’s likely to be dead soon. But darn it, to heck with all those concerns. This is hot right now, eyeballs are trained on it, and I’M GONNA GET MINE! My hits, my clicks, my views, and eventually, my referrals.
So no need to be so thoroughly sanctimonious about the situation. Gary did nothing wrong. Bloggers gonna blog.
very suspicious motivations
Msmcmotown – this is/was not a “scam”. Just because this CU allowed 10k CC deposits, and people found out and took them up on the given terms, does not constitute a scam.
Now, Catholic priests taking money from the church, and using it to buy Cadillacs and Lincolns, while their donors drive beaters.. I call that a scam. Oh yeah, and they molest kids. Still want to defend them?
@walrus k: I’m not a catholic, but I can see the difference between the catholic church and a small member-run CU in a small community. You can’t?
I doubt anyone who works for this credit union is driving a Rolls Royce.
msmcmotown – where does this post advocate ‘scamming’ anyone? Oceanside Christopher makes this opportunity available to draw in customers and I am sure they know a small percentage will take advantage of the offer, some other percentage will see the advantages of their checking/savings and keep the accounts open. It isn’t scamming anymore than the credit union offering it up is a ‘scam’ to draw in customers.
It is all documented on The Sopranos
I have no qualms about exploiting offers from companies whose business model relies on exploiting unsophisticated customers. If the company does not reap disproportionate profits from some portion of the people using the deal I view gaming of the offer as abusive.
Credit card signup bonuses are invariably in the former category. The banks always do their homework on those offers and they are confident each offer will be profitable overall.
This credit union deal is an example of the latter situation. The Mint coins offer was another example of abuse, imposing a large financial loss on an organization which has no significant offsetting gain. It’s like funding a bucket of Halloween candy in front of the door and emptying the whole thing into your bag instead of taking just one or two items. Just my opinion.
@walrus K, you are way out of line and I would suggest contacting Gary to retract your comment to save you the embarassment.
Jackal – yes I can. Regardless, accepting terms offered by a CU is not a scam. Taking advantage of a poorly managed small credit union may cross an ethical line for some.. but I could also argue it has helped this CU realize they messed up in their terms, limiting long term exposure.
Oh, and any Catholics who took offense, please know I view most organized religion in the same way. A mental crutch for those who need it, and an easy way for those in charge to take advantage of those who need help.
Chris – no embarrassment here, I stand by my comments. I would say the Catholic church should be embarrassed of their priests reputation for molesting kids, and out of line for asking a 10% tithe so they can buy luxury goods..
By submitting many applications, “walrus k” and others are essentially performing Unpaid Quality Assurance for the credit union
Wow – Oceanside has 32 full-time employees. What a Monday morning for them!
@theyshouldbehappy – I didn’t apply, but thanks for assuming. Just enjoying the s–tshow..
I’ll still take advantage of 100 free miles. Thanks.
LOL….God shall smite thee!
None of this does anything to enhance the image of those of us in on the points game.
@Gary, first it was inappropriate to publicize this. Second, take down the anti-Catholic and anti-religious posts. This is not that kind of blog – there are plenty of places out there for people who enjoy making their bigotry known – apart from the fact that those posts are quite irrelevant to the purposes of your blog.
@walrus K I think making generalizations like you do is entirely off base. You could just as easily say “women are prostitutes” because some women, some of the time have been charged with prostitution…and on the tithing I think you have the Catholic church confused with some other institution, no tithing required…but if we did it would be payable via credit card!
@DaveS
Good call ! This has gone way too far, regardless who you may or may not side with ….
I wonder how many people would be so ‘outraged’ if it was the Long Island Muslim Society being ‘scammed’. Anyways, am I the only one that started testing my local credit unions for similar ‘offers’?
@Dbest – why do you hate muslims? There is no other explanation for such a stupid comment other than you hate them and want to troll other bigots like yourself into commenting here when the post has zero to do about muslims.
@walrusk – You said you view “most” organized religions as a crutch. Which organized religions do you not view as a crutch? I’m trying to make sense of your rationalizations and deluded thinking and knowing which you consider as exceptions might help me better understand your comments.
I’m thinking that if the credit union would announce it will simply freeze all new accounts until the investors send certified proof they are Catholic, it would sort out the scammers pretty quickly. Legitimate Catholics could quickly obtain the necessary documents. Falsifying an application is indeed scamming in my book, and it’s probably something actionable legally too.
@wade, I don’t think Dbest was saying what you thought. He thinks people who are angry that Catholics are being scammed would be less angry if it were Muslims. As neither a Catholic nor a Muslim, I would be angry in either case. Wrong is wrong. And I agree that religious debate is completely out of place here. There are plenty of blogs that are appropriate for that sort of thing.
I apologize, sorry for bagging on the Catholic Church. You guys are right, the horrible things done by the Catholic Church are well documented elsewhere.
@Wade- I try not to use words like “all”. I’m sure there are some that are an exception. But organized religion is.. again, well documented elsewhere.
Is claiming to be Catholic when you aren’t a scam? I dunno, lots of em don’t follow their ruless..
@walrus
Every religion has “leaders” that have done quite horrific things. Some (and some more) Catholic pedofile priests, some Rabbis who have been arrested for their own pedofile crimes (most recently in Brooklyn’s hub) and those same rabbis opposed that the child’s parents went to the police, rather than “in house, sssshhh court”, Muslim Iman aka a police informant that contacted terrorist’s dad in Colorado and warned him that police were going to nab his son (who was planning a NYC subway explosion)……
In Every race, every creed, every religion, and in every blog community there are people with no morality and a belief that they are above all ! And for the sake of what ? A flight ? A free night ?
Gary, why have you stayed silent and allowed this mess to drag on ? You had a request to remove this, but “no you didn’t” !
I don’t remove comments by request, I rarely remove comments at all. I tend to think that comments reflect more on the commenter than anything else. So only if there’s extremely graphic content or if the comment reveals nonpublic personal information about someone do I generally delete things. And I’ve only effectively banned one commenter in 11 years.
Hey Gary, I get it, it is your blog and we (I) appreciate it ! But, this topic went somewhere I did not anticipate ! I felt like I was reading the comment section on any NYDailyNews.com article ! Rough stuff !
PS, I would not want you to block anyone, as they are entitle their say. just surprised to read it here !
I just ignore nastiness and move on, not letting it bother me — at least most of the time
🙂
So has anyone actually had their account open? I still have a charge pending on my card but nothing else has happened so far. Guessing we shouldn’t call them?
@msmcmotown – I just now actually bothered to look at this CU’s website.. the web address is thecatholiccreditunion.org, with “THE CATHOLIC CREDIT UNION” under the Oceanside Christopher name! Deception eh? LMAO..
@gary – I appreciate that you haven’t censored the comments section based on the requests of a vocal minority that wish to silence a differing viewpoint. Fortunately we are moving away from the days when the religious can take away the voice of those who question or disagree.
@FlyingInFirst – walrus k’s comments are “Rough Stuff!” eh? I would say a belief system oppresses half the human race and endorses intolerance would seem a bit rougher to those on the receiving end.
@DaveS – Just where does one obtain documentation that they lack the ability to think critically?
Has anyone actually had their account open? I don’t even see the charge on my credit card.
The pending charge on my card is gone, the credit limit is back up, and no word from the CU. Looks like they are not honoring this.
Yeah, just “poof”.
Has anyone called them? I guess I don’t have a new account.