The Master Credit Cards That Allow You to Keep a >$100 Credit Balance Thread

[BobWang]

Just to be clear, I almost always run a credit balance on my cards.

 

If a card reports a balance, it is either deliberate on my part, or I messed up on push payments.

 

There may be some trigger of how many months an account is allowed to keep showing negative balances.

 

Even when there is a lot of activity in that account.

[BobWang]

I let a bunch of accounts report balances in Jan-Feb-Mar as part of the Stealth Influence experiment.

 

But that failed miserably, so all those cards are back to $0, or a credit balance in the case of Lexus.

[jv01]

Until yesterday, I had been able to keep about a $100 credit balance on my Cash Plus card.

 

I'd been doing that for years, but something changed this statement cycle.

 

When you sent Chase the payment (or when it hit), did you have any outstanding charges past the most recent closing date? That would be a real pain if they didn't at least apply your *total* payment to your *total* balance at the time.

[BobWang]

Until yesterday, I had been able to keep about a $100 credit balance on my Cash Plus card.

 

I'd been doing that for years, but something changed this statement cycle.

 

When you sent Chase the payment (or when it hit), did you have any outstanding charges past the most recent closing date? That would be a real pain if they didn't at least apply your *total* payment to your *total* balance at the time.

On 5/20 I pushed $34.18 from Alliant to get to a $100 credit balance

Cash Plus closed on 5/26 with that $100 credit balance

 

Charge of $20.54 from 5/25 posted on 5/27

Then $13 from 5/26 posted on 5/27

 

Leading to the refund of $66.46 on 5/30

[jv01]

OK, so you get a check if there's a credit to your *total* balance (not just your "statement" balance) as of T+3 or so. There was a weekend and a holiday in there, so the actual time may vary. Good to know, thanks.

[BobWang]

That reminds me, I need to push another $100 from Alliant to Chase Cash Plus.

[Sun Love]

US Bank does also. I sometimes forget that I already paid and overpaid them once by accident. Since the limit is so low, whenever I have a big purchase, I usually overpay them especially if its close to the reporting date. I'm not sure how long they will let it sit though.

[ctb89]

I think Discover depends on the amount. I had a -$1 balance on my wife's account for about 4 months until she finally made a purchase.

Ah yes, maybe I should have said "Over a $100 Credit Balance"

 

You know.. I hesitated replying because I figured that's what you meant, but then I saw the $4 Lexus example. Is that for the occasional air freshener splurge?

No, that was a holdover from my Stealth Influence experiments.

Stealth Influence?

[BobWang]

http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=481355

[ctb89]

Ah ok. Haha why did that fail miserably?

[BobWang]

Stealth Mode was SO successful, NONE of the AU accounts reported to any CRAs.

[cashnocredit]

It can be very dangerous to depend on them carrying credit balances.

Carrying credit balances was a major precursor to my descent into financial flakiness.

 

It can result in vanishing money and even bad credit. I had over 15k in credit balances from various issuers sent to the state abandoned property account which I didn't discover and reclaim until around 2009. Which means I didn't open the envelopes when they sent credit balance payoff checks. Which also means I ran up debt thinking I was just dipping into an established credit balance.

 

This resulted in the only serious CC payment record on my CRs.

Keep track of your bills. Don't depend on credit balances. Don't stop using credit out of convenience.

 

That's the short version of why keeping a credit balance is stupid. This is the long version:

 

. . . . . .

 

Having a credit balance was something I used to do extensively and the reason was simple.

 

I hated paying bills. Literally.

 

It wasn't the money (thank God I've always had good jobs and investments) but taking the time to sit down and write checks, stamp, and mail. My solution was to overpay by at least several months worth of bills. This worked great. My CC issuers, MBNA, amongst others, would happily hold credit balances seemingly forever. I wouldn't even open CC statements until the "red" envelope arrived signaling that I'd spent my credit balance and now was late. I also used credit less frequently eventually. Almost all were gradually closed or not renewed.

 

Why was I was using my debit card exclusively? Reason: no bills, even the increasingly infrequent "red" ones.

 

Then I went on a trip, used my only remaining card for hotels that wouldn't take debit cards. I believe I used less than the remaining credit balance. What I didn't realize was that the company had long before sent me a check for the credit balance. I had tossed the envelope unopened so I didn't know that I no longer had a credit balance but owed money. In the meantime the credit card company had sent the funds for the check I never cashed to the state's abandoned property account. Turned out they weren't the only ones.

 

Then I retired and moved.

 

So about 6 months later I get a call (God only knows how they found my new home number) from the CC OC. Lady says hello, are you "xyz?." You owe us $3,500, when can we expect payment? I said I thought I had a credit balance so she looked up the account and said, "not in the last 12 months." So I said, "I'm sorry, can I pay with a debit card?" "Sure." I then explained I'd moved, she updated my address and said the card was reactivated but they would drop the CL to 10k. In retrospect I'm astonished they kept it open.

 

I had actually misplaced the card and never used it after that earlier trip. They closed it a year later.

 

The closed account had baddies on it when I pulled my first CR back at the start of 2009 but it was all green (7 year cutoff) shortly after that and before I re-established credit with a secure WF card.

 

Back then I never had pulled credit reports, knew zip about them, FICO, or much of anything consumerish other than to only use cash anywhere my debit card would have been out of sight. (debit card had been cloned in 2003).

 

Since 2009 I use online bill pay and get alerts on any significant charges. I check all my accounts every week. I can't even comprehend how I had became so lackadaisical and shiver when I think of all the ways I could have been fleeced back then.

Edited May 31, 2012 by cashnocredit

[BobWang]

cash, you should give Quicken a try.

[cashnocredit]

cash, you should give Quicken a try.

 

Quite possibly. OTOH, whatt I do now works and feels safe. I'm considering de-minting since it interferes with my "last loggin" timestamp when I check my accounts. Right now all of them send me alerts and mint is useful only as an overall picture which I pretty much know anyway.

[BobWang]

cash, you should give Quicken a try.

 

Quite possibly. OTOH, whatt I do now works and feels safe. I'm considering de-minting since it interferes with my "last loggin" timestamp when I check my accounts. Right now all of them send me alerts and mint is useful only as an overall picture which I pretty much know anyway.

The main benefit of Quicken for me is that CC transactions are downloaded automatically every day.

 

That alerts me to charges not made by me.

 

I also set Chase to alert me to all transactions.

[patz2009]

I think it's crazy nuts that banks send a check for credit balances given the proactive push for everything paperless..statements etc.

Probably hoping that you'll never cash it and lose it.

[road2freedom]

Anyone know if NFCU allows a credit balance on their cards?

[gbar]

Capital One mailed me a check for 9 cents as soon as my statement closed.

[road2freedom]

Anyone know if NFCU allows a credit balance on their cards?

 

bump

[BobWang]

Will Allow Credit Balances to Remain

AmEx

BofA ($171.27 credit, 4 months & counting)

FIA (~$300 credit, for years)

Household Bank

Lexus (USBank) ($4 credit, 3 months & counting)

Navy Fed CU

PenFed CU ($17.07 credit balance refunded after 60 days)

 

 

Will Issue Credit Balance Check Immediately After Statements Close

Chase

Citi

Discover

[BobWang]

^

[BobWang]

I don't remember if I could overpay my Citi Forward before, but now I can overpay by 7.5%

 

You are only able to make a payment of the full current outstanding balance plus up to 7.5/% of the outstanding balance on your account.

[BobWang]

Will Allow Credit Balances to Remain

AmEx

BofA ($171.27 credit, 4 months & counting)

FIA (~$300 credit, for years)

Household Bank

Lexus (USBank) ($4 credit, 3 months & counting)

Navy Fed CU

PenFed CU ($17.07 credit balance refunded after 60 days)

 

 

Will Issue Credit Balance Check Immediately After Statements Close

Chase

Citi

Discover

^

[cashnocredit]

My Citi card pays the prior statement's balance whether I prepay anything in between or not. Last month I had a -3k balance because of that. They didn't issue a check, just rolled ii forward.

Edited March 19, 2013 by cashnocredit

[BobWang]

My Citi card pays the prior statement's balance whether I prepay anything in between or not. Last month I had a -3k balance because of that. They didn't issue a check, just rolled ii forward.

 

That's odd, cash.

 

Citi's AutoPay USED to deduct my statement balance whether I manually paid or not.

 

Sometime last year, they stopped doing that.

 

Now, when my Citi Forward closes with a $2 balance, and I pay it, the AutoPay does not kick in.

 

Maybe you should try cancelling AutoPay, and setting it up again.