Do you have credit cards sitting around with 0 balance? Here’s a little trick to milk the credit card company out of their lunch money. Most issuers consider low balance amount would cost them more for preparing and sending out postal mail statement. Instead, they will issue what is called a Small Balance Credit or Credit Adjustment to your account and forgive the debt. The question is how much is small enough and the max you can charge to be forgiven. It all depends on the credit card issuer.
Chase, Discover, Wells Fargo: $1.99 or less
Advanta, Capital One, Providian/Wamu : $0.99 or less
Citi, BoA, AmEx, HSBC will bill you at any amount.
Say you have a few Discover and Chase cards, this could be free $20 Gas each month. Call this fun money, free money, or play money.. just another credit card info.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
What??? you need to elaborate. Are you saying that if from month to month where there is no activity (and therefore the balance is zero)that the CC company will offer your account a credit?
“Instead, they will issue what is called a Small Balance Credit or Credit Adjustment to your account and forgive the debt.” But there is no debt so why would there be an offering to put a positive balance in the account. MAYBE if you were set up for postal delivey of the account statement… but even still, $0.42 vs. a 25$ credit seems ridiculous.
I wrote “Most issuers consider low balance amount would cost them more for preparing and sending out postal mail statement.”
This means that you must carry a balance. It depends on the cards. E.G. Use your Chase Card that has 0 balance, and now charge $1.99 of Gas. Do not use the card anymore, and just wait for the bill. Once you see the bill, the balance is 0.
Sometimes I get on your blog and just laugh. You aren’t one of those people who go to lunch with your grandmother and then make her pay for half, are you? What a way to make an extra buck… ha, ha.
Keeping true to my form player, Hustling is the name of the game
Got it, thanks for the clarification.
Chase, at least the 10-15 accounts that I have (Amazon, Shell, AARP etc.) now only waives the fee when it’s $0.99 or less. Discover is still good for $1.99 per month. Spirit (Barclay’s bank) and Sears are only good for $0.99 but I still collect nearly $400 a year in free gasoline purchases.
this is such an old post..i didn’t think people still do this..very impressive my friend.
They also keep your money when they owe you less than 99 cents. I just found that out. I intend on purchasing a small item and paying the amount minus what they kept.