[QUOTE=Mama Zappa]
I don’t know if banks typically offer rewards points for cash advances so this might not be something you’d want to do.
[/QUOTE]
We don’t, and I don’t know of any issuers that do (which doesn’t mean they don’t exist).
[QUOTE=sandra_nz]
How do ‘holds’ work - e.g. when I am travelling and the hotel takes a swipe of my card when I check in. It seems to make some of my credit unavailable and I’d like to understand what is going on in terms of how much gets put on hold and how long is it on hold for? I once had a situation where by the time the rental car company and two hotels had put holds on my credit card, I had very little available credit left!
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When you make a purchase using your card, an authorization is given, which supplies the merchant with an authorization code and sales draft redeemable at your bank for that amount (similar to a check). The merchant then has to submit the sales draft to the bank for payment. It’s when this is done that the bank considers the transaction “received”, pays the money to the merchant, and posts the item to your account. You can generally, as you’ve noticed, see the amount of the transaction deducted from your available credit from the moment you swipe the card. The reason for this is the hold that you mention. When the authorization is given, the bank places a (most often) two business day hold on your account for that amount, which causes it to be deducted from your available credit.
In a situation (such as a hotel or car rental reservation) where you have an authorization placed for an amount that the merchant never intends to actually send through as a charge, it’s a very simple matter to get the hold released. Simply have the merchant contact the bank – make sure you’re available to speak with for verification if they need it – and request the hold removed. It’s important to note that this does not render the authorization invalid; if the merchant submits the charge, it WILL still be paid and post to your account. But if all they’re doing is making sure the card is valid, they’ll almost always be happy to have the hold released for you.
In addition, if anyone ever places a double hold on your account – the most common way that this happens is if the merchant swipes your card, makes a mistake, hits cancel, and swipes the card again; this deletes the authorization on their end but doesn’t get rid of the two-day hold – just give your bank a call. Most banks don’t require merchant authorization to reverse the hold in this situation; as long as they can see that the charges are from the same merchant for the same amount, and were done within seconds of each other, they’ll release the funds (while also letting you know that, if the merchant sends two charges through, both of them will hit your account).
Same basic thing. The merchant runs the credit info through a merchant bank processing service, which performs much the same function as the little card swipe machine (called a ZON in bankland). It submits the info to the Interbank (Visa International, MasterCard, etc.), which directs it to the card issuer, who says “approved” or “declined” and sends it back through the same process to the merchant. The online vendor now has an authorization code and sales draft.
The only significant difference, to the customer, between a signature-based transaction and a MOTO or online purchase (done with your numerical info) is that it’s much more of a pain in the neck for the bank to conduct research on the latter should you need to dispute it, which translates to a longer wait for you to get your money back.
At the moment, we, meaning my employer, cannot do this. We can, however, decrease your credit limit at your request to any amount you like (with a $500 minimum). Two caveats if you decide to do this: we can only do it once every six months, and if you decide you want your credit limit raised back, you must go through the same qualification process as you’d never had the higher limit at all. Note that this is only for my employer; I honestly don’t know too much about other issuers’ policies with regard to this.
If you keep anything resembling a regular balance on your card, this one’s easy. There is one figure and one figure alone that will determine the answer, and that is your Average Daily Balance. What is the ADB? Well, the long version is that it’s the sum of your closing balances for each billing day in the cycle, multiplied each day or month by your periodic rate (which will be your APR divided by 365 if applied daily, or 12 if applied monthly; it varies by issuer) and added back, minus any payments, merchant credits and fees, divided by the number of days in the cycle.
The short version is that it’s the number printed on your statement next to the words “Average Daily Balance”. Or you can call your bank directly and ask them to give it to you. You (or the bank) then split this up into two figures: your ADB for purchases, and your ADB for cash.
Once you have those ADBs, multiply each by your APR. Remember that cash and purchases are usually charged significantly different interest rates (real-world example: 7.99% for purchases, 16.99% for cash), so make sure you apply the correct rate to each balance. Add the two resulting numbers. Call that Figure A; that figure is what you can expect to pay in interest yearly under your current plan.
Now multiply those same two ADBs by the two lower rates the other company is offering. Add those two results. Call that Figure B; that’s the interest you could expect to pay each year under their plan.
Is [Figure A plus your current annual fee] less than [Figure B plus the higher fee]? Switch. Is it higher? Stay.
If your balance tends to fluctuate significantly, or if the other company is offering some sort of promotion (such as 0% for six months on balance transfers), it gets a bit more complicated. If anybody wants me to, I’ll be more than happy to post the detailed procedure for figuring this out, but I’m not going to make you slog through it if the short answer is all you need.
[QUOTE=dalej42]
A good hint is that when someone calls in with a lost card, that is not the time to treat them as a sales opportunity and hit them up with their usual scripted sales plea to sign up for payment protection.
[/QUOTE]
Heh. No worries. We don’t currently offer one (shocking, but true for the moment), and when we do, it’s going to be the sales reps’ job to pimp it. In a lost/stolen situation, you’d call our Customer Service line, and you’d never talk to a sales rep at all. Cap One we ain’t.
[QUOTE=Kentammy]
Seriously, What if my credit limit is 5k on the new account, but transferring the balances of my other cards puts me over that limit? What would you do?
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Well, first of all, if the total balance you want to transfer is over your actual credit limit, you’re in an even worse situation than you think, because a balance transfer goes toward your cash balance, the limit for which is typically about 50% of the total credit limit. If you’ve got a $5k credit limit, you can probably use about $2,500 of that for balance transfers. Ergo, in this situation, I would offer to see if you qualify for a limit increase, which, if you do, can be made effective immediately. If you don’t qualify, but you still want to take us up on our amazing introductory rate (:D), you can do a partial balance transfer if you like. Otherwise…sorry, but no dice.
Thanks to everybody for the great responses, and keep 'em coming! And if anyone has any more questions you’d actually like me to answer, by all means, ask away!
