Using Convenience Checks to offset credit balance

Using Convenience Checks to offset credit balance

Member since 2018 · 3 posts · 0 votes
Hello Everyone! I just got out of a Legacy education class and the instructor brought up the intetesting topic of convenience checks. He said you would write the convenience checks to yourself for the maximum amount you could, deposit the into your bank account, pay it off at the end of the month and raise your line of credit at the end of every third month. You would do this until you have a limit if $200,000. After you have two credit cards lIke this you buy a house that needs to be fixed wIth one of the credIt cards and float the balance between the two credit cards using convenience checks untIl the house is fInished. Once the house is finished you then sell the house for over what was originally paid and pay off the credit balance. If this is actually a viable option you would of paid no money for the house and made a profit. Also the instructor claimed that you could write the convenience checks (which he called purchase checks) to yourself deposit them in your bank account and get credit card perks for each check you wrote. The example that was used was to travel for free using the travel miles from a credit card. Could someone tell me if there is any validity to what he said? I would greatly appreciate it!
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Homewood, IL · Member since 2017 · 8 posts · 2 votes
7y

There's usually a 3% fee per check you write.  So for every $10,000 check you write, they will charge you $10,300 on the card itself.  So it's great for temporary lending at 3% rate....

***BUT***

Buyer beware, your credit will plummet as your balance/utilization goes up.  And if you butcher your credit score, your bank won't do the refinance, and now you can't pay off the balance.  So it's a very careful, fine line you must walk.  I did this with only $25k, and my credit score plummeted to 615. I paid the card in full right before thanksgiving, and now my scores are 775-805.  Be careful.

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  • Don KonipolBusiness Member
    Investor · The Woodlands TX / Avon, CT · Member since 2009 · 6k+ posts · 10k+ votes
    7y
    @Todd Carlson Fantasy 101
    Private Mortgage Financing Partners, LLC
  • Homewood, IL · Member since 2017 · 8 posts · 2 votes
    7y

    There's usually a 3% fee per check you write.  So for every $10,000 check you write, they will charge you $10,300 on the card itself.  So it's great for temporary lending at 3% rate....

    ***BUT***

    Buyer beware, your credit will plummet as your balance/utilization goes up.  And if you butcher your credit score, your bank won't do the refinance, and now you can't pay off the balance.  So it's a very careful, fine line you must walk.  I did this with only $25k, and my credit score plummeted to 615. I paid the card in full right before thanksgiving, and now my scores are 775-805.  Be careful.

  • Real Estate Investor · Burlington, VT · Member since 2010 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    7y

    @Todd Carlson Completely agree with Michael's post above, if you max out your cards each month and even pay off in full, it will hurt your credit score.  I know because I was traveling earlier this year a lot for work, would nearly max my card out, but pay it off completely when I got reimbursed from work a few weeks later.  I called for a credit line increase and it was denied because of "high credit utilization".

    Even if your credit was great with this method, I don't see why you would expect a $200k limit.  You also typically don't get credit card perks for writing convenience checks.  Otherwise everyone would just be writing checks and getting airline points.

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