I have a FNBO Credit Card. This was my first card...I have had this card since 1996. I use it periodically, but never keep a balance on it. I also have a Chase Visa that I use every now and then. I recently got an offer for an American Express card with $22,100 limit, 0% interest, 0% balance transfer fee. So, since the FNBO was empty, and the Chase Visa didn't have much (only what I had bought that month) I transferred $2500 from AmEx to FNBO and $2500 to Chase Visa. Once that posted, I requested checks from these two cards. FNBO was no problem, got the check right away. Chase Visa wouldn't refund the full $2500, because I had a balance on there, but did refund me $2400ish, and I replenished that money with some from my spending money, so I had $5000 in my new 6.0% checking account.
That was easy, and I still had $17,200 credit left on the AmEx (after the first $100 payment). This time, I requested $17,100 of that transferred to FNBO. Here, I ran into problems. The money posted 9/14 and I called that day to request a refund. The guy said that they had to wait 5 business days to make sure the check cleared. ? That didn't happen the first time! He said the earliest he could request it was this Tuesday (9/25), but he would take care of it. I checked today, and that still hadn't happened. So, I called customer service. I requested the check, and after 10 minutes on hold, the lady said "accounting is backed up. It will be 8-10 days before it will get through accounting, and then we will mail it." I said, "well, that's terrible customer service. Can you bump me up to the front of the line because I called about this over two weeks ago and the other person I talked to said he would take care of it and he didn't?" She said, "hold please" Another couple of minutes, and she came back to tell me that they are cutting it now and I will receive it in 7-10 days, I assume because of the mail.
So, things I've learned...
- Next time I do one of these, I'll do it the same way, where I request a bit of money first and then a bigger chunk later. That way, if the bigger chunk doesn't get her right away from the intermediate transfer, I'll have the money to pay the first credit card and not have to dip into other money.
- Don't trust the customer service guy to follow up on your problem. I should have called back on Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday...until I got what I wanted.
- If their solution isn't acceptable, tell them that, and tell them what you want. Their goal is to keep your money as long as possible, while if you are playing this game, your goal is to get the money as soon as possible. Keep asking them until they agree.
- I think the initial problem came because my credit limit on the FNBO card was $15,000 and I was requesting a check for $17,100. If it had been below the credit limit, I bet I would have gotten the check when I first called two weeks ago.
- This was still worth it, even with the hassle. I'll make about $1000 on the AmEx money sitting in a 6.0% checking account for a year (taking into account the monthly payments of 2% of the balance and getting it completely paid off before the interest hits), so some mouse clicks to initiate the transfer and two phone calls for 20 minutes each to get the check is worth that!
First National Bank of Omaha Credit Card
September 28th, 2007 at 08:27 pm
September 28th, 2007 at 09:32 pm 1191015120
September 28th, 2007 at 10:27 pm 1191018422
If anyone is in Kansas or Missouri, I think this would be a great account to open:
http://www.equitywebbank.com/index.asp?page=822
October 10th, 2007 at 03:51 am 1191988266
Probably what happened is that it took 5 business days before they could approve it. I forgot that Monday was a bank holiday and that it has only been 5 business days.
October 17th, 2007 at 05:13 am 1192598023
June 9th, 2008 at 04:14 pm 1213028087