I did the math and it’s actually cheaper than a hard money loan. We have a credit card machine which allows us to have it directly deposited in our account without paying any cash advance high interest rates. Anyone else here use credit cards for purchases?
My first home I purchased, - it was an assumable loan back when they were still easily assumable. I paid closing costs and expenses on Visa.
Be very careful about doing what you are talking about. Credit card machines are used for purchases. If you are doing it as a way to get around cash advance fees that is almost certainly is a violation of your merchant’s agreement. Using the machine or the card in such a manner is likely credit card fraud. If the Account provider gets a whiff that you are making such transactions, they can freeze your funds and accounts for up to 12 months while they investigate any possible fraudulent conduct.
Read your merchants agreement vary carefully before you consider doing this.
If the credit card company finds out that you are using your merchant account to process transactions from your own credit card, you are going to get a chargeback, guaranteed. They’ll also probably cancel your merchant account.
We thought we were slick and did the same thing with an AMEX card a few years ago when our other business was going through a bump, but when AMEX found out what we had done (we didn’t know it was against the rules), they quickly took the money back, and we’d already written checks against the cash proceeds. That was fun.
Couldn’t we just use the checks they send out? I thought it would be to good to be true. :deal fine print huh…Any other ideas? I can buy a house on a credit card can’t I? :banghead
Sure, you could use the checks. Sometimes they even say that you can write yourself a check to do whatever you want. But that’s not using your merchant account.
The checks usually have the same transaction fee as a cash advance.
Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
My wife just got a card from Chase where the check they sent along with it has no transaction fee and is interest free for a year with a fixed rate of 6.99% for life (on that transaction).
Of course, as with all credit cards these days, they are banking on you messing up and making one payment late so they can jack you up to 24%. Heck, nowadays their terms sometimes allow them to jack you up if you’re late on a completely unrelated credit card account.
I hate credit card companies.
You’ve hit on it. Using cash advances and special “leader deals” you can get some awesome financing in cards. But like you said - one minor mis-step - like paying one payment one day late, can accelerate your loan to a deadly disaster. But don’t use yopur merchant account in any way.
So possible, but it must be done carefully, with every comma of every fine printed paragraph read and followed carefully.
I have used the little checks before. You will get dinged with a cash advance fee but just build it into your deal. You can make it back from the buyer-option fee or down- or plan on the payments when you make the deal. If you can’t cover it, do not do it.
Take care.
Kevin Robinson
Crownline Homes