I love it...really. Hilarious.

Did you mention that the "rewards" will be capped at $550?

I got this too. You can't beat that -- getting >5% on a BT + 10% for paying it back... an easy 15% for just sitting on your ass and clicking a few buttons.

for tiwiw, MM has TWO citi cards, which will end up of 1100 for him.

Great deal!

And when your credit score recover after you pay off the total, you can get other 0% APR deals!

I too am playing the 0% arbitrage CC game. Citi must view me as even more 'sub-prime'. (I have never missed a payment with any creditor) I got two of these letters about a month ago. Each letter gave a 20% match (instead of a 10%) for payments over the minimum, up to $550 for each offer. I signed up for the plans and expect to get $550 credited to each of my accounts in June.

Something about this just seems to good to be true:

1) Borrow money for free.

2) Make interest off free borrowed money.

3) Earn $1100 dollars for paying back money I fully intended to payback when the 0% expired

Brilliant! I couldn't have guessed it would have turned out this good. I just hope Citi doesn't blacklist me for easy credit in the future.

I just have general question. You mentioned that when you visited Seattle this week, you collected your postal mail. Do you maintain an address at Seattle even though you live in China? Or do you just keep a PO box to receive all your mails. I am curious since I am planning to be a non-resident myself.

Thanks,

Pustak, go for a mailbox from UPS Store where you can kep a street address. More informaton in this post.

http://www.pfblog.com/archives/4792_the_cost_of_keeping_a_us_identity.shtml

CapitalOne is my most generous creditor, at $57k or 37% of total. I have one Citibank line... but perhaps they don't recruit me because i use the existing line as xfer target. I recently saw my FICO (or Plus score, whatever, same difference) and it was 750. So I'm not experiencing significant credit score loss (not that it matters to me... earn cash, pay points... which one buys a cheeseburger?) My overall debt-to-credit ratio is 40%. So oweing $70k presented no yellow flags to Mr. FICO. CapOne made huge grants just as the rest dried up, thinking perhaps that the last to expire has the biggest odds of turning a profit. they're just jockeying to be the one that capitalizes most on those of us who fail.

it would be naive to think they don't know what's going on. however, they are limited by the limited information presented within credit reports. for example, rate on debt is probably a trade secret, even while sharing it could reveal the "deadbeats" like you and me. so long as we're a small part of the pie, that's ok. though there aren't many of us, our comfort with big numbers must put us on the radar. we're "empty calories" to the industry. how could they not want to single us out and trim our profits?

i spoke with a veteran rep who said the feeless xfers are history, at least at her company. my last one runs out nov '07. i haven't been offered since November. other people seem to experience solicitations on entirely different timelines.

during recent Congressional testamony, the industry reminded us how new this "convenience" of easy consumer credit is. we should remember that the industry goes through aggressive customer aquisition phases, where they sink costs into unfavorable loans to gain market share. this is probably another huge factor in the patterns we experience. i get the feeling we've entered a new phase. not sure how this new program from citi fits in.

Dude, PFBlogger,

Why not just save money and invest that? Why borrow the money? Its always seems like there are strings attached, even at 0 percent interest.

Best,

James

I don't understand. On the application on the Citi site, it says the 0% rate is not for cash advances. So how do you get the money?

My wife got this same offer. We had taken advantage of 3.99% until the account is paid off. The spread between 5% money markets and 3.99% was not all that attractive, but the convenience of not having to worry about transfers was. However, when they offer 10 years worth of spread all at once, that's too hard to resist, particularly since short term rates could decrease. Interestingly, even as they make us this "Payment Partner" offer, they are offering a balance transfer at 6.9% until account paid in full. We won't take that one.

I'm wondering how long it will take before the credit card companies wise up to this kind of "arbitrage". It's all good stuff though for the moment!

Let us all know how you get on with it!

This is a little bit of an extreme case, however here is what I did to make a couple hundred thousands of dollars with little effort and plenty of luck:

* Borrowed money with low interest rates through credit cards balance transfers, credit union loans, and other types of personal loans. This happens during years 2000 - 2002.

* Converted the money to TL (Turkish Lira) and reinvested in Turkish government bonds. I am a Turkish citizen therefore have legal advantages in terms of taxation, etc...

* Over the past 6-7 years, the government bonds have returned a combined interest rate of 400% - 500%.

* During the same period, the TL vs dollar parity has improved from 1.7 TL per dollar to 1.35 TL per dollar (another 25% gain).

* I repayed the money I had borrowed from two Citibank managed credit cards using the payment partner program (a small, however easy $1100 profit).

After the transactions listed above, if I convert the TL currency in my investments back to dollars, my net worth will have increased by > $450000.

The money borrowed from Citibank cards was close to $20k. That money increased to over $100k while after the payment partner deal, I had to pay back less than $20k to Citibank.

Note: The risk for buying government bonds is virtually zero, since your investment is guaranteed by the government.

Note 2: If you are tech savvy, transferring money between accounts and borders is quite simple using online accounts/transactions.

Although the credit card companies have been trying to 'curb' consumers from taking advantage of 0% APR credit cards (with balance transfer and cash advance fees), there's still loop holes available for savvy individuals-- as you've illustrated. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

Although the credit card companies have been trying to 'curb' consumers from taking advantage of 0% APR credit cards (with balance transfer and cash advance fees), there's still loop holes available for savvy individuals-- as you've illustrated. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

One's first step in wisdom is to kuesteon everything - and one's last is to come to terms with everything.

I think this one doesn't make any sense: breungles, mentioned somewhere