What are 5 ways to borrow hard cash from banks and credit card
companies without paying interest or cash advance fees?

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Request for Question Clarification by efn-ga on 03 Oct 2005 21:05 PDT

There are lots of ways, but all the ones I found have special
requirements, like you have to use the money for energy efficiency
improvements, or you have to be a charity case, or you have to be a
member of some ethnic or religious group, or you have to make a
deposit that doesn't pay interest.  My guess is that you are not
interested in those.  Am I right?  Just thought I'd check.

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Clarification of Question by brutus123-ga on 04 Oct 2005 08:35 PDT

You are right. There are absolutely no restrictions on how the
borrowed money is used. There are no ethnic or religious requirements.
No bank deposits are required as collateral. The strategies involve
only the advantageous use of credit cards that are available to all
people in the United States with normal good credit. The strategies,
which may not work in all countries, must be legal, ethical and easy
to implement. The strategies needn't work indefinitely, just for a
reasonable amount of time.

I'm seeking clinks in the armor that clever people can exploit. Banks
and credit card companies find it difficult to plug all the holes in
their rules without eliminating all their profitable programs in the
process.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 04 Oct 2005 08:46 PDT

I once purchased an item at a department store in my town, and
returned it later the same day.

Although it was a credit card purchase, the store refunded my purchase
in cash, and told me that the item would stay on my CC bill, and
should be paid when it appeared.  I was surprised, but this was
apparently store policy.

So..I effectively got an interest free loan of about $50, which I paid
back a month later when my CC bill arrived.

Is that the sort of loophole you're asking about?  If so, what
additional details would you need?


pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by brutus123-ga on 04 Oct 2005 17:10 PDT

You're thinking in the right direction but buying merchandise and
returning it for credit is too cumbersome. First of all, the return
procedure at almost all stores is to give you a credit on your card
equal to your previous debit so the two transactions cancel out each
other. It's very unusual for a merchant to refund your money in cash
after you've paid with a credit card. Secondly, stores occasionally
refuse returns for many different reasons. Others charge restocking
fees when they do accept returns. In any event, it's too hard hauling
the stuff back and forth.

Also, the strategies must permit borrowing thousands of dollars, not
small amounts like $50, because those are the only transactions that
are worth the time and effort.

It's interesting that you would submit a returned merchandise solution
because Susan Strassner has published a pamphlet recommending a
similar but more advanced strategy. The title of her pamphlet is "How
to Pay 0% Interest On Credit Cards Even If You Carry Over a Balance
From Month to Month". I won't divulge her strategy but it does involve
buying clothing and then returning some of it for a refund. However,
it's an interest avoidance system, not a cash generation system, so it
doesn't interest me (no pun intended). However, Susan's pamphlet is
noteworthy because it's one of the few publications that does exist on
the subject of 0% interest loans which you'll probably discover on
your own if you use Google to find an answer to my question. There's
virtually no information on the Net or in books about this subject
because, primarily, almost everyone believes it's impossible to borrow
cash without paying interest or cash advance fees. Ask you banker or
accountant if it's possible and, more likely than not, they'll stare
at you as if you're crazy.

In fact, my question is so difficult that I believe it's best that I
provide some additional guidance. If you're like me, your mailbox is
inundated with credit card solicitations. Billions of these are mailed
every year. Most I recieve offer 0% interest for purchases and
sometimes balance transfers. Let's say you apply for and receive a
card offering 0% interest for purchases for 1 year. If you could use
the card to buy a $2,000 "widget" and then immediately sell or cash
out the widget for the purchase price, you would have a $2,000 loan at
0% interest for 1 year. Of course, the difficulty here is finding a
widget that makes this possible!

I don't intend to suggest that 0% purchase cards are the only vehicle
for achieving my goal because other strategies exist which don't
require this type of credit card. Rather, I'm simply trying to
stimulate your imagination and provide some guidance.

In the future I might post here a complete strategy with full details
so readers can have a better idea of the kind of strategies I'm
seeking. I might share one that's been discontinued because,
apparently, too many shrewd people took advantage of it. This
strategy, involving Citbank credit cards, was so simple you didn't
have to leave your house to borrow the money! Since the strategy no
longer works, I may post it here to help people understand the kind of
thinking that's required to find and develop 0% strategies.

So my intentions here are perfectly clear, I want to reveal that I've
developed several strategies on my own and I'm seeking more.