Anyone 'hack' 0% on Cash APR offers from Credit Card Companies?

[thepokercab]

**Just to put this front and center:  I have no debt, and no problems paying off my monthly credit card bill, and would never look into these strategies if I did**

With that out of the way, as a good Mustachian with a good credit score, I've done my share of credit card hacking; i.e. signing up for cards with good intro bonuses, manufacturing spending to get to spend thresholds etc.. In the past, I've also taken advantage of cards with 0% APR periods to help me finish off paying student loans. 

However, lately, i've been getting a lot of offers from my various credit card issuers, offering me 0% APR on not just balance transfers, but straight up cash. They've been sending me checks in the mail, and i can basically use them for anything I want, or write a check to anyone I want (even myself) and as long as I pay off the amount within the 12-15 months (and not use the card for anything else), i won't be charged any interest.  They do seem to charge a one time transaction fee- the offers I've gotten from seem to range from 2%-3%.  I heard this type of thing was abundant before the 07/08 crash, but I had just gotten out of school then and didn't really have much credit history to speak of. 

I've been basically ignoring these, but I'm wondering if there aren't some interesting uses here that I'm not considering?  My first thought was- would it be worth 2% i'd pay on this money to take out, say a  $10,000 advance and just max out our IRAs now?  Or put it into our taxable account? (all index funds)  Or maybe the 2% fee makes this not a great deal.   

Or maybe there are other creative ways to use an offer like this?

Or maybe, I should just stop trying to fuck around with things like this and just keep putting them through the shredder? 

Thoughts? 

[Another Reader]

Chase Slate is offering 0 percent interest for 15 months and 0 percent balance transfer, so I applied for and received the Slate card.  A new roof for one rental house and the carpet/vinyl for another went on the Chase Sapphire last week, where they got Ultimate Rewards points.  Next week, the total is being transferred to the Slate card.  No need to disrupt asset accrual today when I can cash flow those capital improvements via Chase for the next 15 months.  Thanks, J.P. and Jamie!

[kendallf]

Chase Slate is offering 0 percent interest for 15 months and 0 percent balance transfer, so I applied for and received the Slate card.  A new roof for one rental house and the carpet/vinyl for another went on the Chase Sapphire last week, where they got Ultimate Rewards points.  Next week, the total is being transferred to the Slate card.  No need to disrupt asset accrual today when I can cash flow those capital improvements via Chase for the next 15 months.  Thanks, J.P. and Jamie!

You may be in for a surprise there, as Chase does not allow balance transfers from another Chase card.  I just parked a bunch of renovation expenses on my Slate card, and went ahead and tried a Chase card transfer.. It flagged the card as one of theirs and did not allow the transfer.

[Another Reader]

Thanks for the heads up.  It did seem too good to be true.  That's reasonable on Chase's part, but the CSR did not mention that when I asked.  Maybe I will just put the balance of the roof directly on the Slate card and just pay off the rest.

[BCBiker]

This is not exactly my specialty in giving advice but I have devised a way to turn credit card 0% interest offers into cash without paying any fee whatsoever.  This method can be used to transfer balances from one 0% card to another 0% card as well.

The major caveat is that you have to live near a Target store that offers the Prepaid Redcard (or know someone who does - you can have someone get the temp card in their name and register it in yours).  Here is a map of the participating stores: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=zaZeFBtuy5B8.kyYIaq26n5m4

What is special about the Prepaid Redcard is that you can load the card/account with a credit card (in any Target store) and once the money is loaded on the card, the account functions in a way similar to a checking account with Billpay.

There are monthly limitations but you can circumvent this by asking a spouse or friend to participate.

Limits are as follow: $1000 per card swipe, $2500 per day, $5000 per month

This means that with you and a friend/spouse, you can load $10k to the prepaid account in two days (once the account if fully active).

Once the money is loaded you can immediately get cash off the account via ATM (without fee on Target store ATMs): $750 per day, $1500 per month.  You can also withdraw the money into a checking account or pay a credit card bill with the money much higher limits.

This is a perfect tool for travel hacking enthusiasts to "manufacture spending" but can also be used to transfer balances and to get cash to be used for things as suggested by the OP!

I've used it to transfer several thousand dollars from one 0% to another for investing purposes.  There are some subtleties to this so do your research but it is pretty awesome!

[kendallf]

Looks like no FL Targets offer that card.  I have thought about dabbling in the manufactured spending but haven't wanted to complicate my life that much.  :-)  Also, while I'm still cash flowing the renovation work on one of my houses, my expenditures have been enough to meet the spending for my current rewards cards.  I tend to apply for about 2-3 per quarter, currently working on Barclay Arrival+, Capital One Venture, and Citi Hilton. 

AR, I just put my new roof materials on the Venture card, and will be transferring that to Slate within a few more days.  :-)

[Ricky]

There's one simple rule with credit cards: never carry a balance that you can't pay off before the ridiculous APR hits. With a standard credit card, that's basically 30 days. With your offers, that's anywhere from 12-15 months. Just make sure your monthly cash flow meets the (total balance) / (# of interest free months).

If you can afford it, and I suspect you can, then you have to decide whether you can beat 2%. That's dependent upon your own risk tolerance which we can't answer for you. For me, I feel 2% is fair and cheap relative to the value I could get from the "loan".

I think you're asking if we'll judge you or if it is just a plain bad idea. No to the former, not necessarily for the latter.

[Another Reader]

With multiple rentals, I (sadly) never seem to have any trouble meeting spending requirements.  I thought about it and the roof balance will go on another brand of cash back card and then get transferred.  A few minutes more work for $40 or $50 is probably worth it. 

[nanu]

Posting to follow, mostly because I've wondered about this myself.
A year or so of interest free loan does sound kinda nice...

[johnny847]

Looks like no FL Targets offer that card.  I have thought about dabbling in the manufactured spending but haven't wanted to complicate my life that much.  :-)  Also, while I'm still cash flowing the renovation work on one of my houses, my expenditures have been enough to meet the spending for my current rewards cards.  I tend to apply for about 2-3 per quarter, currently working on Barclay Arrival+, Capital One Venture, and Citi Hilton. 

AR, I just put my new roof materials on the Venture card, and will be transferring that to Slate within a few more days.  :-)

You can do the trick posted on a smaller scale with an Amex Serve. The limits are $1000 load online per month ($1500 if you sign up through Softcard on a phone using AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint), and you can do $2500 a day and $5000 a month of debit card loads at Walmart. The debit card loads can be achieved by buying Visa gift cards with your credit card. However, this usually incurs ~1% fee ($5 on $500 gc's).

[seattlecyclone]

I've done this before. It was much more lucrative when an online savings account yielded more than a fraction of a percent interest.