Getting The Money Out

Many credit card providers allow holders to deposit BT money directly into your checking account through ACH transfer. This is by far the easiest and best option, as it doesn’t require any work from you and you don’t need to wait for a check in the mail and wait for it to clear (thus more interest). Some always allow it (Bank of America), after three months (Chase) or never (Citi, AMEX). Some companies are not consistent (Discover, Capital One) with their policy so it is worth the call to check.

If ACH transfer is not an option, some companies allow you to use a balance transfer check. Make the payment out to yourself. These usually come with new accounts. Some providers allow you to do it directly from their website. Citi is very easy:

The above two are by far the most popular options and should cover you for 80% of the providers. The last option is a full-proof method of getting money out of those troublesome last cards.

Your credit balance will be negative if you overpay your bills. To get that excess payment back, some providers allow you to easily get credit balance refunds. So simply balance transfer funds from the troublesome card to a card with allows for easy credit balance refunds.

The most popular option is Citi. Just like with balance transfers, they allow you to do it from their website. They aren’t too picky about the negative balance being greater than the total credit limit either. Holdups, when they rarely occur, have been minor. An arbitrageur had his money held for a week and a half when Citi investigated the source of his funds. This was when he was trying to get a $40,000 credit balance on a card with a $5,000 credit limit(!). He got through fine.