I was trying to use citi’s online form to transfer. Basically, they rejected the bank. (happened with a cu in the past and BOA this time). I ended up just transferring to the CC account directly. Thanks for any info. Just curious…
Haven’t done this in a while, and I don’t recall ever trying to do that using the online transfer. If you have the offer online, you should be able to get the same offer in the mail. You should be able to deposit the mailed checks anywhere.
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I forget some of the specifics of which credit card issuers will send refund checks for positive balances, but I would usually do a BT to cards from those issuers and request a balance refund in the form of a check which could be deposited to any bank.
When was the last time you did this? Overpayment is a red flag for some issuers and they can close your account.
Yes, you have to be careful with who you do it with. Do your research first. It was about 8 years ago for me.
I understand the gift tax the limit is $15,000 for 2018. My wife and I share a joint checking account. If she writes a check to her sister, can she give $15,000 or $30,000 to avoid paying gift tax?
You don’t have to pay any gift tax until you exceed the lifetime gift tax exemption ($5.6M in 2018).
But yes, the annual gift tax exclusion is $15K per donee, so the two of you can give $30K, and if the sister is married, then $60K, and if they have kids, then another $30K per kid.
And it doesn’t matter where the gift comes from – doesn’t have to be a joint account.
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Wow I had no idea you had to exceed $5.6M in order to owe gift tax. If we write a check for 31k (if sister not married) we would not owe anything because we are under $5.6M?
Correct, you wouldn’t owe taxes, but since it’s > the annual exclusion, you’d have to file a gift tax form with your tax return so it gets counted against your lifetime exemption. Google it. Here’s one article.
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Surprisingly, I just got turned down for a Capital One card. I only have one of their cards. In hindsight, I really shouldn’t have done it. $50 isn’t enough to make a hard pull worthwhile. How many Capital One cards do you have? They will tell me why they are so uptight in 7-10 business days.
The limit is 2 or more 
. I’ve had 1 personal + 1 biz at the same time and didn’t try to get more. I also don’t think you should have done it for $50, considering they have a bunch of cards that offer $500 value.
And don’t they pull from all 3 bureaus? That’s 3 hard pulls. I wouldn’t take 3 credit pulls even for a $500 card. Taking 3 pulls for 3 separate $500 cards, now you’re talking.
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“Based on your application information,there are too many Capital One accounts.” 
I did it with a direct deposit to Wells Fargo last year from a Citi CC BT offer and there was no problem. Can’t see why they would treat a big bank differently from another, unless they changed it to be only used with their own checking accounts, but that probably goes against what the add mentioned (deposit into your checking account and pay off any credit card (or similar language )).
Reply to myself. I tried to redeem Citi cash rewards to a new bank account, and couldn’t because they have an internal rule that does not allow them to do direct deposits to a new account until after 45 days of the first payment plus 2 more payments during the same time frame. Maybe the have the same situation with balance transfers that are direct deposited into new checking accounts.
I have escrow account with mortgage lender.They are going to pay my taxes. Is it possible to request them to pay in Jan 2019 instead of Dec 2018. I think, it makes sense to club 2 years of property taxes into one calendar year (2019). For 2018, we can take standard deduction which is increased to 22k right? Does it make sense.
I don’t know if it’s possible to ask them to make a payment outside of their regular payment window, but I certainly hope so. I think mine pays on the last day of the grace period.
The state+local tax (SALT) deduction is limited to $10K. So if two property tax payments plus your state income tax (limited to 10K in total) plus all your other itemized deductions puts you over 24k, then yes, it makes sense.
(Edited: 22k->24k per Full_Disclosure’s correction below)
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I think it’s 24k for married filing jointly.
There is talk of changing this in the attempt to roll back some of the tcja. I doubt it will happen, but may be worthwhile to try to leave that option open for 2019.
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Hi,
Thanks for the information. My property tax for 2018 is close to 11k. So, there is no point in trying to combine 2 year taxes into single calendar year. Am i missing anything.
If you already plan to itemize and qualify with new new itemization rules I don’t think it matters. Why most people attempted to prepay in 2017 before the 2018 tax laws came into effect was so they could get the itemization benefits in 2017 because they wouldn’t qualify to itemize with the new 2018 tax laws and/or because their tax rates decreased for 2018.
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