How To Avoid Cash Advance Fees

One thing about manufactured spending you need to be careful of is that some banks will charge you cash advance fees for purchasing Gift Cards and other similar “like cash” options. Citi is notorious for this and charges it as a cash advance where ever possible. Other banks are a little kinder, but will charge these fees when they deem it’s necessary.

This can be frustrating because you don’t want to put through a big purchase which might be charge as a cash advance and you also don’t want to put through a little purchase to test the waters as you’ll still have to pay a small fee for doing so (assuming your purchasing a gift card with an activation fee) without earning the large number of points, miles or cash back to off set it.

You can easily avoid cash advance fees, all you need to do is contact your credit card issuer and let them know that you want your cash advance limit set to $0. All card issuers will process this for you, make sure you get a reference number and if possible send a secured message rather than calling to help create a paper trail in the event that there is an issue in the future.

There is one downside to this tactic and that’s some purchases will first be processed as a cash advance and then will later change into a regular purchase. Because your cash advance limit is set to $0, it won’t be able to process the transaction even though it’ll later be coded as a purchase.

Reducing Your Cash Advance Limit With Barclays

  • Call 866-408-4064 (Barclays Credit Department)
  • Ask for your cash advance limit to be reduced to $0 or $1
  • They’ll then ask you why, use one of the following reasons or make up your own:
    • Some banks allow you to fund new checking accounts with a credit card, you want to make sure this is not coded as a cash advance

Other Banks And Their Cash Advance Limits:

  • Alliant: Cannot be reduced: 1
  • American Express: Cash advance limit is tied to your credit limit and cannot be lowered.
  • Bank of America: Has a minimum cash advance limit of $200
  • Capital One: Cannot change your cash advance limit, usually 30% of your credit limit
  • Chase: allows a limit of $0 (update 12/31/17: now reports are saying it’s either $100 or $20)
  • Citi: allows a limit of $0
  • FIA: allows a limit of $0
  • TD Bank: Hardcoded to minimum 30% of credit limit (1)

 

 

Hat tip to Fat Wallet Finance

 

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243 Comments
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SG
SG (@guest_1820766)
March 27, 2024 15:54

WF CA limit is 20% of the credit limit.

S
S (@guest_1815497)
March 17, 2024 18:21

DP: Synchrony doesn’t allow you to change your cash advance limit.

Thick Jim
Thick Jim (@guest_1789541)
January 31, 2024 10:24

I was able to opt out of Amex Cash Advance. I was also able to set Navy Federal cash rewards visa to $0

Nathan
Nathan (@guest_1736590)
November 14, 2023 10:26

Has anyone ever tried using the Apple Credit Card for bank funding? From what I’ve read the Apple Card does not allow cash advances, so it should be good for this, no?

Eternal Blue
Eternal Blue (@guest_1811558)
March 10, 2024 16:39

I was able to fund $1030 to a new Redstone FCU savings account with my Apple Card. It coded to the Services category.

Jack
Jack (@guest_1811589)
March 10, 2024 18:02

Thanks Eternal Blue. How did you even become a Redstone FCU in the first place right now? Are you in footprint? Eternal Blue

Eternal Blue
Eternal Blue (@guest_1813348)
March 13, 2024 20:50

Not in their footprint. I joined to get their Visa Signature. Only their checking account is geofenced AFAIK.

Jack
Jack (@guest_1813377)
March 13, 2024 21:11

Thanks Eternal Blue. When did you join? It sounds like they made it harder to OOS to join last year Eternal Blue Eternal Blue

sk9879
sk9879 (@guest_1690171)
September 10, 2023 13:15

 William Charles A few additional DPs… 1) Amex does permit you to “unenroll” the cash advance feature (i.e., effectively $0), and if you have an authorized user on the card, you can “restrict access” for them. 2) Re Citi, I was able to lower my ThankYou points earning cards to $0, but my Citi AAdvantage had a $750 minimum.

Kris
Kris (@guest_1765183)
December 26, 2023 00:54

I was able to lower the cash advance limit (aka “available cash line”) to $0 on my CitiBusiness®/AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® via online chat with a CSR. Process was easy and effective immediately.

KyleC
KyleC (@guest_1671558)
August 13, 2023 16:43

I was able to call Citi and lower the cash advance limit without issues. It did take a while to get to a CSR though.

Brett
Brett (@guest_1667068)
August 6, 2023 08:32

DP for Barclays business. I called about my Aviator Red for Business, asking how a recent $100.00 attempt to fund opening deposit for new US Bank checking account was coded. She said it was coded a cash advance. She knew it was cash advance because on her end, my normal “purchases” showed as subtracting from my 14k “credit limit”, but this $100 hold showed as subtracting from my $2,800 “cash” limit. (or intending to, but we denied it.)
She also said I could not reduce my cash limit to 0.00. She said the cash limit is a percentage of the credit limit, and I could only adjust the credit limit. The cash limit would just decrease accordingly, but not go to 0.00.

Jack
Jack (@guest_1669529)
August 9, 2023 19:51

Thanks Brett for sharing your unpleasant experience. Gadget posted a DP a while ago that Barclays even manually added a cash advance fees for him…
Please keep us posted if they charge you a fee AND interest.
I hope that you can call them to waive the cash advance fee.
When your $100 charge is posted, you can pay off the full balance as soon as you can.
Keep a close eye on your next statement. If you get charged for any cash advance interest, ask them to waive those interest too.
This is the DP that Gadget on Barclay Brett
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/how-to-avoid-cash-advance-fees/#comment-1074819

Jack
Jack (@guest_1669533)
August 9, 2023 19:53

Also Brett, reader dizzy said that he was able to set his Barclays biz card to a cash advance limit of $1.
But the fact that Barclays can manually add a cash advance fee makes this more troublesome….
Keep an eye out on our statements as always Brett
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/how-to-avoid-cash-advance-fees/#comment-1238265

JS
JS (@guest_1655801)
July 17, 2023 20:15

Brother pls we need these sections updated if possible. Appreciate all that you do! But I’m sure as a community we’d be okay without hearing about bestbuy deals for a few weeks if this stuff gets up to date and accurate. Thank you again for all that you do much much appreciated

techbrolic
techbrolic (@guest_1675677)
August 19, 2023 15:22

“let them know that you want your cash advance limit set to $0. All card issuers will process this for you”

*scrolls down to “Other Banks And Their Cash Advance Limits” sees that almost all of those listed either don’t allow it or have a minimum limit that is above $0*

Dean
Dean (@guest_1643547)
June 28, 2023 20:37

Don’t assume your minimus cash advance limit hasn’t gone up since you last called in many moons ago. Some banks might do you a “favor” by bumping up the limit as the years go by. I called in to Chase and I they had increased my limit to $400 from $100. It’s back to $100.

Billy
Billy (@guest_1622510)
May 23, 2023 11:47

DP. Wells Fargo would not allow decrease of cash advance limit.