7.17.2009

Free cash advances on your credit card from the U.S. Mint

You know those cash advance rip-offs where you pay your credit card company an upfront fee plus a usurious interest rate? Well, there's no need for those any more.

Charlie discovered a free money scam from the dimwits at the U.S. Mint, called Direct Ship.

You can order thousands of dollars of $1 coins on your credit card at face value, and the mint will ship them to you overnight free of charge. They are treated as a purchase, not a cash advance, so not only do you not pay finance charges, but you earn airline miles or cashback rewards just like a regular purchase. You can then immediately take the coins to the bank and deposit them to start earning interest, and you don't have to pay for them until the due date on your next credit card bill.

$1000 of coins weighs about 20 pounds. Imagine the idiocy of a country that pays UPS insured overnight shipping on multiple 20 pound boxes, plus pays credit card merchant fees, just to take a loss to get people to use its currency. Sounds like something Zimbabwe would do, huh?

Bonus play: If you're going down, go big. If you're planning to default on your credit cards, make sure you max them out getting cash from the mint first! Then laugh at the banks as they beg you to settle for pennies on the dollar.

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Happy Super Tuesday!