Blank Checks from Your Credit Card Issuer Carry Risks and Costs

Those blank “convenience checks” from your credit card company offer a quick way to write yourself a loan, pay bills or transfer other loans to your credit card account. But be aware that the use of a convenience check is a “cash advance” that comes with high costs and other potential pitfalls.

Take precautions to avoid serious fees and penalties if there’s a glitch when you deposit a convenience check into your checking account or send it to pay a bill. Before you write a check, make sure that it will not put you over your limit for cash advances. Also find out what the current limit is in case your credit company reduced the amount you may borrow on your card through cash advances and you forgot or did not notice.

“If the convenience check puts your card balance over the new limit, your card issuer may not honor the check,” said Luke W. Reynolds, Chief of the FDIC’s Community Outreach Section. “The returned-check could trigger overdraft fees from your bank, returned-check fees from others and over-limit fees from your card issuer.”

His recommendations: “Understand when your card company might not honor a check. Consider calling your card company to verify your understanding of its policies,” Reynolds said. “In addition, you may want to call your credit card company again after you deposit the check into your bank and before you spend any of that money, to make sure the card issuer has honored the check.”

Source: FDIC