Hi all, In the past (a few years back), I was able to transfer excess funds on a Westpac credit card to my Westpac savings account online and not get charged any fee besides a $2.50 transfer fee.
Anyone have experience doing the same thing recently?
The plan is to do a balance transfer to a Westpac credit card and move the excess back into savings then home loan offset.
Just want to make sure they haven't changed any policies and will charge interest on excess funds that are moved.
Cheers.
Get them to do it via chat - if the card is in a positive balance, they'll do it for free.
Not too sure why I got neg?
I had two Westpac cards and in both cases, when card is overpaid, you get them to refund you the credit balance using the chat function and it shows up in your cheque account the next day.
Not too sure why I got neg?
Don't worry about it, it's not you, it's them.
Maybe ask westpac chat if you can just transfer the funds between the accounts in the app or online without any fees
If your funds are in excess, it's hardly a cash advance is it.
The plan is to do a balance transfer to a Westpac credit card and move the excess back into savings then home loan offset.
What is the excess you refer to? So are you saying the scenario is like this?
More like this:
If you have nil balance, there is nothing to balance transfer. If you cash advance from ANZ to WBC you'll get charged a fee and cash advance rate for interest.
If it was free than people would just open up credit cards for a few 100k of limit and put it in offset or HISA
You request Westpac to do a balance transfer to ANZ for $15k. (allowing for 90% of credit limit)
- Westpac balance now $15k DR and ANZ $15k Cr
- Next day, cash advance ANZ $14,980 to say offset account
- Cash advance Fee $20. No interest on ANZ account as a credit balance.
It's a simple arbitrage that OzBargain people use.
This question is pure gibberish.
Really? is it?
It will save me about $450 of interest on my home loan for the year.
Gibberish away..
I applied and got a st. George(subsidiary of westpac) credit card for exactly the same reason. Did the balance transfer from anz to st.george. Now to transfer the excess funds from st. George credit to savings, they are charging 3% cash advance fee though i have excess credits.
Looking for other avenues..
Thanks for feedback all. I can confirm that I transferred via online banking and no fee was charged. I ensured that my account was still in excess to not incur any penalty interest with Westpac.
Those $10k of funds are now in my offset account.
Interesting thread.
Previously, Westpac Group cards included the following in fees booklets:
For cash advances against credit funds, provided your credit card account has a zero or credit balance immediately after our debiting the cash advance to the account, the minimum fee will apply.
Later, they removed even the minimum fee of $2.50. More recently, in 2024, the above statement has been removed from the fees booklets.
It does appear there's an intention by Westpac Group brands to start charging the full 3% even where the credit card account has a zero or credit balance immediately after the cash advance, but they may not have started doing so yet.
To charge such a fee, in my opinion, would be unconscionable, as there is no true cash advance and no credit risk for the bank.
It's good to see that the 3% fee isn't (yet) being charged because I'm about to do the same.
Cash advance fee is 3% according to this - https://www.westpac.com.au/personal-banking/solutions/stayin…
Likely depends on the specific terms of your credit card though, I'd just give them a call and ask what your cash advance fee is.