$150 in Gift Cards and $26.5K Balance Transfer for One Year

Last month I realized that the 2 0% Balance Transfers that I was taking advantage of to earn interest in savings accounts were expiring and needed to be paid back in full. However, I was in the middle of purchasing my next property and didn't want to risk problems with obtaining financing by signing up for any new balance transfers until after the deal was complete.

As soon as I closed on my new property I started the process of signing up for a new balance transfer. I had been stock piling credit card mailings to review to see if I could find a good offer - there were plenty to choose from. However, one caught my eye that seemed very lucrative.

I discovered that my existing Citi Diamond Rewards Credit Card (from a previous balance transfer) offered a 5,000 point bonus (5,000pts = $50 gift card) to refer a friend to sign up for the card. The offer was include on the last page of the statement with my referral code.

The Citi Diamond Rewards Credit Card offered 10,000 points with your 1st purchase on the card and a 0% Balance Transfer for 12 months with no balance transfer fees.

So I began to think that I could try and refer myself to take advantage of all the potential bonuses. I used the referral code on my credit card statement to refer my self to the card. I then filled out the credit card application and sat around and waited for several days.

The new credit card showed up with a $10,000 credit limit. Not bad. I immediately activated the card and went to the store and made a small purchase with it. I then added the card account to my online Citi account so I could see the card activity and make payments online.

About 3 days later the transaction showed up on my account and I immediately made a payment to my card to pay off the amount I charged (yes, even without waiting for the bill). I hope this will qualify me for the 10,000 bonus points (10,000pts = $100 gift card) with my 1st purchase.

2 days later my payment cleared. I called up the Citi customer service and requested they move $16,500 of the credit limit from my old card to my new card which put the new credit limit at $26,500.

I then went back online to my Citi account and requested a balance transfer check for $26,500. The check showed up about 1 week later.

Things are looking good, I am still waiting for all the points to show up so I can redeem them for the gift cards. As long as all the points show up this will be my most profitable 0% Balance Transfer deal yet!