Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Buy US Mint circulated coins by credit card for fee-free cash advances

The US Mint (http://bit.ly/p5Yya) now lets you buy circulated dollar coins with your credit card, with no shipping or other charges. You can deposit these coins to your bank for a fee-free cash advance.

Notes:

% Many coins aren't available yet, but the George Washington ones (bottom of page) are.

% The shopping cart sometimes shows a shipping fee of ~$5, but this goes away when you checkout.

% Avoid buying more than $1000 worth of coins per day. I tried buying $10000 once and they cancelled my order.

% I got my coins UPS Next Day Air (no shipping charge!). They require a signature, so make sure someone's there so sign for them.

% Some credit card companies may treat this as a cash advance, so you may want to doublecheck first.

UPDATE: On 20 Jul 2011, the Mint canceled this program and send me (and others) this harshly worded email:

 

The United States Mint has eliminated the credit and debit card
purchase of $1 Coins through its Direct Ship Program effective
July 20, 2011. Customers who wish to purchase $1 coins through
the Direct Ship Program can still do so by using a wire
transfer, money order or check. Customers who wish to purchase
the coins by wire transfer may fax their order to
(202)756-6585.

[...]

If you currently have an open $1 coin Direct Ship order placed
with the United States Mint, that order will be
cancelled. Please resubmit your order by wire transfer, check
or money order using the order form. The Mint has determined
that this policy change is prudent due to ongoing activity by
individuals purchasing $1 coins with credit cards, accumulating
frequent flyer miles, and then returning coins to local banks.
Local banks, in turn, return coins to the Federal
Reserve. While not illegal, this activity is a clear abuse and
misuse of the program which was intended to facilitate the use
of $1 coins in cash transactions.

The Mint has undertaken several aggressive internal and
external actions to mitigate this issue, including restricting
chronic and repeated use of credit cards, contacting customers
who frequently placed large numbers of orders to ensure they
were using the coins for legitimate business purchases, and
other measures. While these efforts eliminated a significant
amount of misuse in the program, we believe some abuse still
exists. Eliminating the credit and debit card purchase of the
$1 coin is the next step in our efforts to root out abuse in
this program and ensure it is better targeted toward fulfilling
its intended purpose ? which is to get the $1 coin into greater
circulation.