You can use your credit card to get cash in several ways, but every method comes with extra costs that regular purchases don’t carry. The most straightforward option is withdrawing money at an ATM using your card’s PIN, but you can also use convenience checks, peer-to-peer payment apps, or buy certain cash-equivalent products. Before you choose any of these routes, you need to understand how cash advance fees and interest work, because they can make a small withdrawal surprisingly expensive.
ATM Cash Advances
The simplest way to turn your credit card into cash is to insert it at any ATM that accepts your card network, enter your PIN, and withdraw money. If you don’t have a PIN set up, you can call the number on the back of your card to request one. Some issuers will let you set it through their app.
Your cash advance limit is not the same as your overall credit limit. It’s typically capped at a percentage of your total credit line. If your credit limit is $15,000 and the card caps cash advances at 30%, for example, the most you can pull out is $4,500. You can find your specific cash advance limit on your monthly statement or by logging into your account online. The ATM itself may also impose a per-transaction withdrawal cap, usually a few hundred dollars.
Convenience Checks
Some credit card issuers mail blank checks, called convenience checks, that draw against your credit line. You can write one of these checks to yourself, deposit it in your bank account, and use the funds as cash. You can also use them to pay bills or other people directly.
Despite looking like ordinary checks, these are treated as cash advances. The FDIC notes that the interest rate on convenience checks is charged at the cash advance rate, which is often higher than your purchase rate. Interest typically begins accruing the moment the check posts to your account, with no grace period. You’ll also pay a transaction fee, usually a percentage of the check amount. Writing a $1,000 convenience check with a 5% fee means $50 in fees on top of the interest.
Some issuers offer a promotional low rate on convenience checks for a limited time. If you’re tempted by one of these offers, check what the rate jumps to after the introductory period ends. The long-term rate plus the upfront transaction fee can easily outweigh the short-term savings.
Peer-to-Peer Payment Apps
Apps like Venmo, PayPal, and Cash App let you link a credit card and send money to another person, who can then transfer it to a bank account. Some people use this to send money to a trusted friend or family member and have them send it back, effectively converting credit into cash.
This approach has two layers of cost. Venmo, for instance, charges a 3% fee on payments made with a credit card. On top of that, your card issuer may code the transaction as a cash advance, which triggers the higher cash advance interest rate and an additional fee from your issuer (commonly 5% of the amount or $10, whichever is greater). So a $500 transfer could cost you $15 in Venmo fees plus $25 in cash advance fees from your card company, totaling $40 before any interest kicks in.
Not every issuer codes these transactions the same way. Some treat them as regular purchases. But you won’t know for certain until the charge appears on your statement, so it’s a gamble.
Cash-Equivalent Transactions
Several other transactions look like purchases but get classified as cash advances by your card issuer. These include:
- Money orders: Buying a money order with a credit card is treated as a cash advance. Some retailers won’t even allow it and will require you to use cash or debit instead.
- Wire transfers: Sending a wire transfer funded by a credit card counts as a cash advance because you’re using the issuer’s money to move funds.
- Foreign currency purchases: Buying foreign currency at an exchange counter with your credit card can trigger cash advance treatment.
- Lottery tickets and gambling: Casino chips, online gambling deposits, and lottery ticket purchases are commonly coded as cash advances.
- Overdraft protection: If your credit card is linked to your checking account as a backup funding source, any overdraft covered by the card is treated as a cash advance.
The key pattern: any time you use a credit card to obtain cash or something easily convertible to cash, your issuer will likely apply cash advance terms.
What Cash Advances Actually Cost
Cash advances are one of the most expensive ways to borrow money from a credit card, for three reasons.
First, there’s an upfront transaction fee. Most issuers charge 3% to 5% of the amount, or a flat minimum (often around $10), whichever is greater. This fee hits your account immediately.
Second, the interest rate on cash advances is typically several percentage points higher than your purchase APR. If your card charges 22% on purchases, your cash advance rate might be 27% or more. Any promotional rate you have on purchases, like a 0% introductory APR, almost never applies to cash advances.
Third, and this is the detail that catches most people off guard, there is no grace period on cash advances. With regular purchases, you typically have until your statement due date to pay the balance without incurring interest. Cash advances start accumulating interest the same day you take them. Every day you carry the balance adds to the cost.
Here’s a quick example. You take a $1,000 cash advance with a 5% fee and a 27% APR. The fee alone is $50. If you carry that balance for 30 days before paying it off, you’ll owe roughly another $22 in interest. That’s $72 to borrow $1,000 for a month.
How to Minimize the Cost
If you need cash and a credit card is your only option, a few steps can reduce the damage. Pay off the advance as quickly as possible, ideally within days rather than weeks, since interest accrues daily with no grace period. Take only what you absolutely need, because both the fee and the interest scale with the amount. Check your card’s cash advance APR and fee structure before the withdrawal so you know exactly what you’re paying. You can find both in your cardholder agreement or on your issuer’s website under “rates and fees.”
Also keep in mind how your payments are applied. When you carry both a purchase balance and a cash advance balance, minimum payments are generally applied to the lowest-rate balance first. That means your expensive cash advance balance can linger while your cheaper purchase balance gets paid down. To clear the cash advance faster, pay more than the minimum each month.