Cross Account Balance Transfers

Cross-Account Transfers

Banks do not allow electronic funds transfers between different account owners even among family members unless the person is a joint account holder. However, they rarely verify the account owner of the target account. Most of the time, cross-account ACH works without any problems except in the rare case that they take additional due diligence when the transfer amount is over certain threshold (i.e. $100,000).

Balance Transfer Results

I have experimented cross-account balance transfers between family members. Whether it was a balance transfer to another credit card, a direct deposit into my bank account, or a payment on the loan account, all transfers went through just fine. The results are shown below:

Source Target Amount Method
Bank of America Chase $1,000 Balance Transfer
Barclays Chase $1,500 Balance Transfer
Chase Citi $14,250 Balance Transfer
Chase Citi $15,000 Balance Transfer
Discover Bank of America $18,000 Direct Deposit
Chase Bank of America $11,400 Balance Transfer
U.S. Bank Bank of America $17,000 Balance Transfer
Alliant Credit Union Bank of America $16,000 Balance Transfer
U.S. Bank Alliant Credit Union $16,541 Balance Transfer
Discover Bank of America $23,700 Direct Deposit
  • Adam Smith
  • Becky Smith
  • Cyndi Lauper