Transfer from credit to debit
I've called both BofA and Amex Customer Support, and they couldn't help. That's because you cannot. Debit card is tied to your checking account, so you can do a cash advance from your AMEX and deposit it to your BOA checking account. It will then be available to use with your debit card. "The new information helps a little, but you're still stuck as far as doing exactly what you asked.  The question that you really should be asking is ""How do I deposit money into my BofA checking account from Italy?""  If you can figure that out, then the whole part about your father's AmEx card really becomes irrelevant.  He might get that money from a cash advance on his AmEx card or he might get it from somewhere else. I think there's some small chance that if you call BofA and ask the right question, they may give you an answer that will let you make this deposit.  I tend to doubt it, but this would at least give you a chance. Other than that, you should probably look into some options based in Italy.  For example, get the cash from your father and open a bank account in Italy.  Maybe you can buy a pre-paid Visa card with the cash to use while you're there.  Maybe use traveler's checks for the rest of your trip.  Etc. What is available and what makes sense will still depend on a lot of details that we don't have (like how long you're staying and what type of entry visa you got when you entered Italy)." As other answers and comments suggest you are trying to do something... odd to say the least. No one wants to use a credit card to finance a checking/current account because you are creating a debt on that credit card (unless you are in the odd situation where the card is in credit) that will immediately start accruing interest at a rate probably in excess of 10% per annum. That is not a clever thing to do. What you really need to do is find an account that one of you owns that has a positive balance and use an internet banking service to transfer part of that positive balance onto the debit card. The other solution is not to use the debit card at all but use the credit card to complete the purchases you are trying to manage with the debit card. The reason that BofA and AmEx customer support can't help you is that no one would ever do what you want to do; they would either move existing money from another account or ask for a bank loan. As revised,  the answer is still that you're asking the wrong question. If your father wants to make money available on your debit card, all he has to do is deposit the money into your checking account. Where he gets that money from -- as an AmEx casH advance, by selling your bicycle for you, or simply out of one of his own bank accounts -- is irrelevant.
If you have quoted an incorrect number, and the transfer has happened, it cannot be reversed. The funds are already with the individual and bank cannot debit the individual without his authorization. The best course for you is to try get the details of the individual and see if the funds can be moved to the correct account. "The short answer is: it depends. The longer answer is that balance transfers are tricky, and often a bait-and-switch; they'll offer 0% interest, but charge a 3-4% ""fee"" (which isn't interest and is perfectly legal) on the amount transferred. If you transfer $5000, you now owe the new card company $5,200. Now, that could be fine with you; at an 18-20% APR on your old card you may have been charged that much in just one or two months, and by capitalizing this fee up front you lock in 0% for a year. However, there are other possible machinations behind the scenes. For instance, you may incur retroactive interest on the full balance if not paid off in the year (at 20% APR on $5000, that's an extra grand you will owe if there's even one dollar of the original transferred balance left in the account). Paying off the balance and thus avoiding these penalties has actually been made harder by the CARD Act, which required creditors to apply any payment made to the highest-interest portion of the balance first. As balance transfers are 0% they are the last on the list, so if you transfer a balance and then carry an additional balance you are setting yourself up for failure. You MUST have a zero-dollar balance for one month sometime during the year in order to be sure the balance transfer is paid off and no penalties will be incurred. That can be hard, because 5 grand is a lot to pay off. To pay off a $5000 balance in 12 months requires payments of $417. Miss one and you'll have to make it up over the remaining months. If you transferred a balance, you probably didn't have $420/mo to pay to the card in the first place. In summary, balance transfers can work, but you have to understand all of the terms and conditions, and what will happen should you violate any of them. If you don't understand what you're getting into, you could very well end up worse than you started." "Circa 2002-2005, I was able to successfully ""transfer"" a balance from a debit card linked to a bank account to a Bank of America Visa credit card. As an example, I could say do a balance transfer from the card XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX (which was a valid debit card number) to the credit card, and the funds would appear in the checking account within a few days, and also the balance on the credit card would go up the amount plus any balance transfer fee. I think they've sealed off that loophole years ago." The GnuCash manual has a page with examples of opening new accounts. The tl;dr is: use the Equity:Opening Balance to offset your original amounts. The further explanation from the GnuCash page is: As shown earlier with the Assets:Checking account, the starting   balances in an account are typically assigned to a special account   called Equity:Opening Balance. To start filling in this chart of   account, begin by setting the starting balances for the accounts.   Assume that there is $1000 in the savings account and $500 charged on   the credit card. Open the Assets:Savings account register. Select View from the menu and check to make sure you are in Basic Ledger style. You will   view your transactions in the other modes later, but for now let’s   enter a basic transaction using the basic default style. From the Assets:Savings account register window, enter a basic 2 account transaction to set your starting balance to $1000, transferred   from Equity:Opening Balance. Remember, basic transactions transfer   money from a source account to a destination account. Record the   transaction (press the Enter key, or click on the Enter icon). From the Assets:Checking account register window, enter a basic 2 account transaction to set your starting balance to $1000, transferred   from Equity:Opening Balance. From the Liabilities:Visa account register window, enter a basic 2 account transaction to set your starting balance to $500, transferred   from Equity:Opening Balance. This is done by entering the $500 as a   charge in the Visa account (or decrease in the Opening Balance   account), since it is money you borrowed. Record the transaction   (press the Enter key, or click on the Enter icon). You should now have 3 accounts with opening balances set. Assets:Checking, Assets:Savings, and Liabilities:Visa. "The danger of overdrawing the account via the use of a debit card, and the exorbitant fees that can result make me hesitant to use a debit card. The ability to cover all the transactions with one payment is why I use a credit card for these ""debit"" transactions.  Yes there is a risk of a late payment, but that can be easily avoided within the three week grace period. The ability to electronically transfer the money to pay off the card makes this even easier." Hi,   This is treated as a electronic balance transfer. There may be a fee for performing this. Cash advance interest will apply on the EBT. You may get a teaser rate for a limited amount of time. After it expires, the normal cash advance interest rate for the credit card will kick in.   Check your credit card statement. Somewhere, you'll see a section listing the interest rates. One for retail purchases, one for cash transactions.   Do not do this. If you need to borrow money to pay off a large debt, do one of the following:  1) Switch to the lowest interest rate card your bank offers  2) Apply for a credit card with another bank that is offering a great teaser rate, transfer the balance, cut your living expenses and send every penny to paying off the balance before the teaser rate expires  3) If you cannot get access new credit or switch credit cards, seek advice from a professional credit counsellor on your options and the best one to choose  Sorry to ramble. I've seen far too many people fall into the debt trap. You don't want to go there.   Source: I work for a bank which offers credit card products. "In this context, we're talking about terms of art in accounting, specifically double-entry book-keeping. In accounting lingo, an ""asset"" account represents an actual asset and it's value. So if you buy a car with a loan for $10,000, you apply a $10,000 debit to the asset account and a $10,000 credit to the loan. Debits and credits are confusing when you first start learning about accounting." "A few points Yes, as a rule, it is better to pay down high interest accounts first, as this will yield lower cost in the long run. Credit card balance transfers usually come at a cost (typically something like ""3% or $50, whichever is higher"").  So instead of transferring the debt, maybe try purchasing items with your card instead of cash, and using the cash to pay down the debt.  This has the added benefit of giving you points or cash back on the card (typically you won't get these for a balance transfer). Caveat: Only do this if you are very disciplined!  It is very easy to run up high CC balances and forget to save the cash. You should leave a bit of unused credit line on your credit cards in case of emergencies.  I'm doubting you can use your high interest loans in the same way." The question Can I use balance transfer to buy car? is going to give you the same answer. It depends on the exact terms of that offer. Your offer may allow you you write yourself a check, to the checking account tied to your debit card. Or it may specifically request you identify an existing debt to repay. Read the terms. "Your first and second paragraphs are two different cases. Moving money between a checking account and a savings account will credit Cash and debit Cash, making a GL transaction unnecessary, unless the amounts in the two bank accounts are tracked as two separate GL accounts. You might have account 1001 (Cash-Checking) and account 1002 (Cash-Savings). In that case, a movement of money between these two accounts should be tracked by a transaction between the GL accounts; credit checking, debit savings. It won't affect your balance sheet, but depending on your definition of liquidity of assets  it might affect working capital on your statement of cash flows (if you consider the savings account ""illiquid"" then money moved to it is a decrease in working capital). Basically, what you are creating with your ""store credit"" accounts for each client is an ""unearned revenue"" account. When clients pay you cash for work you haven't done yet, or you refund money for a return as ""store credit"" instead of cash, the credit is a liability account, balancing an increase in cash, inventory, or an expense (if you're giving credit for free, perhaps due to a mistake on your part, you would debit a ""Store Credit Expense"" account). This can be split out client-by-client in the GL if you wish, avoiding the need for a holding account. The way you want to do it, you'd have a ""Client Holding"" account. It must be unique in the GL and to the client, and yes, it is a liability account. To transfer to holding, you simply debit Unearned Revenue and credit Client Holding, logging the transaction as ""transfer of client store credit"" or similar (moving liability to liability; balance sheet doesn't change). Then, as you sell goods or services to the client, you debit Accounts Receivable and credit Revenue, then to record the payment you credit AR and debit Client Holding (up to its current credit balance, after which the client pays you Cash and you debit that, or the client still owes you). To zero out a remaining balance on the Holding account, debit Client Holding and credit Unearned Revenue. I don't think the Holding account, the way you want to use it, is a good idea. If you want to track each customer's store credit balance with a GL account, then create specialized Unearned Revenue accounts for each client who gets a store credit, named for the client and containing their balance (zero or otherwise). If you don't care about it at the GL level, then pool it in one Unearned Revenue account (have one Store Credit account if you must), and track individual amounts off the books." My theory, if you must be in debit, own it at the least expense possible. The interest you will pay by the end, combined with the future value of money. Example: The Future value of $3000 at an effective interest rate of 5% after 3 years =$3472.88 Present value of $3000 at 5% over 3 years =$2591.51 you will need more money in the future to pay for the same item "The OP does not explain ""what we pay for processing the transaction (cost of debiting the customer)"".  Who exactly do you pay?  Someone else, or your own employees/contractors?  I will assume that $0.10 is paid to your own employees. Dr $10cash from money people give you Cr $10 liability to them because it is their money in your accounts. Dr $0.10 cash payment of paycheques or supplier invoices Cr $0.10 income statement Operating Eexpense  Dr 0.20 liability to depositors for fees they pay, resulting in $9.80 remaining liability for their money you still have. Cr 0.20 income statement Fee Revenues" "The credit and debit terms here is, talking from bank's point of view (shouldn't be a surprise, banks are never known to look at things from the customers' POV ;)).  In accounting, a liability (loans, owners capital etc) is a credit balance and asset (cash, buildings and such) is a debit balance.  Your account is a liability to the bank (in accounting parlance that is because they owe you every single penny that is there in your account, btw, in literal parlance too if you really make their life harder ;))  So when the bank accepts money from you, they need to increase their asset (cash) which they will debit (higher debit balance for asset means more assets), and at the same time they also have to account for the added liability by ""crediting"" the deposited money into your account. So when bank says they have credited your account, it means you have more money in your account. Now, if you transfer money from your account to another, or make a payment through your account, your account will be debited and the beneficiary account will be credited(bank's liability towards you reduces) More or less what everyone else said here... but hey, I could also take a swipe at banks ;))" Three reasons I prefer not to use direct debit: There are reward points that you have already mentioned. Some banks also give reward points for netbanking transfer, although very few and less than debit card. On a fraudulent site, debit card adds a layer, if compromised, easy to change. i.e just hot list the card, get a new card issued. Netbanking quite a few banks have incorrect implementation and difficult to change the login ID / User ID. The dispute resolution mechanism is well established as there is master or visa network involved. The ease of doing transaction is with netbanking as for card one has to remember 16 digits, expiry, cvv. The entire process of card usage is multiparty, on slow connection if something goes wrong, it takes 3 days to figure out. In netbanking it is instantaneous. You just login to bank and see if the debit has gone through.