Balance transfer when cancelling card

[miniquinny]

Hi,

Apologies if this is covered elsewhere but I wondered if anyone knew whether you can make a balance transfer to another card when on the phone cancelling the current one with the debt.

I know this is awkwardly convoluted but I'm having a dispute with my issuer and the only way I can see to get any action is by cancelling the card.

Clearly you'd normally do this by applying for a new one, transferring the balance to them then closing the old account.

What I'm wondering is if I call my issuer, say I'm closing the account, they'll ask how I want to clear the balance, is there a way I can then give them the details of the new account to make a transfer?

(I'm pretty sure I know the answer, but thought I'd check!)

[stephane]

No you can't...you would need to give details to your new provider first to which you want to transfer the balance to. You could contact your current provider for payment of balance but that would not be considered as a balance transfer. Even if you we're going to close account today you would need to wait for balance to show £0 and you still might have residual interest to pay in a month time...

[gglaze]

Do you always have to clear the balance when closing a card? I had a card closed on me (not my choice) a few years ago, and I still continue to just make the minimum payments years later (it was on a low lifetime BT rate). So maybe this is only if they close on you without your choice - but I guess this means there must be some ways to get an account closed without being forced to clear the balance immediately? Is that normally required?

[sfax]

Originally Posted by gglaze

Do you always have to clear the balance when closing a card? I had a card closed on me (not my choice) a few years ago, and I still continue to just make the minimum payments years later (it was on a low lifetime BT rate). So maybe this is only if they close on you without your choice - but I guess this means there must be some ways to get an account closed without being forced to clear the balance immediately? Is that normally required?

You can't just decide to close it without paying the balance. They have to close it unless they change the APR or something and you decide to reject the new terms, in which case you can close it with the existing APR and just pay the card off.

[dalesrider]

Originally Posted by miniquinny

I know this is awkwardly convoluted but I'm having a dispute with my issuer and the only way I can see to get any action is by cancelling the card.

What is the issue.....

Why stop the card?