can one 'bt' more than one's balance?

obsessive_2

I wasn't sure where to put this (probably very basic) question.

I am getting a HSBC credit card, with a credit limit of 5k. The card comes with 0% on balance transfers, but I think I'll only have a certain, shortish, period to make the transfers at 0%/fees free.

I don't currently have that much debt on my only other credit card (a Tesco card) to 'use up' all this 5k limit. My normal monthly spend on my Tesco card is about 1200 pounds.

Is it possible immediately to 'balance transfer' 5k from HSBC to my Tesco card, so that I will have a positive balance on the Tesco card (which will then get 'swallowed up' by the next few months' spending)? Or can one only transfer an actually existing debt.

Thanks for any advice,

Obsessive

YorkshireBoy

Your Tesco T&C's will state whether you can create a positive balance on it, but since the HSBC card has 0% for 9 months on purchases as well - why not simply use that for your shopping?

obsessive_2

Thanks for your helpful reply YorkshireBoy. I'll check out the Terms and Conditions on my Tesco card. So would it usually be the case then that if a card does allow positive balances, the 'paying card' (ie. HSBC in my case) will also allow that to be done?

I prefer to use my Tesco card for purchases because I get clubcard points at the rate of 0.5% of the spending on the card (I believe) (plus these can then be turned into clubcard deal tokens making them worth upto 4 times the value of the clubcard points). So it seemed to me I could get the best of both worlds by spending on the cashback card but then transferring the debt to the interest free card.

YorkshireBoy

obsessive wrote:

So would it usually be the case then that if a card does allow positive balances, the 'paying card' (ie. HSBC in my case) will also allow that to be done?

Some cards' T&C's state you must 'owe' the debt to another provider. Check your HSBC T&C's.