Balance Transfers - Possible to transfer more than balance?

nzseries1

Have you seen this post?
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=20043335&postcount=7
Sounds like this person had a very bad experience doing exactly this. I wouldn't risk it after reading this.

sfax

Moggles wrote: »

Caution: lenders vary in this respect, as with everything else. Your enquiry suggests this may be possible using your Virgin card. You certainly cannot do it with any credit card, as many forum users have found out the hard way.

Some (eg. HBOS, HSBC) insist on returning the surplus funds to the account from which the money was sent (due anti-money laundering regulations). If this account happens to be another credit card, you could incur two balance transfer fees and be back to square one.

Personally, I wouldn't risk putting a credit card in credit. Credit cards - other than Egg Money - are not designed to carry a positive balance. Small amounts that arise temporarily (due to a refund, for instance) are okay, but the Ts & Cs usually prohibit payments that deliberately place the account in credit.

Also, in closing your Virgin card, you've lost one of the few which allows you to route money through your bank account at balance transfer rates. This, plus it's market-leading follow-on offers, makes the card worth keeping in your deck, IMO

Thanks for the info. In quick response to some of your points:

Virgin Ts and Cs don't mention anything about deliberately going into credit and someone at Virgin said that a balance in credit would be paid by cheque if requested. I can leave the a/c open and just request the cheque.

It might flag as AML but so might paying £5000 cash into your current account, this doesn't mean you aren't allowed to do it.

I doubt whether they could charge for a reverse transfer without this scenario being explicitly laid out in the Ts and Cs. They could refuse the whole amount however.

It would only a be a temporary credit balance although the longer you keep a large credit balance the more the bank makes as you earn zero interest on a credit card.

Moggles_2

sfax wrote: »

Thanks for the info. In quick response to some of your points:

Virgin Ts and Cs don't mention anything about deliberately going into credit and someone at Virgin said that a balance in credit would be paid by cheque if requested. I can leave the a/c open and just request the cheque.

I doubt whether they could charge for a reverse transfer without this scenario being explicitly laid out in the Ts and Cs. They could refuse the whole amount however.

It would only a be a temporary credit balance although the longer you keep a large credit balance the more the bank makes as you earn zero interest on a credit card.

Okay, thanks for posting.

You're new to this forum. When you've been here a year or two and have read some of the many posts from forum users who have come unstuck attempting this, you'll understand why deliberately putting a credit card in credit to the tune of £2000 is, to the say the least, risky.

Perhaps Virgin is more relaxed about this than some card providers. The outcome certainly depends on the lender involved and their interpretation of anti-money laundering regulations but, judging from feedback here, these issues are not resolved quickly, once AML procedures are triggered.

Snooze

Moggles wrote: »

Caution: lenders vary in this respect, as with everything else. Your enquiry suggests this may be possible using your Virgin card. You certainly cannot do it with any credit card, as many forum users have found out the hard way.

Some (eg. HBOS, HSBC) insist on returning the surplus funds to the account from which the money was sent (due anti-money laundering regulations).

Yes, HSBC get a real face on about it. I made a BT recently and it put my HSBC cc £600 in credit as I'd guessed (wrongly) at the outstanding balance at the time of the BT. I had them on the phone to me whinging about it and quoting rules & regs and money laundering and all sorts of other cr4p <yawn>. The bottom line was that you were not allowed to have a positive balance but they'd let you off once if it was a genuine mistake and the amount was not "unreasonable". They happily transferred the £600 to my A&L current account even though it had come from MBNA. (I know someone will split hairs and say that they're both the same company in effect :rolleyes: ).

Capital One, on the other hand, didn't seem bothered in the slightest that my account went £1500 in credit a few months back and I've just spent it on 'stuff' and it's not far off going into the red again.

Rob

Moggles_2

Snooze wrote: »

Capital One, on the other hand, didn't seem bothered in the slightest that my account went £1500 in credit a few months back and I've just spent it on 'stuff' and it's not far off going into the red again.

You may be able to spend your way out of the predicament (assuming your lender doesn't put a stop on the card), but section 75 wouldn't apply if you spent from a positive balance because technically it's not credit and, if you're card got stolen/cloned, you wouldn't be covered for fraudulent transactions.