Balance transferred too much to new card

kuohu

Hi,

I am in the process of debt reduction and I've followed the advice of balance transferring a credit card debt onto a new 0% card. My debt was 1300 on Amex Blue, as of the start of February. I applied for a HSBC card with 0% for 9 months (as the offer was at the time) and entered that I wanted to BT from my Amex card as part of the HSBC online signup process.

Since then, I have continued to reduce my Amex debt (as I didn't know how long the HSBC process would take and there are some horror stories on this forum!). The balance is now 1177, which includes February's interest.

My HSBC card arrived today, so I have setup the online access and I can see the Amex balance transfer for 1300, dated 28 February. (Although if I look at my Amex online statement the BT isn't visible yet and my 1177 balance is showing).

Will the HSBC transaction take 1300, putting my Amex into a positive balance, or do they automatically just take the full owed amount?

If it is the former (positive balance on Amex) then how do I get that money? Will I still have to pay interest on a cash withdrawal, even when the account is positive? Or.. if I leave it alone and just use the Amex card for the next month for all my petrol purchases (for example) then the balance will be back to zero. Would I incur any interest from doing this?

I'd rather get my hands on the cash (or transfer it somehow), so that I can put it straight back where it belongs.. knocking down the HSBC debt. But I know it perhaps isn't such a big deal and I should leave it where it is rather than speaking to Indian HSBC employees, trying to explain it all.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Nick

PS This is the first time I've ever done a BT so maybe this kind of scenario is common, I don't know. Apologies if I am asking a really dumb question.

Wirenth

Hi Nick,

If you have a positive balance on the Amex, you can reduce it by using it for next month's petrol spend, as you have said.

Alternatively, speak to Amex and ask them to do a balance transfer of £123 'FROM' HSBC. (Just make sure that you incur no BT fees doing this!) This will 'move' that positive balance back to HSBC.

P.S. No question is dumb. And yes, it has happened before.

Wirenth

Oh. One more thing....don't be tempted to remove the positive balance from your Amex card by withdrawing the cash at a cashpoint. This is a very expensive way to get hold of the money!

Best of luck with the debts. :beer:

kuohu

Thanks Wirenth