Does paying off a credit card count as a purchase??

zukibear

Last year I transferred the balance on my Barclays visa to Virgin's card at 0% on balance transfers till August 2009. This saved me almost £60 a month in interest so the fee I paid was worth it and I had worked out exactly how much to pay to clear this card however due to unfortunate circumstances this card won't now be cleared and short by about £500.

My question is rather than transfer the balance to another card offering 0% on balanace transfers for a fee, can I get a 0% purchase credit card and pay off the virgin card?

Does paying off a credit card count as a purchase??

davethorp

I'm pretty sure that other than doing a balance transfer you can't actually use one credit card to pay off another. Been a while since I've had one though so I could be wrong or things may have changed

benroles

Correct - a balance transfer is all you can do to move the money in one go. HOWEVER, if you have a 0% purchase deal on another card you can move the balance over by being a little crafty - I am doing this at the moment as I have been offered a 0% purchase deal and need to shift a balance.

1) Spend AS MUCH AS YOU CAN on your 0% purchase credit card. Everything you would usually use cash or debit cards for use the 0% purchase card.

2) This then results in your current account being cash heavy as you have spent on the 0% card.

3) Use this money to pay off the debt on the current credit card.

I am currently using this system to move a debt from one card to another at present and it's amazing how quickly you can rack up 'debt' on the new card. Just make sure though you don't spend on the 0% purchase card and 'forget' to pay off the existing balance. In fact, I keep a record on paper of all the spending on the new 0% purchase card and every few days make an equivalent payment to the old debt-heavy credit card.

Hope this helps,
B.

debtdestroyer007

you cant pay off one credit card with another, unless the account has been defaulted and is with DCA's who accept debit and credit cards....

better to get 0 % balance transfer

benf90

As others have said, it's unlikely that Virgin will accept a credit card payment unless you've fallen behind on payments.

However, some credit cards do allow it. For example, the Asda card (GE Money) gives the option of paying by Mastercard online.

I've been using the Asda card to get the points and then paying it off with Egg Money to get cash back on top.

It goes through fine as a purchase. It simply shows up as 'GE Money' on the Egg statement, but strangely shows as a Maestro payment on the Asda statement.

ylesia

I'm currently looking into paying off my mums debts and just called Aqua card today, thought I would chance my luck and see if they would accept a credit card (I have 5% cashback and pay balance off in full) - they said yes but would need to go through a "special" department and to call back tomorrow. My mum's account used to be in arrears but is now "normal" and the minimum payment is being made (shows as satisfactory on credit report).

Will be interesting to see what they say tomorrow...