MBNA won't do (S)BT's if you're in credit

newkiwi

This may have come up before, but I haven't seen anything about it so thought I'd let you know.

Tried to do an SBT from my Alliance & Leicester aka MBNA card on 14/01. Had about £17 credit (from when they'd taken the DD even though I'd already cleared the card in full - don't go there) and did an SBT of £1490-odd online to a UK bank account.

Rang up to check on 24th when it still wasn't appearing online, and was told that they can't/won't do BT's if the accounts in credit, because you'd be charged on the full BT amount and some of it's actually your own money!

Now in this case given the amount of the credit & the amount of the BT I'd rather they'd gone ahead & done it anyway rather than held it up for so long (and it would have been nice if they'd told me online when I tried to do it), but I suppose at least they're trying to do the right thing... and it did prove an easy way to get my own money back from them too, as the guy did a transfer to my account straight away so he could then do the SBT while I was on the phone.

nh

So, in effect, you did get the SBT, you just had to ring them up for them to get it?

They surely can't be saying you can't have your money back if you over-pay (or even put the account in credit on purpose)

newkiwi

Yes, I did get it, but only on the 3rd attempt - the first guy I spoke to told me it was because the bank account details were wrong, but suggested I check them and then call back to do it so that I could be sure it was going to go through OK.

The second time I called, after checking the bank details which were correct, the guy knew straight away that it hadn't been done because the account was in credit. He transferred the credit amount back to my bank account straight away and then did the SBT.

So yes, they let you have your money back - in fact I think saying you need to do a BT is probably the easiest way to get your own money back if you've put the card in credit!

Newbird

I'm in the same position with a credit bal with MBNA. Just to clarify that I am understanding correctly, they did a BT for you, to your current account with no charges?

Thx

Derek_Duval

I was £2.08 in credit with goldfish, due to a refund & when I did a BT to another card (they offered me 0% for 6 months to stay with them when I tried to cancel), they had to send me the cheque for that amount first.

newkiwi

Hi Newbird,

Yes, the guy on the phone transferred the credit amount back to the bank account that their DD's come from, turned up a couple of days later, no hassle & no charges.

It just took a while to find out that this was needed...

zcaprd7

I had similiar with A&L just 'pretend' you are paying a bill online and then use your bank details - sorted.

Newbird

All info appreciated NB

newkiwi

zcaprd7 wrote:

I had similiar with A&L just 'pretend' you are paying a bill online and then use your bank details - sorted.

But isn't that exactly what I tried to do in the first place (with somebody else's bank details)? Are you saying that they check the details, and if it's your own account you're transferring your credit amount to then they let it go through, and if it's somebody else's they don't? Or that if it's only the exact credit amount you're trying to transfer then it's OK?