Never spend on balance transfer card -Exception?

Hobbit3

I understand why I should never spend on a card opened to accept balance transfers - the interest free balance transfer gets paid off before any money plus interest from new transactions .

However, the Terms & Conditions of my new Santander credit card say that they will make my account dormant and charge a fee if there are no new transactions for 6 months.

So maybe I should make one transaction for £5 or £10 before the first 6 months are up? Although I'll then pay interest on this small amount for the foreseeable future, I'll thereby avoid having my account being made dormant.

pennymb

Hi, Just got back from 2 week holiday in Sharm el sheik to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary, to pay for flying to Cairo to see pyramids I obtained a credit card and proceeded to pay off the full balance before we went in order to maintain good credit and ensure we had 1 month interest free extra spending until next payday to pay for visiting pyramids- on arrival in Egypt couldnt use my card- and the card was frozen as my bank NATWEST had raised a security error on my Nat west visa debit card(that I used to pay balance) despite there being funds and no problems- been told a computer error raised a security anomally????but as my card was blocked we have returned from our special trip unable to use any of my credit cards funds and therefore NOT visiting the pyramids as a direct result- What comback do I have?? What if any compensation can I seek as we are unlikely to visit Egypt again and our 20th wedding anniversary has now passed- and our trip ruined!!

Paul_Herring

Hobbit3 wrote: »

However, the Terms & Conditions of my new Santander credit card say that they will make my account dormant and charge a fee if there are no new transactions for 6 months.

So maybe I should make one transaction for £5 or £10 before the first 6 months are up? Although I'll then pay interest on this small amount for the foreseeable future, I'll thereby avoid having my account being made dormant.

You may want to ring up and ask if your monthly payment towards the balance constitutes a 'transaction,' if it's not clear from the T&Cs.

The clause you mention may be to dissuade people holding onto the card with a zero balance.