Paying off a credit card, with another credit card? (NB: NOT balance transfer!)

sparklyjojo

Hello,

Just a quick question (I think!): Is it possible to pay off a credit card balance using another credit card? i.e. as if you were making a purchase? Not a balance transfer.

The reason I'm asking is that we have a smallish balance on a Capital One credit card (just over £200) and I desperately want it paid off so we can finally be free of them and their terrible customer service and hideous interest rates!
Unfortunately it's not possible to do a balance transfer because Capital One won't give us the account number! - we have been arguing with them for over a year about it. We don't have any original paperwork or card - it's a very old account, and we haven't spent on it for years and years.
I know it's only a small balance, and part of me thinks we should just leave it and continue with our monthly payments of about £60 p/m, but the interest is really high, and I have another credit card which is 0% on purchases for 16 months. I wouldn't need to know the account number to do this (which I would for a balance transfer) and could just call Capital One and make the payment over the phone. Is this possible?

Many thanks for any advice!

CLAPTON

just do your spending on the new 0% card and use the money 'saved' to pay off the old capital one card

Wheres_My_Cashback

Answer is no you can't directly pay one card with another.

YorkshireBoy

CLAPTON has given you the ideal solution above. Even better if you can buy for friends/family as well, and then get them to give you the cash. Should be cleared in a week or two!

But I'm struggling with some of the detail in your post...

Even at 34.9% APR the monthly interest on £200 is only £5.05, so you're reducing your debt by £55 a month at the moment...which should mean the debt will be gone by the end of January if you do nothing? And at a cost of £20 or so.

Your card number should be on your statements? If it isn't, then ask them for the payment details so you can pay by online banking (instead of paying by debit card over the phone each month as you are now?). They'll have to give you the 16 digit card number then.

sparklyjojo

Thanks so much everyone for all your advice, really appreciate it.

We don't get statements from them, haven't done for over 2 years. We only know the balance because we phoned them today and they gave it to us over the phone. We pay by direct debit every month - but when we asked Capital One if we could pay a larger amount they said they "couldn't guarantee it would go to our account without a valid reference number, and as the account is closed the payment may get lost in their system" and advised us against doing this. They told us they would have to reactivate the account and send us out a new card with 16 digit card number which would mean we could then pay off in full if we wanted to. Every time we call them they say "your account is being dealt with by a special team, who will send you out a new card in the next couple of weeks" - they say this every time we phone them and it has been going on for over a year and I'm just exhausted by it.
I think they are deliberately being unhelpful so that they get more interest from us. It also doesn't help that we get told a completely different thing, by a different person. Each time they apologise that we've previously been given wrong info, and assure us they will sort the issue out. Nothing ever happens.

Thank you YorkshireBoy for your calculations re: interest. To be honest, I hadn't realised the interest would be so little. I haven't been able to work it out as we also don't know what the interest rate is - and when we ask they just keep repeating that it's a dormant account and this "special team" will have to call us back to give us these details (which they never do). Is 34.9% the highest it's likely to be for a Capital One card? I see all these terrifying interest rates on Wonga adverts (I know that's a totally different thing) , and get frightened that perhaps they've got us locked into something similar and that's why they won't tell us.

If it's likely that the interest is 34.9% I will probably just wait it out and save myself the aggro of phoning them anymore.

Thanks again everyone.

dalesrider

Get them to switch the DD to full balance. couple of months and it will be paid off.

Raise a complaint on the fact that they are failing to provide the details to allow you to pay it off fully.
Don't allow them to resolve and let FOS slap their backsides....

jo-bo

Agree with what Dalesrider says, completely unacceptable for them to let this continue so long. I imagine with the hassle you've had and time and money spent on phone calls,you'll be due some compensation as a goodwill gesture. This could clear what you owe!!
Don't allow them to fob you off, there's plenty of guidance on here as the right way to complain to the FOS.
Good luck