Can I 'prepay' my credit card and use it like a debit card?

YorkshireBoy

lockheed wrote: »

Anyway, I found BC and Halifax seen to have more lenient terms in this respect so I will see how it goes with them rather than with Tesco.

Halifax? Really? I can't see how, being as they explicitly state in their T&Cs...

16.9 You must not make payments or transfer funds from another credit or store card to your account that would leave a credit balance on your account. We may return any funds that exceed the balance owing on your account to the account from which the money has been sent.

The bit in bold is the wasted BT fee I referred to earlier.

Good luck!

lockheed

I phoned Halifax up yesterday to talk about it and they seemed to be quite indifferent about positive balance on their All In One cards.
As for BC, I overpaid it in the past and there was no negative effects.

lemontart

I have just done a transfer from tesco to zero balance card and went over to cover any purchases not shown on bill and to give me some spare to get something next month so gain points too

YorkshireBoy

lockheed wrote: »

I phoned Halifax up yesterday to talk about it and they seemed to be quite indifferent about positive balance on their All In One cards.

Wouldn't be the first time they've given out incorrect information...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=528883

YorkshireBoy

lemontart wrote: »

I have just done a transfer from tesco to zero balance card and went over to cover any purchases not shown on bill and to give me some spare to get something next month so gain points too

So you've paid a circa 3% BT fee so you can get circa 1% in Clubcard points? Even if you treble them for 'deals' you've only broken even haven't you?

p00hsticks

One point to consider (and I don't know the answer) is whether your rights under Section 75 still apply if your purchase on the card is not actually meaning that you are using credit .......

lisyloo

As for BC, I overpaid it in the past and there was no negative effects.

If your money is stolen fradulently you might not it's not insured.
Creadit card companies only insure their money (debuit balances) and not your money (credit balances).
Of course most of the time it won't happen, but it if did you might lose it all.

Wywth

lockheed wrote: »

I have two credit cards. One a regular one (Tesco), and the other one with balance transfer offer, 0% interest for 20 months (NatWest).

I was wondering if I could balance-transfer money from the later, to the former so that the former ends up 1000 or 2000 in credit, so that I could use the regular card in a similar way to a debit card, while paying no interest or charges at all (due to positive balance).
Several times in the past I ended up with positive balance (on my old Barclaycard) of up to ~200GBP, and it was not an issue.


I asked it once Barclaycards advisor and he wasn't sure about it, but he mentioned it could be reviewed under suspicion of money laundry.
However, if the money come from one bank to another, then I don't really see a problem. Was the advisor ill-informed? Or is just Barclaycard more paranoid than Tesco?

I'd appreciate your thoughts on that.

You can get specific prepaid cards for this purpose

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/prepaid-cards

lockheed

Wywth wrote: »

You can get specific prepaid cards for this purpose

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/prepaid-cards

Others mentioned BT into prepaid cards is not allowed. Are you saying it is? All I saw on this page was they allow bank transfers or post office pay-ins.