HELP!! 'credit card to credit card to bank'

moneysaver99999

Hi all,
Can someone please advise if this is legal/illegal, beginning to panic!!

I have an overdraft with the bank which charges £1 per day for every day I spend in it, unfortunately things have been getting tighter and I spend most of the month in this - paying the best part of £30 a month for a £1500 overdraft.

To get round this I came across the Tesco 28 months 0% balance transfer offer but it couldn’t be used to transfer direct to a bank account. So I transferred the funds from the Tesco card to my Mint card which I have not used in years. The Mint card was clear of debt and went into credit of £1500. I then called Mint and asked them to ‘money transfer’ to my bank account which the operator arranged. Basically ‘using’ Mint to take advantage of the Tesco credit card offer and clear my overdraft.

Literally 20 mins later I got a call from the Mint ‘Fraud prevention team’ on a private number asking me to confirm my date of birth. I didn’t confirm anything and said I would call them back on their number as I couldn’t be sure who I was speaking to. When I called Mint they told me someone will call me back in 30 mins from the Fraud team. No one did call me back, so I called back later and was told the department is now shut till Monday and they will get someone to call me back AND in the meantime my money transfer has been stopped?!!

I guess I’m concerned I might have done something illegal; I have in the past many years ago used this method to better manage debt/free up cash in my bank account.

I thought this method was genius as I just pay Tesco a fee of 2.9%, nothing to Mint and free up cash with breathing space for 28 months - but from searching forums on the internet I can’t find anything on this method and now beginning to doubt if this is even legal for me to do.

Can someone please advise? and save my Sunday from being a stressful day , sorry for such a lengthy post but thought best to explain in detail

Thanks in advance

jamie11

I don't know much about credit cards because I don't use them, but I think that as soon as you used your dormant card it would have flashed up in red on their computers. Because you were making a large transaction (maximum) they naturally think your cards has been hacked.

Good policing in my opinion.

They'll probably mention it to Tesco as well. Have a nice day.

imoneyop

Probably been flagged up as money laundering - large sum of money coming in from elsewhere and putting the card into credit and then being transferred to a different account.

Possible result - closure of all your accounts and a fraud marker on your credit history.

More likely though that Mint will just refund the money back to where it came from (your Tesco card).

CLAPTON

You can but wait until Monday now but probably unwise to suddenly use a dormant card and put it in credit.

dzug1

CLAPTON wrote: »

You can but wait until Monday now but probably unwise to suddenly use a dormant card and put it in credit.

and not to respond to the queries when you did

HariboLector

I worked for MBNA for over 5 years. No, you haven't done anything illegal nor have you done anything that would be against any standard terms and conditions for a credit card. It's a routine check because the transaction is outside your normal pattern and because it could be money laundering. Just phone them, ask to speak to someone in the fraud department, confirm security and explain what you were doing.

YorkshireBoy

HariboLector wrote: »

...nor have you done anything that would be against any standard terms and conditions for a credit card.

Halifax and Santander credit card T&Cs specifically prohibit the transferring of funds that would place a credit card account in credit.

jonesMUFCforever

Putting the card into credit and immediately transferring it again is typical money laundering tactics even though we know that is not what you are doing.

Can I ask how many months 'purchase free' you have on this Tesco card? If you can use this way put all of your normal spending on this card leaving the balance on your current account to gradually reduce.

For this to work long term though you have to put a plan in place to pay off the debt not just shift it from one place to the next.

moneysaver99999

Hi,
Thanks for all the reply's, tried spending today not thinking about it!

I have 3 months 0% on purchases and 28 months 0% on balance transfers from the Tesco credit card.

I guess it would have been better to do a 'money transfer' from Mint to my bank and then a week or so later doing the balance transfer from Tesco to Mint. The main reason I put my Mint card into credit was they told me they would charge 17/18% APR for a money transfer which probably would not have worked out a lot for a few days anyway but I just thought i'd do this and save a few pennies...

moneysaver99999

I guess what i'm trying to figure out now is if Mint will allow this money transfer to go through after I speak to them tomorrow..