Where is my balance transfer

laslomas

I am running out of patience with my credit cards. I have a Tesco CC which I have had for 15 years, and in December I applied for a Post Office one and asked them to make a balance transfer £1000 to Tesco as it was a 0% deal. All the details were completed when I made the online application.


I use online banking, so checked them both and according to PO the transfer was made 9th December to Tesco. I expected to see the Tesco balance reduced by £1000 but there was no sign of this. By 23rd December it had still not shown up so I phoned both card suppliers. Tesco checked and could see nothing coming into my account. Post Office checked and said it had been returned for some reason and sent again a few days previously and suggested waiting another couple of days. The card details were checked and all the information they had was correct. I phoned again on 29th as still no sign of it. Tesco gave me a sort code and account number to give Post Office so they could deal with it manually. PO said they didn't need it, but I insisted they make a note of it anyway, just in case!.


I phoned both companies again on 5th January as still no sign of the £1000 transfer and said I was getting really mad as I have just had to pay my Tesco bill (that should have had a balance of £1000 less) and I have had to pay the Post Office one today. I feel as though I owe this money in 2 places and the post office also charged a balance transfer fee of £29.80.


It is now a month since this started and I will be phoning again on Monday if it has not corrected itself. What I want to know is what else can I do? What do forumers suggest? I have spent more than 2 hours on the phone, been stressed about money over the Xmas period, and had to pay two credit card companies for the same debt. I feel like telling Post Office to just forget the whole thing and cancel my credit card. Should I ask for compensation? I may not even know whose fault it is.

Careful_ly

You could ask the PO to pay the cash to your current account and forward it yourself to Tesco (if you did not pay in full, I am not sure from your post if you made a full or partial payment to Tesco).
I had a payment direct to my current account from the PO card when I first had it as the balance transfer I wanted to do was to my OH's card and they didn't allow that.
HTH

laslomas

Thank you for the response, if there is still a problem on Monday I will certainly phone and give that a try. After a whole month of flaffing about they will have to something to satisfy me.
I have approx. £1400 balance on the Tesco card so the transfer was not to pay the whole outstanding amount. I wanted to leave some balance available at 0% as I have to make a payment for a holiday soon that I intended to slap onto the Post Office card, but not sure if I trust them at the moment!

nicholaswitchell

Balance transfers are good.

laslomas

nicholaswitchell wrote: »

Balance transfers are good.

That's what I thought! If my balance transfer ever completes maybe I will find out if they are good, at the moment - no comment.

laslomas

I checked my on-line account at the Post Office credit card and the £1000 balance transfer and the fee has been credited back to my account!!!! So I phoned and asked why it is with them and not at Tesco credit card. I was told that they had managed to locate it so that is what they did with it. Brilliant, I said, so please send it to Tesco. Their response was that I could request a balance transfer and it will take up to 10 days to reach the other party. I said that surely after a month someone (a manager for instance) could intervene and make the transfer as a manual process and get it there much quicker. NO, can't be done.
I suggested they could transfer it to my bank account and I will transfer it to Tesco. NO, not possible.
I said I have read of an instance where this had been done to pay a partners balance, but their answer was - that's different.
I suggested I get it in cash - but that will cost me a fee plus 2.5% and I would have to pay monthly interest. So basically I have credit sitting at the Post Office that I want elsewhere and I have to apply again for a balance transfer that they have already proved they cannot do.
Phoning Tesco next to see if they can enlighten me to where the money has been.

laslomas

This saga is still ongoing. A second transfer request was made and after 10 days the amount was again returned to my Post Office credit card. I checked with Tesco who said they have not seen any attempted transfers, and there is no reason a transfer cannot be made to my account. I once again checked what details PO should use to make a transfer.
I contacted PO again, getting quite angry now, and asked why the money was again still within my credit card limit and not at Tesco. They suggested I send a copy of my last Tesco statement to their Card Services department in Ireland. If they have this they will phone Tesco and ensure a transfer is dealt with correctly. I sent this to them, at a cost to me of £1.27 and requested the transfer be made yet again.
Yesterday I phoned PO again to tell them that the money had not arrived at Tesco. Was told to stop panicking, all will be well, and they still had 2 of their 10 working days left to complete this.
Just looked at my online a/c at Post Office and the £1000 is back with them again.
I have had this card since beginning of December and all I have asked for (3 times now) is this transfer to be made.
Tomorrow when Customer services are available I will go through the whole rigmarole again.


If I decide to cut the card and send it back, as it is clearly of no use to me, will it affect my credit rating in any way? I intend to apply for a different 0% interest card instead and wonder if the fact that I got this one two months ago will make this more difficult.

Tiddlywinks

Please don't dig up any more old threads - you've more than made your point.