warning about multiple transfers after card activation

chrisw99

Just a heads up because the chap at Tesco said this has been happening to a few people.


I applied for the Tesco 0% 34 months card, which was a great deal. Got a credit limit of £5100


As part of the online application , you can put in the details of any transfers you want to do , so I did 3 at £2800, £1100 and £300.
Logging online, I could see that it said credit limit £5100 available credit £900, so I assumed they were in progress.


Kept logging on to see when it happened, then one day available credit shot back to £5100 so I investigated and realised the card wasn't activated so the balance transfers had been rejected.
(I shoved the card in the cupboard, it was only for the transfer deal not using in the flesh, so forgot about activating).


I activated the card, and retried the transfers and this time they worked (different amounts £2600, £1600 and £500)


All good, but to my horror next time I logged on, activating the card had resurrected the original transfer requests and they had gone through too.


Which meant my balance was over £9000 on a card with a limit of £5100. The worrying thing here is that the minimum payment is the usual 1% of balance, but also any amount over the credit limit, so I was facing a direct debit of £4000 going out of my current account.


On top of that, the first payments almost cleared my other cards, so the second payment went into the green.. I ended up with one card in credit of £700 and the other in credit of £1800 !


So, I'm annoyed with Tesco's systems for allowing it to happen, it surely should have rejected the second lot. But the chap said he's had a few people complaining about this , so obviously catching a lot of people out.


I've sorted it by contacting the 3 original cards (HSBC, first direct and MBNA) and thumbs up all around, first direct refunded £1600 directly back to the Tesco card, MBNA said they couldn't do this but refunded £2600 to a current account I then did a payment to Tesco with. All done "free of charge" (but then I guess with those accounts now being massively in credit, it's in their best interests to refund the payment and get them back with some debt on)


Tesco will refund all the transfer fees once the payments are back and cleared, and will also refund the going over limit fee if I get it on the next statement.




Still feel like an idiot that I managed to do this, and was expecting to be told as it was my fault I'd have to just do a normal transfer back and then end up with 3 lots of transfer fees out of pocket.

Kittycat1981

Careful tesco dont end your 0% interest deal, it happened to my hubby in similar circumstances.

chrisw99

Kittycat1981 wrote: »

Careful tesco dont end your 0% interest deal, it happened to my hubby in similar circumstances.

Some of these deals, e.g. Sainsburys, say if you go over your credit limit then it cancels any promotional offers.


Tesco don't say that in their C&C.


I phoned them just to check and they confirm it won't affect the 0%. I'll keep a close eye on the statement though!