Transferred too much and now can't transfer back!

yourmum

I recently made a balance transfer from an M&S card to an MBNA one. I then realised that I was using a year old statement to get the amount, so had transferred too much, so now have a positive balance on the M&S card. I want to close that card, so would like to transfer the excess back. (I hope this makes sense!). M&S tell me that MBNA have to make the request directly to them, while MBNA tell me that I have to make the request to M&S. Who's right? I've spoken to both companies twice each, with both adamant that there's nothing they can do, so I'm stuck.
I realise that I could just use the M&S card until it reaches zero, but that's money that will sit there for a while earning no interest, and surely there's a way of sorting it out.
Can anyone clarify the situation, as it's getting extremely frustrating?
Thanks.

grumbler

Just ask them to close the card and they will send a cheque to you.
In the worst case scenario they would want to send the money back to the source, i.e. to MBNA.

agrinnall

I'm quite surprised that M&S allowed you to transfer more than the balance on your card in the first place.

grumbler

Do they have any control over this?
Do you mean that M&S's policy is to transfer the excess back to the source straight away?

agrinnall

grumbler wrote: »

Do they have any control over this?
Do you mean that M&S's policy is to transfer the excess back to the source straight away?

Were these questions addressed to me? If they were then I don't know, I never have a balance on my cards so I have no experience of the balance transfer process. It just seemed a bit strange that the card being transferred from would allow more than the balance at the time of the transfer to be taken - perhaps it's perfectly normal to do this.

grumbler

agrinnall wrote: »

Were these questions addressed to me?

Yes,

If they were then I don't know, I never have a balance on my cards so I have no experience of the balance transfer process.

Then you'll possibly be surprised to know that there was no anything surprising in M&S 'allowing' to transfer more than the balance was. For them it's just an external payment to the CC account that they have no any control over. Although it's normally against the T&C for customers to put their card in credit deliberately, this happens all the time and, unless the resulting in-credit balance is very big, CC companies normally don't care. Some don't care to the extent of eagerly transferring the in credit balance to a current account on the customer's request.

yourmum

grumbler wrote: »

Just ask them to close the card and they will send a cheque to you.
In the worst case scenario they would want to send the money back to the source, i.e. to MBNA.

Hello. Thanks for replying. They claim they can't close the card when it has a positive balance. That balance has to go back to the MBNA card before they'll close it. It's immensely frustrating!

yourmum

grumbler wrote: »

Yes,
Then you'll possibly be surprised to know that there was no anything surprising in M&S 'allowing' to transfer more than the balance was. For them it's just an external payment to the CC account that they have no any control over. Although it's normally against the T&C for customers to put their card in credit deliberately, this happens all the time and, unless he resulting in-credit balance is very big, CC companies normally don't care. Some don't care to the extent of eagerly transferring the in credit balance to a current account on the customer's request.

I wish that was the case here! More than happy to admit that it was my !!!!-up originally, but surely I should be able to get the money back.

Does anyone have any info on which company is responsible for making/carrying out the request?

bearcat16

Positive balances on credit cards are common. I got a balance transfer 0% offer a few years ago on a card with a £5,000 limit. I only had £1,300 on my Amex card (this I use for everyday spending and pay off at the end of each month- airmiles baby!), so I decided to try and transfer £4,500 just to see what would happen, expecting it only to transfer the full balance.

To my surprise, the amex card went into credit by £3,200, so basically I just used it up with normal spending for a few months. No interest on that money, but it was only for a couple of months anyway.

If you're really desperate to get the credit balance money back, you could simply get cash advances from just about any cash machine. However, be warned - depending on the card these usually incur a small fee. (The T&Cs will also tell you that unlike purchases, cash advances incur interest from the moment they are taken, but this won't affect you as it is a credit balance)

Also, cash advances from credit cards show up specifically on your credit report - including the amount, and their presence has a negative effect since lenders (especially those that look closely like mortgage companies) see them as evidence of poor financial management.

Personally I would just use the money up with petrol and asda shopping for a few months.

grumbler

yourmum wrote: »

Does anyone have any info on which company is responsible for making/carrying out the request?

It's M&S - they are giving you runaround.
They can close the account and they can either send you a cheque or (if they prefer) return money back to MBNA. All other CC companies have no problems with doing this.