Balance transfer from Amex to Virgin

Mulder00

There are some other threads around with a similar title, but I thought I would post my experience here so people in the same position might get some more concrete answers compared to what is out there. I spent hours searching the internet for a way to deal with this.

Long story short, Virgin will not do a balance transfer from Amex cards not issued in the UK. If the card is issued by Amex themselves (for example the British Airways Amex which you would think is a UK issued card), then it is not considered to be issued in the UK. It is not the 15 digit PAN which gives the problem as there is plenty of evidence around that some people have managed to transfer balances from Amex cards (probably the ones issued by MBNA).

Virgin also at one point suggested I asked Amex for a 16 digit PAN (which is ridiculous to even suggest, but there are posts all over the internet suggesting they do this often - this is possible if you have an account with multiple cards as they often do in other countries - basically you get a backup Visa/MasterCard to use if a merchant doesn't accept Amex). Of course, Amex said they do not do this (it was all via Twitter conversation, so hopefully Virgin saw Amex's response).

I opened a Halifax card to transfer the balance as I do not want to be paying interest (or fees) for that balance and I'm not ready to clear the card with cash. I also gave the details of the Amex card during account opening and then noticed an email over the weekend from Halifax saying the balance transfer had failed!!!:mad: I felt a bit defeated, but decided to try again online (and was going to try their call centre too if that failed). This morning, I had a notification from Amex saying they have received my payment. :T

Next step for me is to transfer the new balance on my Halifax card to the Virgin Card and then do it all once more before my 60 days are up with Virgin. (The Halifax card's credit limit is less than half of what the balance is on the Amex).

bengalknights

I was going to suggest using a MBNA card to the transfer from Amex to Virgin

It seems Virgin use a historical system that doesnt support Amex cards