An error in my favour on my credit card account - can I take advantage of it?

Watson

I recently took out a Tesco credit card to take advantage of their 36 month 0% interest rate on money transfers. I made a transfer of £2500 to my bank account but made a stupid error when I gave my bank account number. When I realised, I spoke to Tesco and they arranged for the money to be refunded to my card. Which it has been - twice.

Checking online shows me the two repayments (both on the same day) and tells me that my card's available balance is £2500 more than it should be.

What will happen, I wonder, if I try to use the incorrect amount or part of it? What if I transfer a balance from another card which will eat into the extra sum? Presumably sooner or later there would be repercussions but what exactly? Does anyone here know?

Many thanks.

jonesMUFCforever

They will find out sooner than later that they have refunded you twice (I suspect first one would have been automated due to wrong account number, the second done by back office staff at Tesco).
Let them know or wait a few days to see if it all works out - BUT DON'T try and be clever and use the funds that you know are not yours to use - it will only end in tears.

Watson

Thanks for reinforcing my own feeling. But (just as an intellectual exercise, you understand) I do wonder what would happen if I were to transfer a balance from an interest-paying card to this account using at least some of the "phantom credit" that's ostensibly available. Would Tesco somehow make me transfer it back again? Or might they take the (presumably simpler) path of increasing my credit limit to legitimise the transaction?

Incidentally, the incorrect refund was made six days ago, on Monday the 19th. It hasn't been corrected yet...
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CakeCrusader

You might find yourself with a CIFAS marker and with your bank accounts and cards cancelled if you do that. It's technically theft if you know about an error and you don't tell them about it. I'd call them up and tell them, it's not worth any problems, nothing is worth it!!

Labsuper

Last Monday was the 13th.

Watson

I don't know what a CIFAS marker is but I'm pretty sure I don't want one. Actually, I rang them today to tell them about the error but the wait time was so long I gave up. It's a twenty-four hour helpline so I'll try again at a more likely time.

Thanks to you and to jonesMUFCforever for keeping me on the straight and narrow.
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Watson

Labsuper wrote: »

Last Monday was the 13th.

It was indeed. A slip of the fingers. Thanks for the correction.

Nebulous2

I think they would proceed as they normally would if you went over limit.

Any over limit charges would apply, you would lose any promotional rate and start paying interest straight away and they'd write to you telling you to bring it back inline.

They'd also report it to the credit reference agencies. If they saw it as a mistake I doubt if you would get a Cifas marker, initially at least.

Watson

Thanks for that; it makes sense. I'll have another go at phoning them this morning.

Edited to add:

The immediate response from the chap I spoke to was "Well, I've never heard of that before!". This was followed by him speaking to colleagues in other departments and then saying he'd ring me back. When he did, his new comment was "You're paying the price for being honest - you could have used that extra credit limit and it might never have come to light. And even if it did, there's no way you would have been held responsible, since it was entirely our fault".

But honest I was and £2500 poorer in credit I now am.
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Baby_Angel

I have run into a slightly similar situation with MBNA. I money transferred to my bank account. But they did the transfer twice. The credit card shows only one transaction but I have 2 times the amount requested. Panicking I told the online chat staff the situation. He immediately said they are having issues with duplicate payments. To keep the duplicate money aside and only use the requested amount. Later I got a text saying I was affected by this error and they will collect the money automatically. It is been 10 days now since this happened. No more correspondence and money still sits in account. I am wondering if I should nudge them again. Feeling uneasy about the situation.

CakeCrusader

Watson wrote: »

Thanks for that; it makes sense. I'll have another go at phoning them this morning.

Edited to add:

The immediate response from the chap I spoke to was "Well, I've never heard of that before!". This was followed by him speaking to colleagues in other departments and then saying he'd ring me back. When he did, his new comment was "You're paying the price for being honest - you could have used that extra credit limit and it might never have come to light. And even if it did, there's no way you would have been held responsible, since it was entirely our fault".

But honest I was and £2500 poorer in credit I now am.
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You're not poorer in credit, you'd have had to pay it back anyway so you've done yourself a favour.