Abbey balance transfer

bloggs_3

Abbey sent me an offer for their new card (to 'replace' the MBNA Abbey-branded one that I have and no longer use). They offer to pay me UKP75 for transferring at least UKP1000 to the card. The problem is that I don't have a sufficient balance to transfer. However, I have about UKP 350 on an Amazon branded Halifax card and maybe around UKP400 on a Morgan Stanley branded Goldfish card. The former is interest-free and the latter is paid off every month.
I could take a cash advance on the MS card to take the total balance to over UKP1000. I am reluctant to do that as there would be charges to pay and Abbey might take their time to do the transfer with Christmas approaching and all ...
I am considering two options: i) I tell Abbey to transfer more than the current balances (say UKP400+600) and expect everything to work out, ii) take out the card without transferring anything and then phone Abbey asking to do a transfer to my current account (which I can arrange to be UKP1000 overdrawn if necessary), or iii) not bother.
I would be grateful for any comments, particularly if they confirm whether either of the first two suggestions would work. Many thanks in advance.

savingsgirl

the balance transfer can go to a bank account as long as its not an abbey one

and its £50, not £75

tintoys

A welcome £50 arrived, it cost us £105 to get £3.5k to buy our car last month, which we were quite happy with from another provider, we just transferred this balance and Abbey have given us £50 back and H took out a Barclaycard recommended here so as long as we get our £50 vouchers, it's cost us £5! Thanks for all the help, and yes, we have taken a screen print as proof!

PBA

savingsgirl wrote: »

the balance transfer can go to a bank account as long as its not an abbey one

No it can't. That was true on the old Abbey/MBNA card, not the new Abbey/Santander one. Balance transfers now can only go to credit cards or storecards.

You can, though, BT £350 to clear the Amazon card and £650 to the Morgan Stanley one, leaving the MS card £250 in credit. You can then withdraw this, incurring a charge of around 3% (approx £7.50) or use it for your Christmas spending. Either way you get the £50 cashback from Abbey and the balance is interest free until May. There's no need to worry about Abbey dragging their feet over the transfer, the transfers are done the same day the card is issued, and the card is issued the same day you apply if it's done in a branch.

KDH_2

I transferred £15K onto my Abbey/Santander card about 2 weeks ago and was given the option of transferring the money to a bank account (as savingsgirl said above) and the money duly arrived there 3 days later . (so it can be done!)

Yet to receive my £50 cheque yet but pleased I'm earning over 6% (gross) interest on the money at Abbey's expense for 6 months with no BTF (as I am an existing MBNA/Abbey cardholder)

I'm not using the Supermarket cashback as I figured there was more to be gained on the stooze!


I have requested an online ID from Abbey but as usual with their shambolic nature this has yet to arrive!

PBA

KDH wrote: »

I transferred £15K onto my Abbey/Santander card about 2 weeks ago and was given the option of transferring the money to a bank account (as savingsgirl said above) and the money duly arrived there 3 days later . (so it can be done!)

Hmm, interesting. I just double checked, and the functionality is there in the system for it to be done. It's certainly not offered in the T&C of the account though, but obviously there are some Abbey staff who've seen that the system can accept it and are putting it through anyway...