Tesco money transfer question

sparky4293

Hi there!

I have a Tesco Clubcard credit card, which I used last year to money transfer and pay off another credit card (the old card wouldn't let you transfer the balance hence why I did a money transfer). The 0% interest free period for the initial transfer is running out next month and I received communications confirming this which is fine. What confuses me is I have also been receiving emails from Tesco every month about my "new transfer rates", with the latest stating that if I take out a money transfer now the interest will be 0% until June 2022.

If I understand this correctly, in theory I could just pay off the balance that is about to start accruing interest, then take out a new money transfer to effectively extend the length of the 0% interest period. Naturally this seems like cheating the system, but it doesn't seem particularly crafty or devious so I'm not sure if I've just misunderstood or if there may have been an error on Tesco's side with my account.

Has anyone had any experience with this, or have any advice? If I am able to extend the 0% interest period that would be great, but it doesn't quite seem right!

Thanks in advance for your help

[Deleted User]

You can take a money transfer and pay off the BT.

Just check the allocation of payments if you're doing it while both at still at 0%.

sparky4293

Thanks for the quick reply! Do you know why they are offering more 0% money transfers?

I thought the idea was to lure you in with the 0% interest period, then hope you stick around and use the card afterwards and pay some interest. Just confused on the business logic, although I suppose they still make money off of the transfer fee.

Ebe_Scrooge

Bear in mind, there's probably a fee for doing the money transfer.  So if you're in a position to be able to clear the balance anyway, then the MT will actually cost you more.  And you do need to be careful if you put any spending on the card, in addition to doing the MT - you need to check the T&Cs very carefully to see how payments are allocated, it can get pretty confusing if you're not careful when you mix a BT/MT with spending.

sparky4293

Thanks for that scrooge - to clarify, there's still some balance left on the card (I made the rookie mistake of not setting up a direct debit for the monthly amount needed to pay it off in time!), so if I'm able to extend the 0% interest period for the last bit of the balance then that would be helpful (and this time I will DEFINITELY set up a DD!).

Not planning on using the card for any spending at all, so no problems there

MalMonroe

sparky4293 said:

Thanks for that scrooge - to clarify, there's still some balance left on the card (I made the rookie mistake of not setting up a direct debit for the monthly amount needed to pay it off in time!), so if I'm able to extend the 0% interest period for the last bit of the balance then that would be helpful (and this time I will DEFINITELY set up a DD!).

Not planning on using the card for any spending at all, so no problems there

Hi, I have a Tesco clubcard credit card too and got it a couple of years ago to do a balance transfer at 0%. They also contacted me with offers of more 0% offers and different deadlines after it was all set up. I did transfer another sum of money over to Tesco when they offered me another 0% deal but then they said that the interest rate on the first transfer would expire so I'd be paying interest on that balance when that 0% interest period ended but the second balance transfer would not incur any interest charges until that particular deadline arrived. So one card, two balances, two different interest rates. At that point I paid off as much as I could and now have a small balance on there at 0% which I'll be paying off in full at the end of this month.

However, no credit card company has ever agreed to extend any 0% balance transfer period for me, or for anyone else I know. Please do post on the forum if they agree to extend the period for you. 

And yes, do set up a DD, it's so easy to do and you'll never miss a payment.  If you ever set the payments too low, they'll just take the minimum anyway so you don't get into any bother.