Now I have too much money on my CC after balance transfer?!

marshybeans

Hey guys, 

I've tried finding this answer online for the last couple of days but no such luck. I recently did a balance transfer for my credit card, the amount was about £2,200 but I wanted more of a safety net so upped it a bit. It's now transferred the full amount to my old credit card which now has a +£1200 on my card that I no longer want to use. 

What can I do with this money? I don't want it sat on a card I don't use anymore as my CC I literally just pay off every month and that's that. Now I owe £3500 on my new card and £1200 sitting there elsewhere. 

[Deleted User]

A balance transfer is where you transfer money owed on a credit card to a different card where a zero interest rate is charged - there's no surplus money anywhere.
1 card will show a zero balance because it's now on the 2nd/other card - that card will show you the figure you've transferred to it.
There will be 1 figure.
It will have been moved from 1 card to the other.

marshybeans

[Deleted User] said:

A balance transfer is where you transfer money owed on a credit card to a different card where a zero interest rate is charged - there's no surplus money anywhere.
1 card will show a zero balance because it's now on the 2nd/other card - that card will show you the figure you've transferred to it.
There will be 1 figure.
It will have been moved from 1 card to the other.

Hey, so because I wanted a bigger amount on my credit card, I only owed £2,200 but wanted a bigger safety net as the last one was quite tight, I think I put in for £3,500. (I did this last time with no issues.) 
So now, my new current credit card has -£3500 and my old credit card that I just transferred from has +£1,200. So I now have additional money on my old credit card that I do not want to be there. The balance is not 0. 

noh

Telephone the CC company that has the surplus and tell them you made a mistake and overpaid. Request they refund the surplus £1200 to your bank account.

[Deleted User]

[Deleted User] said:

A balance transfer is where you transfer money owed on a credit card to a different card where a zero interest rate is charged - there's no surplus money anywhere.
1 card will show a zero balance because it's now on the 2nd/other card - that card will show you the figure you've transferred to it.
There will be 1 figure.
It will have been moved from 1 card to the other.

You can do a payment for more than there is on the card whether manually or via BT, it's just it's normally a small amount by accident. I don't know why OP wanted a "safety net" rather than just transferring the balance total as paying £3500 from BT card to recipient card was always going to mean the full balance was paid + a credit amount.

OP you need to get the credit refunded, deliberately putting the card in credit is against the terms and conditions of credit cards and could result in the card being closed. More likely they will just bounce the credit back to the sender. It may be possible that they pay the £1200 into your bank account but it may be they will just send it back to the BT card

Rosco32

If you only owed £2200, why would you put in a balance transfer request for £3500? What do you mean safety net? That makes absolutely no logical sense at all, unless I'm missing something obvious. You simply transfer across how much you owe, in your case £2200, and the balance on the old card is settled. As others have said call your old credit card company and ask them to transfer you the money back.

marshybeans

Rosco32 said:

If you only owed £2200, why would you put in a balance transfer request for £3500? What do you mean safety net? That makes absolutely no logical sense at all, unless I'm missing something obvious. You simply transfer across how much you owe, in your case £2200, and the balance on the old card is settled. As others have said call your old credit card company and ask them to transfer you the money back.

Because I use the card to just pay off monthly but also want more in case of an emergency payment? It doesn’t seem that illogical to me and last time the amount was quite tight, I wanted more breathing space in the event of an emergency that I then don’t have to pay a higher interest on.

I am however now trying to contact the original bank. 

Rosco32

It's is illogical in the sense of how you've considered this. You would have been better off getting either a money transfer credit card, where you could have transferred £3500 to your current account and then paid £2200 off your other card and saved the rest (in your current account) for any emergencies, or a combined 0% balance transfer/purchase card. Credit cards should not be put into credit. They don't work like current accounts. It's usually against the Terms. Anyhow, I would say to the credit card company that you made an error when entering the amount to transfer and hopefully they'll refund you. Good luck.

born_again

Amazed your CC did not decline the transfer. As putting a CC into credit is a big no no (against T/C as a rule).
 
I would be careful as transfer to bank account could incur a cash fee, or if you say it was a error, they could just transfer it back to the other CC.

M_anonymous

If you want a bigger safety net like you keep describing ask for an INCREASE on the credit limit of the card with £0. 

You shouldn't be putting the card into credit as others have already pointed out. 

This could be the fast way to getting your credit card taken off you! Which is clearly not what you want. 

Ebe_Scrooge

OP, all the above replies are correct - I suspect you don't have a full understanding of how credit cards work.  Please don't take this as an insult, it's not intended as such in any way.  But if you're using a financial product that you don't fully understand, that's how problems can arise.

You are given a credit limit.  You can spend up to this credit limit, and must repay it each month.  It is, as highlighted several times above, against the T&Cs to deliberately put the card into credit.

If you need a larger credit limit then ask for one.  Alternatively, apply for an additional card from a different provider.  Credit limits are assigned on an individual basis, and are calculated using a combination of your income and the data contained within your credit file.

If you do manage to obtain a higher limit, please understand that you need to only spend what you can afford.  You MUST pay the minimum repayment each month.  Ideally, you should be repaying the FULL amount every month, otherwise you'll be charged interest - and paying less than the full amount month after month can rapidly lead to a spiral of unmanageable debt.

So yes - bottom line, if you want a "safety net" then apply for a higher credit limit.  But understand the implications of utilising the increased available credit.