M&S credit card balance transfer - used my card number not account number

Silverum

Hello!
slight panic here as I’ve had a balance transfer approved and finalised from my M&S card to Capital One to get 0% interest.
however I’ve realised my card number if different from my account number on my statement.
I’ve used my card number when I think it asked for account number?
my other card they are one and the same.

is there a chance that my card number could be someone else’s account number? Or will it only be linked to me?

worried I’ve paid someone else’s credit card! 

retiredbanker1

The chances of a 16 digit number (albeit the first 6 are common to a particular lender) being similar to someone else's account number are slim.
Don't panic balance transfers have always been done by using the long PAN number from the front of your card.

Just keep an eye on both accounts until one shows a debit and the other a nil (or reduced) balance.

Silverum

Thank you so much for your reply!

That’s good to know balance transfers have always been done from the card number!

Hopefully they don’t duplicate and make someone’s card number someone else’s account number!  I guess that would cause too many problems.

I can see the charge on the capital one app, but I’ve managed to get locked out of my M&S one and need to call to re-set my password! Will do that in the morning.

thanks again! 

grumbler

Silverum said:

Hello!
slight panic here as I’ve had a balance transfer approved and finalised from my M&S card to Capital One to get 0% interest.
however I’ve realised my card number if different from my account number on my statement.
I’ve used my card number when I think it asked for account number?

Credit cards don't have an 'account number'. To transfer a balance (debt) from card A to card B you need to give your card A long number to the card B provider.

TadleyBaggie

When I've done balance transfers I've only ever used card numbers.

MartinHere

grumbler said:

Credit cards don't have an 'account number'.

They can do, actually, as the OP has seen on their statement. Although you are right that using the card number in this case should be just fine.

Certainly with M&S you'll have a 16 digit account number which differs from the number on your card. 

Card numbers can change when cards are replaced, and you can also have multiple cards with different numbers on a single account (e.g. you could order a second card on the same account for a partner). A separate account number exists alongside these to provide a single, permanent, unique reference for the account. 

A practical application of this is that if you setup a regular payment from your bank account to your credit card account using the account number shown on your statement as a reference, it will continue working even if your physical card number changes. (Helpfully, M&S will accept money sent to either account number or card number.) 

The good news for the OP is that card and account numbers are all unique with no overlap - there's no risk of one person's card number being the same as another's account number. Indeed, M&S use slightly different blocks of numbers for account and card numbers, so there's no risk of mix-up.

Silverum

Thanks all - as you advised, it was absolutely fine to use the card number thankfully and all is well.
@MartinHere you described exactly my concern, that my card number could be someone else’s account number! Glad that can’t happen!

thanks again 

Highlanddream

Thank you for this, I used my account - reference number instead of my card number, this has put my mind at rest!