In Credit on CC: Will they transfer to Current Account?

paint

Hello,

I have a debt of £2500 on an abbey cc and about 1700 on mint – the promotional rates are coming to an end; so I’ve applied for (and got) a Barclaycard 0% until May 2006 with a £4,600 limit (allowing for a £4140 balance transfer).

Barclaycard charge a 2% handling fee (up to £50 max); so (presumably, but very possibly incorrectly!) if I do 2 balance transfers from my 2 cards for the full amount, they’ll charge me £50 + £34.

So I’ve done a single transfer of £4140 from Abbey to Barclaycard (for £50); but this will put me in credit on my Abbey card to the tune of about £1640. The thought behind this is that they would refund this cash to my current account and I’ll pay off Mint with it.

I was wondering if somebody could tell me

(a) have I done anything particularly stupid (apart from having the debt in the first place)?
(b) will there be a problem with Abbey paying the credit into my current account?
(c) was it utterly pointless in the first place? (the more I think about it the more I believe this to be the case!)

I really should have thought this out before actually doing the transfer!

Thanks in anticipation,
Paint

Reaper

The way to get positive funds to your bank account is to once again do a balance transfer, this time with an "overdraft" in your bank account. However only certain cards allow you to do this. It is known as a Super Balance Transfer round here and I suggest you read about it by clicking on the link in the blue box above.

Abbey is issued by MBNA and they do allow SBTs, but they will charge you a BT fee so there is no advantage.

Another way is to close your card with the positive balance. Then they have little option but to send you the money.

But why not just take the simple route and BT the extra directly from Abbey to Mint and skip your bank account completely?

For the future I suggest you apply for cards that don't charge BT fees. Their numbers are declining but there are still a few around.

Milarky

Another thought, since the card not charging for a transfer is Mint, while both BC and Abbey do, you could have transferred the max from Mint to BC [£50 fee, plus £2440 credit balance] and then transferred from Abbey to Mint. This only incurs one fee.



BC <--- Balance Transfer(£50 Fee) -- Mint <----Balance Transfer (free)--- Abbey

BC

---

(£4140)

---

> Mint

---

(-£1700 = £2440)

---

> Abbey

paint

Thanks Reaper and Milarky for your comments and thoughts. They are very much appreciated (and I'm more aware than ever that I need to be a little more circumspect in future!).

ps_live

paint wrote:

Thanks Reaper and Milarky for your comments and thoughts. They are very much appreciated (and I'm more aware than ever that I need to be a little more circumspect in future!).

Then you have gained something out of it ... experience

My Barclaycard 0% ends in August, and I previously transferred 3k to my CapOne 0%/18 months ... but was charged the maximum £50 for doing so. I then foolishly used my Barclaycard again, still in its 0%, but found that a transfer to any card I currently have would incur another BT fee. Doh!

RBS have just come to my rescue by launching their new Platinum card with 0%/9 months and NO BT fee.

I am a happy bunny :j and have learned a valuable lesson.

cheers

Pete