How to turn an ordinary card in to an SBT

RS1800

I think I have found a way to turn any ordinary card into an SBT card.

My partner owed me £5000 so she took out a M & S card with 9 months interest free but only on balance transfers and I need the money in my current account.

I have a credit card (any will do I think) with a zero balance. I phoned and told them (pretended at this stage) that my partner had done a balance transerfer of £5000 but I had given her my MBNA card details by mistake.

They told me no problem, when the money showes on the card they will refund it to my bank account at no charge.

i.e. providing you have a second card with a zero balance, it appears you can turn a balance xfer card into a SBT card with no fee.

Have I missed something here ?

YorkshireBoy

I'm no expert with your proposed method, but here are a few of my thoughts...

1/ Many CC companies send BT's back to where they came from if they place the account in credit. Not sure if MBNA normally subscribe to this policy.

2/ Get everything in writing if possible (impossible in my experience with Virgin - not sure about MBNA in general). If not, make a note of the phone call including name and ext. number.

3/ You may be charged a 2% (max £35) BT fee, even though you're playing with positive balances.

4/ If your partner applied for the M&S card post July 1st, the intro period is 6 months. If they applied pre July 1st, you'd better get a move on as BT's are only fee-free for the first 30 days.

5/ Are you in any kind of intro period with MBNA?

6/ Are you absolutely sure the MBNA balance is zero? Do you have a statement showing it's zero?

smartsaver

It sounds dodgy.. you have got away with it once but I would not advocate telling lies to a credit card company

RS1800

I was told it could be refunded to my bank account account at no fee because it was a positive balance.

The only prob I forsee is will MBNA accept the xfer (although can they really stop it once M&S have sent it?)

Yorkshireboy - It was 9 months and had to be done b4 this friday, I have no promo rate on the MBNA although shouldnt matter as Im not going to pay anything for positive balance anyway. My balance was 0 but even if I had a debt, my partner would effectively pay that off for me and I would get a SBT on the balance.

There is no need to lie either. (I only said about mistake to ask what would happen). You could just do the xfer and phone up some time later and ask for a refund of your positive balance.

At the end of the day the proof in the ..etc My g/f made the xfer and I will let you all know in a few days what happens.....

Till then fingers crossed

RS1800

**** THIS WORKS *****

Well, I said I would report what happens and it all WORKED.

My partner transferred funds to my MBNA card which had a zero balance enabling her to get 0% for 9 months.

When the xfer tuned up on my MBNA card I just called them and asked them to xfer my credit to my bank account. Absolutely no questions asked (apart from security ones of cource) and NO charges. I was told it would take 5 working days which it did.

This worked with MBNA but should work with others too.

RS1800

Provided that you already have another card with near zero balance you can get effectively get an interest free loan paid in to your bank account by applying for any card of your choosing with the best 0% deal.

This is surely great news for all money savers!

Reaper

This has been done by money savers before. However it is too hit and miss to depend on. Policies vary with companies and over time. Some cards will only ever refund positive amounts back to where they came from. Others will let you do it once in the belief it is a mistake but get difficult if you try to repeat it. As a last resort canceling the card usually lets you choose where to get any positive balance sent, though even then I wouldn't bank on it.

RS1800

Super balance transfer cards with a good 0% time period and no charges are getting rare these days. This method allows you to potentially turn any card with any offer into an SBT card.

Would it not be worth keeping a track of which secondary cards allow you to do this?

My experience with MBNA could not have been easier and they had no problem in xfering the funds charge free in to my current account.

It may be useful for people to have a specific location they could log their results with their own 'secondary' cards.

In the mean time, if anyone wants an interest free loan why not apply for 2 cards:-

1) The best 0% rate card you can find (or life balance if you prefer)
and
2) An MBNA card just used to move the funds charge free to your bank account.

easy

YorkshireBoy

I admire your enthusiasm with this "positive balance" method but I think, based on mine and others' contributions to this thread, you're on your own with the opinion that it's a viable option with regard to repeatability.

Just a minor point...

RS1800 wrote:

2) An MBNA card just used to move the funds charge free to your bank account.

The MBNA SBT is not "charge free"...

Other charges: 2% handling fee (min.£3, max.£50) on credit card cheques and balance transfers.

RS1800

Yorkshireboy, I think you have missed the point - because there was a positive balance on my MBNA card they transfered the balance completely free of all charges to my current account.

I was not using the MBNA card as an SBT, only as a mule for the M&S (0% 9 months)card to tranfer funds to my bank account.

This effectively turns the M&S card into the an SBT and is the point of this thread.

As for repeatability, I can only pass on this single experience but its surly worth further investigation from other money dsavers willing to give it a try?

In fact Ill leave it a couple of weeks and try again with another 0% card. If it works Ill put the money in a savings acount for 9 months and make the interest!

Walletwatch

RS1800

I agree with other posters on this thread - one may get lucky once, but not always with this process. Besides, all it takes for them to catch you out, is for the previous call center attendant to have put a note explaining the expected positive balance on your card the last time (due to the card number having been given 'by mistake' for a BT). If you try it a second time, and another call center attendant were to check previous transactions, it'd not look very convincing having two instances of a positive balance sitting on your card, both presumably for the same reason.