Transferring between VISA and Mastercard

GreyPilgrim

Dumb question #35,343

I always had in it my head that these were the two main card issuers and was clear that you cannot use 0% balance transfer offers to switch balances between cards of the same 'type' (ie MasterCard to MasterCard).

What exactly is MBNA, and how does it fit into the equation? I'm looking for a card to transfer a balance from my Virgin card in a few months. Virgin is issued by MBNA but has a Mastercard logo, so does this mean I would not be allowed to transfer that balance to any card that bears either the Mastercard logo or has MBNA affiliation?

Does it limit my options to non-MBNA visa cards? (Egg, BarclayCard, etc?)

GP

bethanyrayne

GreyPilgrim wrote: »

Dumb question #35,343

I always had in it my head that these were the two main card issuers and was clear that you cannot use 0% balance transfer offers to switch balances between cards of the same 'type' (ie MasterCard to MasterCard).

What exactly is MBNA, and how does it fit into the equation? I'm looking for a card to transfer a balance from my Virgin card in a few months. Virgin is issued by MBNA but has a Mastercard logo, so does this mean I would not be allowed to transfer that balance to any card that bears either the Mastercard logo or has MBNA affiliation?

Does it limit my options to non-MBNA visa cards? (Egg, BarclayCard, etc?)

GP

Mastercard and Visa are card processors and NOT issuers so have no relevance with regard to BTs,

The time when you may have difficulty of doing a BT is when you transfer between cards supplied by the same Issuer such as MBNA to MBNA etc

Virgin is issued by MBNA so avoid any other MBNA card

Here is a list of which company issues which card.

http://www.stoozing.com/cards.htm

Not complete by any means.

GreyPilgrim

Thats great beth, cleared up a lot of confusion there. That link is just what I needed.

So essentially I can transfer to ANY card (be it mastercard or visa) as long as it's not issued by MBNA?

GP

bethanyrayne

GreyPilgrim wrote: »

Thats great beth, cleared up a lot of confusion there. That link is just what I needed.

So essentially I can transfer to ANY card (be it mastercard or visa) as long as it's not issued by MBNA?

GP

In essence, yes.

It is not however a strict rule some issuers will allow transfers between cards they supply. Just to add to the confusion

GreyPilgrim

Sweet confusion.

I've got a few months to go before the Virgin offer expires, so I'm going to see if any of my 'spare' empty dead credit cards will offer a BT to a loyal customer (not holding out much hope though) otherwise I'll dump them and apply for one on the list.

Thanks again Beth - great link,

GP