Has this happened to anyone else ? I had 2 credit cards (Tesco & HSBC Mastercard) on which I was paying interest & decided to try to transfer the balances to interest-free card(s) to attempt to get them paid off. First Barclaycard gave me a card & I paid off the full balnce on my Tesco Mastercard & as much as I could of my HSBC Mastercard, c.£1600 out of £10k. In order to arrange these transfers I had to phone Barclaycard. Then I applied for a Virgin card and my husband applied for an Abbey card. Both of these applications involved filling in the details of cards from which we wanted to transfer balances; but I didn't think anything would happen without further instructions. Wrong. We have both received letters to say we've been accepted for the respective cards - no actual cards yet - but Virgin has paid off the full balance of my HSBC card and Abbey has also paid £5600 ! Meaning it is £5600 in credit !! Help !!! How can I return the money to Abbey and can my husband avoid the balance transfer fee ? Thanks very much.

Hello

Your husband needs to contact Abbey and tell them they need to "recall" the balance transfer as it was done in error. They prob wont be too keen but it the proper way to do it. Could take a few weeks, best contact HSBC too and advise them a payment (balance transfer) is being recalled so they are aware of the situation.

As regards the fee, if Abbey wont waive it then threaten to cancel the card, say you plan to use it even if you dont.

Hope this helps

Eco

Thanks very much indeed for your quick response, Eco - we will do as you suggest.

In case anyone else is interested, here's what happened. The Abbey (i.e. MBNA, really) refused to accept that they could recall the payment (although we both work for a bank & know they could) and said that they were within their rights to make the payment without any further instruction according to the small print. So husband eveidently wasn't going to get his £140 transfer fee back. So then I spoke to my bank, HSBC, & they said they'd transfer the money to my current a/c so I could then pay off Abbey. We then had what we hope was a bright moneysaving idea & have decided to stick it in a high interest savings a/c, paying Abbey only the minimum until the end of the interest free period, then paying off the rest. Hopefully this should recoup the fee and maybe even a bit more. I hope Martin Lewis would approve !

Well im glad you got it sorted in the end C_E

It just shows that some banks dont want to help their customers!!!

Thanks, Eco. We did try your way (which I know should have been the right way) but MBNA weren't having it. I have heard they are evil...