Beware balance transfers
Discussion
Just been to the cash point to get some money out, but got a message saying I had insufficient funds. Bit odd, I thought, since I was paid on Monday. 
Came home and checked my HSBC bank account online only to find that Egg have taken the best part of £4000 out of my account.
So I phoned Egg, and the guy I spoke to explained that my account was set up to pay the full card balance by Direct Debit. I've had the card for a few years and only ever used it for fairly small everyday purchases, so set up the direct debit that way at the outset. Then last month they e-mailed me with a balance transfer offer which was too good to miss, so I filled my proverbial boots.
Unfortunately, their website isn't set up to direct you to revisit your Direct Debit settings when you transfer a balance and as a result, when your next due date comes around a couple of weeks later, they hoover the thick end of £4k from your current account.
The bloke I spoke to tonight thinks they *should* be able to do a chaps payment back to me which'll go through within 24 hours. Trouble is, the team that arranges this only work 9-6 so I have to phone back tomorrow. 
In the meantime, I thought I'd better inform HSBC of the situation and see if they could help me out by extending my overdraft for two days or so until the chaps payment came through. After going through some menus and entering my life history by way of my telephone keypad, I eventually got through to a helpful but slightly difficult to understand gentleman in India. Having explained the whole saga, he put me on hold, only to come back with a Little Britain-esque "computer says no". I have to visit my local branch first thing in the morning, apparently (yeah, my boss is gonna love that one!).
So, unless they play ball, I'm going to have no lunch, no social life and all manner of rubber cheques, standing orders and direct debits bouncing here there and everywhere until this mess gets sorted (which reminds me, must phone my landlady and tell her not to expect my rent anytime soon).
So kids, the moral of the story is, whenever you do a balance transfer, always check your Direct Debit settings first, or you could end up in the same godawful mess I'm in.... 
Came home and checked my HSBC bank account online only to find that Egg have taken the best part of £4000 out of my account.
So I phoned Egg, and the guy I spoke to explained that my account was set up to pay the full card balance by Direct Debit. I've had the card for a few years and only ever used it for fairly small everyday purchases, so set up the direct debit that way at the outset. Then last month they e-mailed me with a balance transfer offer which was too good to miss, so I filled my proverbial boots. Unfortunately, their website isn't set up to direct you to revisit your Direct Debit settings when you transfer a balance and as a result, when your next due date comes around a couple of weeks later, they hoover the thick end of £4k from your current account.
The bloke I spoke to tonight thinks they *should* be able to do a chaps payment back to me which'll go through within 24 hours. Trouble is, the team that arranges this only work 9-6 so I have to phone back tomorrow. In the meantime, I thought I'd better inform HSBC of the situation and see if they could help me out by extending my overdraft for two days or so until the chaps payment came through. After going through some menus and entering my life history by way of my telephone keypad, I eventually got through to a helpful but slightly difficult to understand gentleman in India. Having explained the whole saga, he put me on hold, only to come back with a Little Britain-esque "computer says no". I have to visit my local branch first thing in the morning, apparently (yeah, my boss is gonna love that one!).
So, unless they play ball, I'm going to have no lunch, no social life and all manner of rubber cheques, standing orders and direct debits bouncing here there and everywhere until this mess gets sorted (which reminds me, must phone my landlady and tell her not to expect my rent anytime soon).
So kids, the moral of the story is, whenever you do a balance transfer, always check your Direct Debit settings first, or you could end up in the same godawful mess I'm in.... thegreatsoprendo said:
hehe, least you know you made a mistake and can accept it. Was waiting for you to go off at the banks for 'letting this happen' but you didnt. Good on you. Personal Responsibility is sadly lacking these days.
Mistakes happen, the good news is, your egg card is clear
so you can buy dinner on that J
If the worst comes to the worst, you could go and buy a second hand Rolex for about £3000 on the card, then take it to another dealer and sell it for £200 less.
This is a good way of liquidating funds (or money laundering depending on which way you look at it) but if you get desperate then it migh offer a way out. This is one of the ways that credit card thieves liquidate cash from stolen cards.
Bad luck, fella.
This is a good way of liquidating funds (or money laundering depending on which way you look at it) but if you get desperate then it migh offer a way out. This is one of the ways that credit card thieves liquidate cash from stolen cards.
Bad luck, fella.
JamieBeeston said:
hehe, least you know you made a mistake and can accept it. Was waiting for you to go off at the banks for 'letting this happen' but you didnt. Good on you. Personal Responsibility is sadly lacking these days.
Mistakes happen, the good news is, your egg card is clear
J
Yeah, my fault ultimately.
The guy at Egg said that when they did transfers over the phone, they always checked your DD status. I did suggest that it might also be worth amending the process on the website so that you get to reconfirm your settings when doing a transfer. I'm sure I can't be the first person this has happened to and I won't be the last...
esselte said:
Ha ,rate tart
Not really. They e-mailed me and asked if I wanted to do a transfer at what I considered a very attractive rate. I didn't go looking for it, and I certainly didn't take the card out with a view to balance transfers.
It would have been rude not to accept their kind offer, but as it turns out, I wish I hadn't...
Vesuvius996 said:
If the worst comes to the worst, you could go and buy a second hand Rolex for about £3000 on the card, then take it to another dealer and sell it for £200 less.
This is a good way of liquidating funds (or money laundering depending on which way you look at it) but if you get desperate then it migh offer a way out. This is one of the ways that credit card thieves liquidate cash from stolen cards.
Bad luck, fella.
Another popular one now is voucher cards. Get a hooky credit card. Charge up a store voucher card (often used for gifts) once with the c/c. Dump c/c & buy stuff with the credit on the voucher/gift card. Take goods back to different store & get cash back. Much harder to trace than dodgy c/c's as using smaller amounts & swapping the credit around.
simpo two said:
Then last month they e-mailed me with a balance transfer offer which was too good to miss, so I filled my proverbial boots.
Balance transfer or account transfer? Is this just a licence for them to help themselves to all your funds?
Not exactly, direct debits always come out of your bank account. There are two options: (i) pay the balance in full (good if you use your card for everyday purchases and want to pay off in full each month to avoid any interest payments) or (ii) pay the minimum payment (good if you have a large balance on a low/zero interest rate.
I was on (i) and forgot to switch to (ii) when I did the balance transfers, hence almighty f
k up...
thegreatsoprendo said:
Not exactly, direct debits always come out of your bank account. There are two options: (i) pay the balance in full (good if you use your card for everyday purchases and want to pay off in full each month to avoid any interest payments) or (ii) pay the minimum payment (good if you have a large balance on a low/zero interest rate.
I was on (i) and forgot to switch to (ii) when I did the balance transfers, hence almighty f
Egg actually have a third option: (iii) Fixed monthly amount.
This is a good option, as if your total balance is less than the fixed amount, they'll only clear the balance. Therefore, if you're expecting to do manybe a couple of £00 per month and want to clear it each time, set up a fixed £200 pm dd payment. If you occasionally go just over and forget to make an extra payment to clear the difference, the interest will be only pennies.
Won't accidentally get stung in the manner you were, then, either.
Been to the branch this morning, and because Egg took the money on 31st October and so many of my direct debits come out on the 1st of each month, there have been a huge number of bounced payments, including my mortgage and my rent.
The guy at the bank reckons that I've accumulated around £120 in charges so far, and to add insult to injury I've just spoken to a right little oik at Egg. I phoned back, as instructed by the guy I spoke to last night, to arrange the chaps payment (he told me there was a 2pm cut off and it had to be done by then for it to be paid into my account). After being put on hold for some time, the girl came back and told me that she couldn't do anything until she had spoken to the guy I spoke to last night (this isn't good because he doesn't start work until 4pm - 2 hours after the cut off time!).
She was quite insistent about speaking to him, so I told her to forget that and just pretend I was phoning for the first time today. She then told me quite matter-of-factly that if it was down to her she would have refused to pay the money back to me.
She also said that they can do a same-day chaps payment, so if they process it tomorrow morning then it will be paid by the end of the day. Anyone know if this is true?
The guy at the bank reckons that I've accumulated around £120 in charges so far, and to add insult to injury I've just spoken to a right little oik at Egg. I phoned back, as instructed by the guy I spoke to last night, to arrange the chaps payment (he told me there was a 2pm cut off and it had to be done by then for it to be paid into my account). After being put on hold for some time, the girl came back and told me that she couldn't do anything until she had spoken to the guy I spoke to last night (this isn't good because he doesn't start work until 4pm - 2 hours after the cut off time!).
She was quite insistent about speaking to him, so I told her to forget that and just pretend I was phoning for the first time today. She then told me quite matter-of-factly that if it was down to her she would have refused to pay the money back to me.
She also said that they can do a same-day chaps payment, so if they process it tomorrow morning then it will be paid by the end of the day. Anyone know if this is true?
Vesuvius996 said:
If the worst comes to the worst, you could go and buy a second hand Rolex for about £3000 on the card, then take it to another dealer and sell it for £200 less.
This is a good way of liquidating funds (or money laundering depending on which way you look at it) but if you get desperate then it migh offer a way out. This is one of the ways that credit card thieves liquidate cash from stolen cards.
Bad luck, fella.
I actually think they do it on purpose.
You've "paid off" the balance. So even if you then take the money back outnow, that money won't be a "transfer", but new credit debt.
Chances are you'll now be paying interest on the credit amount now, and not getting their "transfer" rates...
I think anyway.
Good heads up though, is a thing you DO need to make sure about as you set it all up!
Dave
This is turning into a nightmare. Finally got Egg to agree to pay the money back, which they promise will hit my account today (although it hasn't done yet).
Meantime, I've phoned Nationwide, my mortgage provider, to inform them of the situation and to make sure they won't register this as a default with the credit reference agencies (since the DD will be re-presented for payment within 2 weeks, by which time my account will be back to normal). He said that any defaults get registered automatically and there's nothing he can do about it. Having worked in finance in a previous life, I know that a mortgage default has a pretty catastrophic effect on your credit score. I am currently in the process of selling my house, and was looking to buy somewhere else sometime next year, but now I'm seriously concerned that I'm going to struggle to get a mortgage.
Does anyone know if it's possible to get your credit record amended and the best way to go about it?
To add insult to injury, he also told me that they'd charge me £27.50 for missing the payment, on top of the bank charges. If everyone else hasa similar policy, this is going to cost me £300+ in charges alone, but even that pales into insignificance next to the damage to my credit rating.
>> Edited by thegreatsoprendo on Friday 4th November 15:07
Meantime, I've phoned Nationwide, my mortgage provider, to inform them of the situation and to make sure they won't register this as a default with the credit reference agencies (since the DD will be re-presented for payment within 2 weeks, by which time my account will be back to normal). He said that any defaults get registered automatically and there's nothing he can do about it.
Having worked in finance in a previous life, I know that a mortgage default has a pretty catastrophic effect on your credit score. I am currently in the process of selling my house, and was looking to buy somewhere else sometime next year, but now I'm seriously concerned that I'm going to struggle to get a mortgage. Does anyone know if it's possible to get your credit record amended and the best way to go about it?
To add insult to injury, he also told me that they'd charge me £27.50 for missing the payment, on top of the bank charges. If everyone else hasa similar policy, this is going to cost me £300+ in charges alone, but even that pales into insignificance next to the damage to my credit rating.
>> Edited by thegreatsoprendo on Friday 4th November 15:07
thegreatsoprendo said:
Does anyone know if it's possible to get your credit record amended and the best way to go about it?
I think Equifax can help
https://www.econsumer.equifax.co.uk/consum
They helped me sort out my bad credit rating. A store took the wrong account no for a direct debit and didnt chase me for the money just got a black mark against my name.
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