CreditCards Blog

I transfered an amount from my current account to a Tesco card and it took only a couple of hours. I made another transfer to a MBNA Virgin credit card only seconds later and I'm still waiting for it to show up on the Virgin balance.

It's infuriating because there was just a pound left to pay off before the balance is clear. I lost my 0% balance transfer rate some months ago because I forgot to calculate that although a transfer was well within the limit, immediately after the transfer, a direct debit payment was made that pushed it over it, so I lost it. Never again. 95 interest a month! I have just been waiting and waiting to be free of it and now just a pound stands between me and freedom from that darn card.

Are they dragging their feet or do Virgin always take this long to acknowledge balance transfers?

Not all banks accept faster payments yet, so although it sounds like Tesco (or the bank it uses to handle payments) does, MBNA doesnt so looks like your stuck with normal BACS timescales (3-4 working days)

Most credit card BACS transfers take 3-4 working days. You're lucky that the Tesco one was done so quickly with FP.

Thanks for your replies, it just seems so backward in the 21st Century.

I agree it is backward, I cannot think why it takes 3 working days to do an electronic bank transfer these days. Look at it this way, the money leaves my high street bank account immediately, but it takes 3 days to arrive on my Virgin cc, so where is it in the meantime? In the ether?

That's what I told virgin after they did the same to me, charged me for missing a payment and removed my interest free deal. The payment was made 4 days before due, but the weekend meant the credit was not actually made until the day after due.

T&C is one thing, to but make a double penalty to a customer who was moved thousands through his account and never missed a payment is nonsense.

I phoned up, was given another number, and the interest free was reinstated, but the charge stuck. They tried to tell me that transactions were manually keyed, that's why it took 3 days. :rolleyes: