Surprised no reaction from BYD owners on this forum

[lungbing]

I am fuming!

It started off with my wife and I taking a taxi to collect our car which was in for a minor repair. We get to the garage, which had promised us faithfully it would be ready this morning, paid off the taxi and walk in. "Not yet ready, come back tomorrow". Quick ring to taxi driver who was back in less than ten minutes to take us home, this time armed with the garage's phone number which we will ring before setting out tomorrow.

Then the major aggravation. We were looking at going on a short holiday to Japan in early April while our daughters were on the end of term holiday. We rang the holiday company, they had sent us details and we wanted to book. They send a credit card authorisation form which I filled in and emailed back. The holiday company rang back to say payment was refused by VISA. I know I have a credit limit far greater than the amount owing and I had pre-warned them 3 days ago to expect a payment in Thailand in case they thought it a suspicious transaction.

So I rang VISA, international and after inputting 28 different digits to identify myself the call was dropped! Call again, another 28 digits to eventually talk to a real person. It turns out that last month I owed 19.95p on my credit card and via internet banking I had paid 20 quid to clear it. BIG MISTAKE. This left me 5 pence in credit on my VISA credit card and the credit card being in credit would no longer work! The girl at the other end agreed it was stupid and said she would transfer the errant 5 pence from my in-credit credit card to my current account bringing my balance back to zero whereupon the card would work again. But......it would take up to four days to do so! Meanwhile the holiday company were very understanding and will wait a few days while I rustle up the readies and pay cash.

Have you ever heard anything so bloody stupid? The credit card won't work because it's in credit! Why did the stupid thing let me pay over the odds thus putting me in that position. There's no warning anywhere I've seen. I raised a complaint with the girl at VISA who agreed it was a very silly thing to happen, and I'm also going to write to HSBC and VISA , fat lot of good that will do me apart from getting a load of platitudes in return.

So be warned.......................................don't get into credit on your credit card.

[Pib]

I"ve never, ever heard of credit card being in credit would prevent transactions. Heck, quite often I end-up with some of my U. S. credit cards with a minor credit due to say a Ebay/PayPal refund after I had paid the credit card balance in full. They can also end up in credit status due to cash back awards. Heck, at this very moment I've got three credit cards with a credit balance of a few US dollars. And just a few weeks ago when I was going to do a cash advance on my credit card I first logged on, did a $1500+ prepayment in full plus a few dollars to cover the costs, and then later that day went to the bank to do the counter withdrawal...done two such cash advances to avoid local ATM foreign card use fee of Bt150-Bt180...by doing this for a cash advance I incur no interest charge or fees as my credit card is a no foreign transaction fee and no cash advance fee card...full story in the ongoing thread talking about the AEON 150 baht fees. Anyway just mentioning this to show I have put several of my credit cards into small and BIG credit balances and it's never caused a follow-on transaction/purchase to be rejected.

Visa is not the problem here; HSBC is problem. Visa has almost 800 flags they can put on debit and credit cards to help prevent fraud or misuse...some of the flags are standard for all Visa cards but the rest are optional/identified by the card-issuing bank...HSBC in this case. Yeap, HSBC is your enemy here. I'm just wondering if the Visa rep gave you some wrong info or you misunderstood....I've just never heard of a credit card transaction being rejected because the card had a credit balance...heck, the prepared credit cards a person can get must be put into credit balance in order for then to work.

[lungbing]

Thank you for your reply. It was an HSBC rep I spoke to. I'll follow this up with HSBC first.

[tutsiwarrior]

I've got a USD account with the HSBC affiliate here in saudi (balance in excess of what's required for FATCA reporting and with an excellent credit history with an existing VISA account in the UK) and recently applied for a local VISA card...my application was declined; on query turns out that I'm too old (64 y.o. this summer)...

never heard of that one before...the guy on the telephone sounded apologetic and explained that that was their policy...

[paz]

While it is nomal for US credit cards to be in credit, other countries can do differently. OP has HSBC UK, not US.

Want more horror stories? In other countries, no payments againt the unclosed statements are accepted, and if you want to pay in installment, you have to select the individual charge and the monthly payment. Yet they call it 'credit card'.

[tinhead]

Yes. Some banks will suspend your card for overfunding. Had a warning for this on a Canadian credit card once.

On the other hand, AMEX told me to overfund if I was going to make a large purchase over my average spending which becomes some sort of soft limit.

It's good to know the rules of your bank. It's even better to not spread doom and gloom.

[wooloomooloo]

I know I have a credit limit far greater than the amount owing and I had pre-warned them 3 days ago to expect a payment in Thailand in case they thought it a suspicious transaction.

The payment wouldn't necessarily have been effected in LOS and I don't take too much note of call centre staff as they're invariably undertrained and likely to feed you random spiel to get you off the line.

Get two credit cards, preferably Visa and MasterCard from unrelated institutions and you'll avoid future interruption. I don't leave home without them along with two debit cards.

[lungbing]

Now that's a good idea.

Still awaiting an answer from HSBC UK.

I think I will not pay off the next amount in full, just leave 1 pence unpaid. Then it's a credit card again.

[saakura]

Thanks for sharing, this is news to me. I have 2 local (Krungsri and Kasikorn) VISA credit cards and regularly overpaid without any problems (until i signed up for direct debit from my savings accounts with both) even to the extent of 100k baht due to frequent business travels. Hope this does not spoil your holiday plans.

[starship]

I"ve never, ever heard of credit card being in credit would prevent transactions. Heck, quite often I end-up with some of my U. S. credit cards with a minor credit due to say a Ebay/PayPal refund after I had paid the credit card balance in full. They can also end up in credit status due to cash back awards. Heck, at this very moment I've got three credit cards with a credit balance of a few US dollars. And just a few weeks ago when I was going to do a cash advance on my credit card I first logged on, did a $1500+ prepayment in full plus a few dollars to cover the costs, and then later that day went to the bank to do the counter withdrawal...done two such cash advances to avoid local ATM foreign card use fee of Bt150-Bt180...by doing this for a cash advance I incur no interest charge or fees as my credit card is a no foreign transaction fee and no cash advance fee card...full story in the ongoing thread talking about the AEON 150 baht fees. Anyway just mentioning this to show I have put several of my credit cards into small and BIG credit balances and it's never caused a follow-on transaction/purchase to be rejected.

Visa is not the problem here; HSBC is problem. Visa has almost 800 flags they can put on debit and credit cards to help prevent fraud or misuse...some of the flags are standard for all Visa cards but the rest are optional/identified by the card-issuing bank...HSBC in this case. Yeap, HSBC is your enemy here. I'm just wondering if the Visa rep gave you some wrong info or you misunderstood....I've just never heard of a credit card transaction being rejected because the card had a credit balance...heck, the prepared credit cards a person can get must be put into credit balance in order for then to work.

Are you sure you do not incur interest for a cash advance on your credit card? I've never been aware of any card that offered that facility - if they did, everyone would just make a interest free cash advance and stick it in a deposit account earning interest, which the banks are obviously aware of. I might be wrong, maybe you've got a blinding deal but are you sure you're referring to a lack of a fee being charged for making a cash withdrawal, rather than interest on the amount you withdraw? The 'no foreign transaction fee' usually means you wont be charged a fee for using your card abroad when you purchase an item, but this does not mean interest free cash withdrawals as I understand it. I would be very careful and check. If I'm wrong I would be interested to know what card offers this facility as it sounds like a good money earner!

[Pib]

I"ve never, ever heard of credit card being in credit would prevent transactions. Heck, quite often I end-up with some of my U. S. credit cards with a minor credit due to say a Ebay/PayPal refund after I had paid the credit card balance in full. They can also end up in credit status due to cash back awards. Heck, at this very moment I've got three credit cards with a credit balance of a few US dollars. And just a few weeks ago when I was going to do a cash advance on my credit card I first logged on, did a $1500+ prepayment in full plus a few dollars to cover the costs, and then later that day went to the bank to do the counter withdrawal...done two such cash advances to avoid local ATM foreign card use fee of Bt150-Bt180...by doing this for a cash advance I incur no interest charge or fees as my credit card is a no foreign transaction fee and no cash advance fee card...full story in the ongoing thread talking about the AEON 150 baht fees. Anyway just mentioning this to show I have put several of my credit cards into small and BIG credit balances and it's never caused a follow-on transaction/purchase to be rejected.

Visa is not the problem here; HSBC is problem. Visa has almost 800 flags they can put on debit and credit cards to help prevent fraud or misuse...some of the flags are standard for all Visa cards but the rest are optional/identified by the card-issuing bank...HSBC in this case. Yeap, HSBC is your enemy here. I'm just wondering if the Visa rep gave you some wrong info or you misunderstood....I've just never heard of a credit card tran saction being rejected because the card had a credit balance...heck, the prepared credit cards a person can get must be put into credit balance in order for then to work.

Are you sure you do not incur interest for a cash advance on your credit card? I've never been aware of any card that offered that facility - if they did, everyone would just make a interest free cash advance and stick it in a deposit account earning interest, which the banks are obviously aware of. I might be wrong, maybe you've got a blinding deal but are you sure you're referring to a lack of a fee being charged for making a cash withdrawal, rather than interest on the amount you withdraw? The 'no foreign transaction fee' usually means you wont be charged a fee for using your card abroad when you purchase an item, but this does not mean interest free cash withdrawals as I understand it. I would be very careful and check. If I'm wrong I would be interested to know what card offers this facility as it sounds like a good money earner!

Absolutely sure from documentation and my actual use. It's a Pentagon Federal Credit Union (PenFed) Visa credit card..."all" of the PenFed Visa/Mastercard/AmEx credit cards have no foreign transaction fee or cash advance fee. And to prevent any interest you just need to preload/make a credit card payment the same day offseting the cash advance you got. PenFed credit cards are one of the few in the U.S. which do not charge a cash advance fee. Go to this PenFed link for more info on their credit cards and be sure to open the "Summary of Terms" link on each card to see where it says "no cash advance fee"...like this Summary of Terms link for my specific PenFed card.

You can read more about PenFed credit cards in the ongoing thread titled "AEON Bank Now Charge 150B ATM Fee." Here's one my last posts in that thread talking my cash advance fee and interest results (zero dollars in fees or interest) on two cash advances totaling over $3,000 last month using my PenFed Visa credit card.

[SheungWan]

Now that's a good idea.

Still awaiting an answer from HSBC UK.

I think I will not pay off the next amount in full, just leave 1 pence unpaid. Then it's a credit card again.

Now that's not such a good idea. If you do not pay off the amount in full you will be liable for interest on any debit amount for every day from the date of each transaction. Pay that penny.