Does a credit card that can pay by direct debit exist?

jamiewakeham

...I think the answer is no, but it's worth a try.

GF and I both have our individual bank accounts, and our individual credit cards. Every month or two we have a long and dull session of comparing each others' expenses on 'joint' stuff: shopping, bills, etc.

We want an easy method of joining our household outgoings, dividing them in two, and paying half each. When I saw Egg Money I thought it would be perfect - we'd get a joint account, set up all the direct debits to go out from it, pay for the shopping on it, and pay off half the balance each at the end of the month. But on page three hundred of the blurb, it says you can't set up outgoing direct debits...

We could just get a joint current account, but any that offer a 0% overdraft require your salary to be paid in there, so we'd have to pre-load the account (losing interest from elsewhere) and keep a really close eye on it so it couldn't run over. We're just not always that careful!

Any ideas?

Cheers
Jamie

student100

Pretty much the only reason companies (e.g. electricity suppliers, other bills, etc) like you paying by direct debit is because it's cheap (from the business' point of view).

However, credit cards cost a lot to administer (interest-free period, cashback etc). Hence the costs to businesses accepting payment by CC is more expensive.

There isn't a CC company that would accept outgoing DDs from it's account, because they'd lose their only guaranteed source of income (the CC fees).

I think a joint bank account is really the only option.

jfinnie

Hi;

I got a "Platinum" account with my GF through Lloyds TSB. There is a monthly charge (£10, they often have introductory offers of half price for 3 months etc), but it comes with a few products you may / may not need. We had all these as separate policies, so we were quids in. It has a £250 interest free overdraft, which may lessen the pain / eliminate your preloading, depending on how much need to cover your bills.

The benefits are:

Worldwide travel insurance worth up to £210 a year for you and your partner.
AA Breakdown Cover worth up to £156 a year, which includes Relay Service, Home Start and Roadside Assistance.
Mobile phone insurance worth up to £110 a year for 2 phones
£250 Interest free overdraft worth up to £65
Sentinel® Card Protection worth £20

It might add up in your case, too!

Best regards
James

jamiewakeham

Thanks for your replies, guys.

So there's not going to be a product out there that would allow us to drift into the red over the course of the month, paying everything back automatically at the end, and also fulfil the criteria of both being able to run DD and being free.*

My best solution, then, will be to pre-load a current account that pays good interest and top it up every month, and to get a decent cash-back joint credit card that clears itself every month from that current account. I think.

Cheers
Jamie

* I will go talk to my bank, just to see if they feel like doing me a favour...

nuttyrockeress

You can set up regular payments through a CC I know as when you close any CC accounts the letter of closure always states that you must cancel any regular payments from there.

lisyloo

You can set up regular payments through a CC

You can do this but I would advise against it.
With a direct debit you can cancel it at the bank.
With a continuous card authority you cannot cancel it - you have to ask the retailer to close it and - suprise, suprise, some can be difficult or incompetant about it.

Bascially you aren't in control and some people have experienced problems with this.
Direct debit is much better from the consumers point of view as you are always in control.