Using Credit Card to Pay Council Tax

humfer

Am going to phone my council on monday as I have just changed to Lloyds TSB from FD and council tax is the only payment that has not automatically be changed over (god knows why as the council have sent me a new bill today showing they have not taken payment this month, so they obviously got the letter from Lloyds OK, but not processed the new bank account details...). Have seen a few people on here pay their council tax by credit card to take advantage of cash back or stoozing benefits on 0% cards. Just checking that there's no silly fees that the card company will charge on this? i.e. like treating gambling site payments as cash payments....Will either put on my 9 month 0% nationwide card or my wifes Morgan Stanley cashback card

kuohu

Check that your council don't charge a fee too. Mine charges 2% for a credit card payment so that more than negates any cashback from paying with Egg Money.

humfer

kuohu wrote:

Check that your council don't charge a fee too. Mine charges 2% for a credit card payment so that more than negates any cashback from paying with Egg Money.

Thanks for the tip. Council is Coventry and all it says on the back is that you can use a debit or credit card with no mention on fees. Thats not to say off course that they won't charge so will check before I pay this way

Just also wondering if they will set it up like a direct debit so that after I have given them my card details they automaticallu use these every month and I don't need to manually pay each month....

YorkshireBoy

humfer wrote:

Just also wondering if they will set it up like a direct debit so that after I have given them my card details they automaticallu use these every month and I don't need to manually pay each month....

Given the 'bad press' that Continuous Payment Authorities (CPA's) get, I wouldn't recommend going down this route - especially if you change your cards regularly.

Personally, I only have CPA's on my main bank's credit card (that I've held for 20 years and have no intention of closing since it's not reported to the CRA's).

skywatcher

I pay my council tax every month by credit card. They have never charged a fee for this and have never set up an automatic payment.

humfer

It looks like certain card providers treat council tax differently. Was going to manually pay each month with my Nationwide card as thought may as well being that its only just starting on its 9 months 0%. Just thought I would phone Nationwide up to check that it doesn't treat council tax as some sort of odd transaction (ie. some gambling sites) and after checking stated that they do consider it just like taking cash out on the card, therefore incurring the usual penalty fees. Direct debit it is then.....