Paying a Direct debt on a credit card?

gezzza

Is it possible to set up a direct debt not to pay the bill but for say paying my virginmedia bill or water bill?

CLAPTON

some retailers/utilities allow payment by credit cards
you will need to read their T&Cs to see what methods of payment they allow

you can't set up a DD however: on a credit card the equivalent is a continuous recurrring authority (CRA) ; however I would advice against doing this because unlike DDs only the retialer can cancel it and not yourself

Saucepot

You can set up continuous payments on credit cards. Many magazine subscriptions allow this. It is up to the water board or virgin to decide whether they accept this form of payment, you only know if you ask.

One word of caution, though. Continuous payments on credit cards have different rules to direct debit payments. You can cancel a direct debit with your bank, you cannot cancel a continuous payment with a credit card provider.

To cancel you would have to cancel the contract with the water board or virgin and ask them to stop taking money from your card. many companies do not have a reputation for competence and I have never used continuous payments for that reason. I find direct debit to be better as I can log into my bank and cancel the mandate after informing the service provider I no longer want their services.

JohalaReewi

Like the others said. Direct Debits can only be set up on certain bank accounts. They cannot be set up on credit cards (or debit cards). What you are refering to is called a Continuous Payment Authority (google it!).

As well as the problems with cancelling a rogue payment authority on a card as mentioned, most utilities will penalise you for not paying by direct debit. Either by charging a fee, or putting you on a worse tarif. Some will even do both.

At the end of the day, you need to weigh up the pros and cons but usually it isn't worth it.

izools

The other issue to consider is that many service providers (Virgin Media included) charge a fee for paying by any method other than Direct Debit from your bank account. In VMs case it's either £4 or £5 a month.