can I use 2 credit cards to pay council tax?

rayparker

I have just paid an £842 council tax bill to Guildford BC by credit card over the phone and was told that there was a £10.95 fee imposed by the credit card company and was nothing to do with them, I couldn't even pay over the counter as they do not have the facility. I challenged this with the credit card company and was told it was not their charge. When I spoke to my council again they advised me that it is their policy to add a charge for credit card payments and is stated on their website.

This seems to me totally unfair and I notice that in certain other European countries it is illegal. Does anyone know if I have a case for getting this charge back.

callum9999

rayparker wrote: »

I have just paid an £842 council tax bill to Guildford BC by credit card over the phone and was told that there was a £10.95 fee imposed by the credit card company and was nothing to do with them, I couldn't even pay over the counter as they do not have the facility. I challenged this with the credit card company and was told it was not their charge. When I spoke to my council again they advised me that it is their policy to add a charge for credit card payments and is stated on their website.

This seems to me totally unfair and I notice that in certain other European countries it is illegal. Does anyone know if I have a case for getting this charge back.

It will be merchant fees - anywhere that accepts payment by debit or credit card is charged a certain amount on each transaction. No there is no case for getting it back, you were told about it before you paid so you could have paid using an alternative method.

dzug1

rayparker wrote: »

This seems to me totally unfair and I notice that in certain other European countries it is illegal. Does anyone know if I have a case for getting this charge back.

Why is it unfair? I don't follow you one bit.

And in this country it is very specifically legal and was endorsed by the Competition Commission* years ago (*or whatever they were called at the time it happened) as contributing to competition

rayparker

You will be telling me next that I am lucky to have only been charged £11.
I still believe that this is a totally unfair charge and if others can't see that then maybe we have got too used to accepting these things as a society!
Think I'll take it off the next monthly installment and see what happens........

apt

It would be unfair on the other council taxpayers if there were not an extra fee to reflect the additional cost you have incurred by paying by credit card. The part of your payment that has been taken by the bank cannot be used for providing council services.