Paying with credit card but merchant has no CC processing facilities. Any other way?

Oranjeboom

Hi All,

I'm about to cough up for a big house extension that comes in kit form. Thus I need to pay the kit manufacturer just under 30k. I need to pay 5k prior to manufacture. I'm very wary of other suppliers going into administration prior to delivery of goods and therefore wish to use section 75 as some form of guarantee.

Unfortunately the manufacturer does not have card processing facilities:( and have just provided me with their bank account sort code, account # etc.

Is there anyway I can still use my CC to pay at least some ££ to the manufacture so that I 'qualify' for section 75?

Thank-you!

OB

InsideInsurance

Not unless you can convince them to start accepting credit cards via a merchant account etc. The quick and dirty methods like using PayPal wouldnt give you the S75 protection because it actually becomes a 3 party contract with PayPal as the middleman.

agrinnall

Pay a deposit and the balance on delivery. If they won't agree, look elsewhere.

Oranjeboom

agrinnall wrote: »

Pay a deposit and the balance on delivery. If they won't agree, look elsewhere.

Unfortunately they don't operate like that. They can't be expected to start manufacturing 20k worth of goods without a decent deposit. many have gone to the wall (pun intended)like that before, so require a large deposit in the first place.

InsideInsurance

agrinnall wrote: »

Pay a deposit and the balance on delivery. If they won't agree, look elsewhere.

£5k is the deposit from the OPs post, total bill is £30k.

Edit: cross post - problem of not finishing what you start before doing something else

Oranjeboom

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Not unless you can convince them to start accepting credit cards via a merchant account etc. The quick and dirty methods like using PayPal wouldnt give you the S75 protection because it actually becomes a 3 party contract with PayPal as the middleman.

Thanks II. After discussing with my brother, he says he can do balance transfers to anyone who's got a UK sort and bank code with his CC. Looking further, some CC accounts let you transfer ONLY to your own account whilst some like MBNA allow external accounts.

I also found a post here relating to Barclaycard (not that I will be applying with those toe zers again).

Hope that helps anyone else who needs protection under S75.

msallen

A balance transfer wont give you S75 protection.

Oranjeboom

msallen wrote: »

A balance transfer wont give you S75 protection.

Can you explain why not? It's a direct transfer from me to aforementioned company. No middle man or intermediary. There's a direct customer-supplier relationship.

msallen

Because it is designed to let you borrow cash on the credit card. What you elect to use that cash for is up to you, and is not covered.

If you buy from a retailer using your credit card the retailer pays a percentage of the transaction in charges. Part of what these charges cover is S75. On a money transfer there is no retailer involved to pay these charges.

agrinnall

Oranjeboom wrote: »

Unfortunately they don't operate like that. They can't be expected to start manufacturing 20k worth of goods without a decent deposit. many have gone to the wall (pun intended)like that before, so require a large deposit in the first place.

OK, then progressive payments, with delivery of completed sections to you when you make each payment. Or see if you can find an indemnity policy to cover you for your advance payments should the company go bust. Or put the money in escrow until completion.

While the risk of it happening may be small the consequences if it does happen are large.

Oranjeboom

msallen wrote: »

Because it is designed to let you borrow cash on the credit card. What you elect to use that cash for is up to you, and is not covered.

If you buy from a retailer using your credit card the retailer pays a percentage of the transaction in charges. Part of what these charges cover is S75. On a money transfer there is no retailer involved to pay these charges.

The 'cash' is going straight into their account from my CC account though.

Okay, so they are not paying any charges in this case, but I am the one being slogged instead at 5%, so surely part of that charge is going to S75?