Mortgage payment by cashback credit card

InMyDreams

I know paying the mortgage with a credit card has been brought up before, but I don't mean paying overpayments. I'm simply talking about paying the regular monthly payment with a cashback credit card. I've done this for the last two or three months now with my egg money card, regularly getting 1% of my payment back as cashback. (Or at least not got it back yet, but it's adding up.)

In addition to that, when I started, I put the payment in the saving account instead as our current account didn't get charged for the mortgage that month. The following month of course our credit card bill was that much higher, but by paying the mortgage payment by credit card again, it cancels out. And so on. Of course if we stop paying by card, we'll in effect have to then pay two payments in one month, but one of those will be covered by the money sitting in the saving account.

Dh has just applied for the 4% Capital One cashback one so we're hoping it'll work with that one too. Can't see why it wouldn't.

Advantages: We get cashback on our payment every month, plus have one month's worth 'stoozing' in the saving account at any given time.
Disadvantages: Have to remember to ring up each month to cancel the direct debit and pay with card, but that only takes 2 minutes. Oh, and of course must resist any temptation to spend the money!

Every little helps, as they say :money:

InMyDreams

Yes, I was surprised too after the things I'd read on here, but thought I'd give it a go one month just to see and it worked! Mind you, I've only tried it with my Egg Money card so far, and this was the card that gave me cashback on the money I stoozed from another card a couple of years ago, when I used it as a mule.

I suppose it must treat it just like any other regular bill payment. As I said, I'm sure it wouldn't work for a one off overpayment.

Kaz2904

Anyone I know who has tried to make a payment with a credit card (myself included) has been told categorically not.
How do you actually pay though because if you are able to do it from Eggs end rather than the mortgage end I can see it working quite well.
I had considered this mmyself but once I was told no by The Principality I put it out of my head.

I was aware of the old loophole but that has now been cleared up.

InMyDreams

Kaz2904 wrote: »

Anyone I know who has tried to make a payment with a credit card (myself included) has been told categorically not.
How do you actually pay though because if you are able to do it from Eggs end rather than the mortgage end I can see it working quite well.
I had considered this mmyself but once I was told no by The Principality I put it out of my head.

I was aware of the old loophole but that has now been cleared up.

Well that's funny... I'm sure I wasn't replying to my own post in post 2! There must have been one deleted. (Just in case people think I'm talking to myself, lol.)

Anyway, to Kaz, no I don't do it from Egg's end. I just phone up Abbey and give them my card number each month. It was while going through their phone tree for something else, one of the options was if you wanted to make your payments by debit or credit card. I thought that sounded odd, and a few months later, decided to give it a go. The prospect of 1% cashback was worth the risk of a charge, I thought, and I was ready to pay the whole card balance back immediately if I ended up getting charged interest on top too. It appears that Abbey will accept a one-off credit card payment for your regular payment, but there's nothing stopping you doing this as a 'one-off' every month. What I couldn't do was set it up as a regular thing from the credit card, or make an overpayment with my credit card.

My one worry is that in order to do this, they have to stop the direct debit and restart it each month. If they made a mistake in restarting it, and I didn't get around to ringing up, I guess I'd be in trouble for missing a payment. That would require mistakes on both our parts though.

The other question I asked was about paying a couple of weeks early. My credit card statement comes out mid month, to be paid on the 1st of the following month (which is also the day my mortgage is due). So I now have a two week window for paying the mortgage on my card. If I paid immediately after my preceding statement, I would be paying almost two weeks early for the next month. Unfortunately however, I was told that this will not effect my mortgage balance early. Basically the payment will not be applied to the balance until the payment is actually due.

As for the Egg money cashback loophole, yes, I believe that one was cleared up... the one where if you had a positive balance on your Egg money card and moved it elsewhere you got cashback for doing so! (Exactly what happened when using it as a mule to stooz.) So this is not really the same, but based on that experience, I was hopeful for getting the cashback here too. When the 4% capital one card arrives, I'll try it with that too and will let you know if it works.

NJR999

I have just phoned Abbey on their customer service line 0845 600 0346 and through the options 3, 3 and 3. I was put through to a person and I asked if I could pay by credit card for this month and she said yes if I was having difficulties paying via direct debit I could pay with my credit card. She asked if I wanted to suspend my direct debit indefinately but I said I would see how I was fixed next month. So it looks like if you phone up every month they stop your direct debit for the next month and take a credit card payment. I used the Capital One 4% cashback card.

NJR999

I have also just phoned Northern Rock where I have a second mortgage. On the Customer services number (0845 6028303) they said they do not except credit card payments. So I tried the number on my statement 0191 5117685 and they said they could stop my direct debit and allow a credit card payment, again with the Capital One 4% cashback credit card.

InMyDreams

Thanks NJR... nice to know I'm not going mad! This was exactly my experience. I have also made sure that each time it is a one-off and they *don't* suspend my DD indefinitely, as knowing me, I'll only go and forget one month and end up in arrears!
Has it definitely gone through as a bill payment rather than a cash advance or something sinister? I know it's fine with Egg, but I've not tried it with my Capital One card yet.

Xstyle

As long as you dont get a charge by the credit card co, as a cash advance, then I'm game to do this... an extra c. £10 a month cashback would be handy!

I got Egg ... hmmm.... will have a look for this Capital One card here...

Kaz2904

Maybe I ought to ring up and try this then? We pay quite a lot off each month so would have to get DH to open a credit card too to maximise the cashback as you can only earn it up to £200 per year which is £20000 if I'm correct and we pay more than that on the mortgage and then there's spending too!

NJR999

I phoned Capital One and they advised the Abbey credit card payment was a purchase and I would get moneyback. I have since received my first statement and it is a purchase and the moneyback has been added. In addition I checked with Abbey today to confirm the direct debit was suspended just for November which it was and they advised in future that the credit card used can be under another persons name not just the mortgage account holder. So I could get my girlfirend to apply for the Captial One card when my first 3 months at 4% cashback comes to an end and then pay the mortgage through her credit card and get another 3 months at 4% cashback.

comping_cat

But are you not charged interest, as you are using the payment as a cash advance? Surely this would cancel out any cashback you receive?