HMRC Ban credit card oayments

HampshireH

This information was announced in October and the HMRC webpage announcement linked on news reports online;

http://www.headforpoints.com/2017/10/10/hmrc-to-stop-accepting-personal-credit-cards-on-13th-january/

OP I think the argument that you had just 6 weeks notice wouldn't wash. The link above was published mid October and links directly to the HMRC page which outlined this was happening. HMRC have had this information on their website since october. Therefore 3 months notice.

2. By debit or credit card online

You can!pay online.

There’s a fee if you pay by credit card. The fee isn’t refundable.

You won’t be able to pay with a personal credit card from 13 January 2018.

brianBarrett

Thank you all for the surprising number of comments. There is mixed debate on whether I have poor money management or good money management for using credit cards to settle such bills.
I am currently assisting a small business with actual cash flow - risky but my decision. I know that my own personal cash flow should be sufficient to clear tax amounts put on a card at the end of January before interest is paid. 'Should be' - I have not yet calculated the tax bill.
Credit cards used properly are there to help with the peaks and troughs of cash flow. That is precisely what I was planning to do.
I 'road-map' my finances months in advance so I have a pretty good idea as to where the peaks and troughs are, and how they will be handled. HMRC helped by our beloved Government have will weeks, not months, pulled the rug from under me. I will have several thousand pounds to pay and do wonder how many others will be in a similar position. I only know about this because they have just written to me - there will be others who 'knew' credit cards were acceptable but had not used them in the past. They will be in a bit of a situation come the end of January.
A suggestion was made that 'pay' by 13-Jan. This is an option, but if I pay then then the payment goes onto an earlier cycle and will need to be repaid by mid February. I will not have the cash to clear it by then. The whole point of the legislation was to save people money, and to many it may, but for me it is likely to cost me a great deal and I cannot help feel that the providers who were charging large fees will get their pound of flesh by some other means.

[Deleted User]

Post 7 still contains a suggestion worth considering.

brianBarrett

Thanks for the suggest. For many people it will be a possibility - although not necessarily possible for those who discover on 30 Jan that they are unable to pay by card and had expected to.
In my case I do have a large amount on permanent low rate cards - from 0% to 6.9% - average around 4.8% and whilst never having missed a payment, this means no one else will lend me the money!
Good luck to all who do take this approach - though.

eskbanker

brianBarrett wrote: »

The whole point of the legislation was to save people money

I disagree - the point of the legislation was to eliminate a loophole whereby merchants were theoretically able to surcharge only their actual cost of processing cards but there was no meaningful way of validating this.

Closing that loophole was always going to have a range of potential outcomes - obviously some would have hoped for cost reductions for consumers (if merchants were able and willing to absorb these card-related costs) but the more informed posters on this board always foresaw that total costs would stay the same (via base price increases) or that some merchants would cease accepting credit cards....

Edit: one such forecast being in the OP of this thread from July:

Now, I know none of us like paying the surcharge, and some retailers take the mickey. But being realistic, is it not reasonable for businesses, particularly smaller ones, to pass on the fees they get charged by the banks ? I wonder how many of them will just increase the price of their goods, or else just refuse to take cards full stop ?

brianBarrett

Well Stephen Barclay, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, did say : "Rip-off charges have no place in a modern Britain and that’s why card charging in Britain is about to come to an end."
This does appear to indicate that a main perceived benefit as stated by a government minister is that people will not be ripped-off and presumably would be better off.
I do agree, however, that there are usually a myriad of other benefits and I cannot help wonder whether the government are taking advantage of the new legislation to try and reduce consumer debt by ensure that they are not seen to be encouraging credit card usage.

eskbanker

brianBarrett wrote: »

Well Stephen Barclay, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, did say : "Rip-off charges have no place in a modern Britain and that’s why card charging in Britain is about to come to an end."
This does appear to indicate that a main perceived benefit as stated by a government minister is that people will not be ripped-off and presumably would be better off.

There's a key distinction between being ripped off (tabloid-speak for excessive charges) and the principle of surcharges being valid - unfortunately it was clearly difficult to eradicate the former without taking out the latter too....

WillPS

Couldn't Billhop be used as a workaround?

chattychappy

I'm more cynical.

I think it was just the case of a politician playing to the audience by abolishing unpopular overt charges and becoming a hero. I can imagine a civil servant pointing out that anything that removes an incentive to pay cash improves tax collection.

PeacefulWaters

chattychappy wrote: »

I'm more cynical.

I think it was just the case of a politician playing to the audience by abolishing unpopular overt charges and becoming a hero. I can imagine a civil servant pointing out that anything that removes an incentive to pay cash improves tax collection.

I think it was an EU thing that triggered the latest change.