Paying Auction Deposit on Credit Card

RuuElisa

I've tried to search for an answer but can't see this exact question already answered.

I'm gearing up to buy a property at auction, and in my travels I noticed that the auction house accepts the immediate 10% deposit via credit card (with a 1.5% fee).

My question, just in case anyone knows the answer, is, would the credit card issuer consider this a cash advance (and whack on the high fee and interest charges)? I can pay the deposit in cash if need be (debit card from my savings), but it occurred to me that I could do it via my credit card, transfer from a 0% card to cover that, and that way it's costing me nothing for several months apart from the 1.5% fee imposed by the auction house.

Please note there is absolutely no problem repaying the deposit / credit card balance within the 0% time frame, it just occured to me that I can get a better than 1.5% return elsewhere so why not? The balance of the purchase will be in cash, so there is no concern with a lender asking about my ability to service a loan.

Thank you!

eddddy

RuuElisa wrote: »

I noticed that the auction house accepts the immediate 10% deposit via credit card (with a 1.5% fee).

Credit card fees for consumer credit cards have been illegal since January 2018. (Although they are still legal for business credit cards.)

See: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2018/01/cards-fees-to-be-banned-from-saturday/

Could you be reading something from before Jan 2018, which is now out of date?

A number of organisations stopped accepting credit cards in Jan 2018 when fees were banned - so maybe double-check that the auction house still accepts them.

RuuElisa

Thank you - that's on the auction website's Ts & Cs. I realised it was now illegal just after I posted! Seems as if this place (among many others) has completely missed the memo that it's now illegal.

Anyway, assuming that the auction house still accepts credit cards, do you think paying that deposit will be flagged by the credit card company as a cash advance?

davidmcn

eddddy wrote: »

Credit card fees for consumer credit cards have been illegal since January 2018. (Although they are still legal for business credit cards.)

And also still legal for the various other exceptions (listed here), which include buying property.

And yes, I would expect it to be treated as a cash advance if it's a deposit (as the auctioneers would need to pass on the full amount, rather than have a profit margin built in where they could retrieve the commission charged to them by their bank). If it were their fees then the position would be different.

The auctioneers will know, why not just ask them?

RuuElisa

Thank you - I just found that all mention of credit cards is absent from their printed material so it seems as if they've just neglected to update the website to remove it there too. Ah well was only an idea. Thank you all.