Paying friend by credit card

Traveljunky

A friend is organising a motorcycle trip to Spain next summer and is booking everything himself and we have to transfer money to him. 

We have paid the deposit by straight bank transfer but are wondering if we can pay the balance via our credit card. We have the money sitting in our bank account but are wondering if paying him by credit card would give us more protection should anything go wrong, and we don’t even mean anything relating to Covid.
We would use our Halifax Clarity card to pay straight to his Halifax current account. 

Is this feasible? Would we incur fees in doing such a payment? And would we have any greater protection should anything go wrong?

[Deleted User]

Does he accept credit cards? It seems unlikely, unless he runs some kind of business and then he's going to pay tax on it.

If he doesn't, you would need to do a money transfer to your account and then pay him from there.  You'll pay around 4% but it won't give any section 75 protection, as you're just giving him cash.

Just pay him from your current account.

bradders1983

How is your friend planning on paying the balance? That is the most important thing here. Please dont tell me is going to pay the balance by bank transfer as well 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Malkytheheed

In a simplified answer. 

No. 
no you can't (and shouldn't) pay a friend by credit card. 

Traveljunky

Thanks all 
I assume he’s paying by credit card since there are 12 people going. But since there’s no benefit in paying him by credit card and in fact a charge for a money transfer we’ll just do a bank transfer like before.

bradders1983

Traveljunky said:

Thanks all 
I assume he’s paying by credit card since there are 12 people going. But since there’s no benefit in paying him by credit card and in fact a charge for a money transfer we’ll just do a bank transfer like before.

If he is paying by credit card then that is all that needs to happen, you can pay him however you like: cash, cheque, postal orders, food stamps....whatever, it wouldnt give you any more or less protection. 

Ebe_Scrooge

Traveljunky said:

Thanks all 
I assume he’s paying by credit card since there are 12 people going. But since there’s no benefit in paying him by credit card and in fact a charge for a money transfer we’ll just do a bank transfer like before.

If he's paying at least some of the money from his credit card, then he'll be covered by S75 - although it's more complicated when it's a group of people involved, it's not as straightforward as a "single" transaction.  But more importantly, remember - S75 is useful, but it's no substitute for proper travel insurance.  For the relatively small amount it costs, you really should ensure you're fully covered by a proper insurance policy - to cover both anything that may befall you on your trip, as well as cancellation.  Who knows what the situation will be next year ?