Paying a tradesman by credit card

mangled

Hey Everyone

Can you pay a UK tradesperson for work done on your property by Credit Card and is this counted as a purchase or a money transfer - ie I have a 9 months purchases 0% card so would this payment be valid for this transaction and no extra charges until 9 months after payment.

Am a bit confused as if the payment is direct into the tradespersons business current account is this classified as a money transfer or purchase ie I think for money transfers - as its unlikely I will be able to secure a money transfer deal at this time

Also currently the tradesman says he will only accept debit card ie bank transfer or cash - is it not ok to pay a uk tradesperson by credit card ie once its cleared its been paid - no matter whether a person defaults on their credit card in the future as far as I understand. I not likely do that in anyways either but just wanted it clarified.

Thanks for reading -  and hopefully someone out there can clear up my confusion with regards to all of us.


Best Regards
Mangled

[Deleted User]

If he's only given you his current account details, you can't pay by credit card in a normal way.  You can only pay by credit card if the recipient accepts credit card payments.

You'd need to do a money transfer to either his or your account, with the associated fees.

born_again

mangled said:

Hey Everyone

Can you pay a UK tradesperson for work done on your property by Credit Card and is this counted as a purchase or a money transfer - ie I have a 9 months purchases 0% card so would this payment be valid for this transaction and no extra charges until 9 months after payment.

Am a bit confused as if the payment is direct into the tradespersons business current account is this classified as a money transfer or purchase ie I think for money transfers - as its unlikely I will be able to secure a money transfer deal at this time

Also currently the tradesman says he will only accept debit card ie bank transfer or cash - is it not ok to pay a uk tradesperson by credit card ie once its cleared its been paid - no matter whether a person defaults on their credit card in the future as far as I understand. I not likely do that in anyways either but just wanted it clarified.

Thanks for reading -  and hopefully someone out there can clear up my confusion with regards to all of us.


Best Regards
Mangled

A debit card payment is not a bank transfer.
If they can take a debit card payment, then they can take a credit card payment as they have a card machine to process the payment.
What they might NOT want to do is take a payment via a credit card as it costs them more.

TOP_CAT

You wont have to pay them  because they probably wont have anything to do with you unless you agree to pay them as required .
So if they say cash or bank transfer ...thats it obviously .

If you find a tradesman that accepts CC,s on site or via a office  then your good to go paying by CC and you can pay it off ,default on the payment or do as you wish.

Ebe_Scrooge

mangled said:

is it not ok to pay a uk tradesperson by credit card ie once its cleared its been paid - no matter whether a person defaults on their credit card in the future as far as I understand.

You've been given good advice already.  The bottom line is that if the tradesman does not accept credit cards, you can't pay him directly by credit card.  It's not at all unusual for a tradesman to not accept credit cards.

To your point about defaulting.  If you pay for any goods/services by credit card, then the credit card company themselves pay the retailer.  They then expect you to repay them (the card company).  If you fail to repay your credit card bill, it makes no difference to the retailer, they've got their money (setting aside any questions about disputes, chargebacks etc.).  But the card company will of course pursue you for what you owe - and these are large companies with entire departments staffed by qualified experts in chasing up unpaid debts :-)

dcfc67

If he has a card reader machine then it should accept visa and mastercard.
Lots of small one man bands are doing this now as its quick and easy

NoodleDoodleMan

Deleted_User said:

If he's only given you his current account details, you can't pay by credit card in a normal way.  You can only pay by credit card if the recipient accepts credit card payments.

You'd need to do a money transfer to either his or your account, with the associated fees.

Faster payment between accounts - how will that incur a fee ?

[Deleted User]

It won't.   There are no fees on faster payments from a current account.

It's the money transfer from the credit card that incurs the fee.

Mickey666

dcfc67 said:

If he has a card reader machine then it should accept visa and mastercard.
Lots of small one man bands are doing this now as its quick and easy

On a general note, I've noticed these portable card readers more and more recently.  Market stallholders seem to be using them more and more and I stopped in a layby for a bacon roll last week and they accepted contactless payment by credit card via an app on their phone and a small widget wirelessly connected to the phone. Perhaps the card companies are trying to encourage such things with attractive tariffs.  Also, my local builder/handyman uses an app on his phone for paying customer cheques into his account without having to travel to the bank.

Seems to me the cashless society might be starting to catch on

mangled

Thats what I thought - these card readers cost little more than arounds £20 and we are heading towards a cashless society. I will easily be able to pay off my credit card or further 0% balance transfer down the line. I just did not see why it should be that much of a problem for a tradesman to accept a credit card as yes if he accepts a debit card to the tradesman is there little difference. Some of the replies have suggested he will incur a fee if I pay by credit card as opposed to debit card payments. The bill is for £2000 if I go ahead with the work - how much more is a credit card payment likely to cost him - is there a fixed percentage rate - ie I would be happy to pay it - sure it can't be that much.

Yes had work done by a one man band car mechanic and he know using the card readers for the first time. Its all pretty straight forward.

Would to me sound strange if the tradesmen turned down a £ 2000 payment especially given the current economic climate.

Its surely not going affect him greatly. 

He has not said I can't pay this way as yet - stipulated it previously but if I state to him its my only possible current option - to me sounds strange that he would turn it away.

BTW I am asking this ahead of taking him onto do the work. And his comment was said after we agreed price - I not worried myself about not paying off my debt either - its not a problem.

I can pay by cash but I go into authorised overdrafts - and my preference currently is to pay by credit card and pay off or balance transfer at end of 0% period - I was pretty much certain being offered money transfers until recent economic events ie re covid have made these options a little less likely.

eskbanker

mangled said:

these card readers cost little more than arounds £20

There's more to it than the cost of the physical card reader, he has to have a contract with a company to provide payment processing services, which may be a fixed monthly charge as well as the individual transaction costs (or the latter could just be loaded to cover the former).

mangled said:

Some of the replies have suggested he will incur a fee if I pay by credit card as opposed to debit card payments. The bill is for £2000 if I go ahead with the work - how much more is a credit card payment likely to cost him - is there a fixed percentage rate - ie I would be happy to pay it - sure it can't be that much.

Credit card transaction costs are generally significantly higher than debit card ones but there's no standardised percentage, i.e. it could be less than 1%, or 2 or 3%.  For the last three years it's been unlawful for merchants to surcharge card customers for paying that way, so many simply elected not to accept card payments rather than absorbing costs that they'd previously been allowed to pass on, so this is why it's typically very difficult to pay for large transactions (such as cars) by credit card now.