Paying a DD with your credit card

fly-catchers

Is it possible to pay a regular DD with a credit card just prior to it being collected from the Bank? I pay both my Water & Council Tax by DD. And just wondered if that is possible. Or would they still take the amount out anyway?   

[Deleted User]

Only if they accept card payments.

If they do and you keep the DD in place, you'll need to pay early enough to avoid the DD being taken.

Brie

Some DDs are taken no matter if you've made another payment and some aren't.  But most DDs need a few days processing so you would have to pay it early enough to avoid the automated side.  I have this with credit cards where you have to know how a particular card handles the DD.  I know that you can make some payments regularly from a card - our Netflix subscription is a monthly card payment but that's not a DD.

born_again

Your question is not very clear on just what you mean?

You can not have a DD payment go out of your credit card Account. Not aware of any utility co using Continuous Payment Authority.

DD process can be started upto 10 days prior to the payment being debited from your bank account. This depends on how the process is handled by your council & their bank.

If you are thinking of paying the bills on your CC instead of the DD from your bank account, then it will be a manual process each month.
I would not trust them to audit your account each month and if a card payment comes in stop the DD.

surreysaver

I do this with my Vodafone bill. I just make sure I pay it as soon as the bill is issued to prevent the direct debit being taken. But I also make sure every so often (at least once a year) I allow the direct debit to be taken to prevent the direct debit being cancelled through becoming dormant

Fingerbobs

I do this regularly with all of my utility suppliers and council tax. I like to leave the DD in place as a fallback, but generally make manual payments by credit card to earn the cashback. 
When I was with British Gas, they used to take the DD even if a manual payment was made after the bill was produced. To avoid that, I used to make a manual payment of a bit more than I thought the bill would be, and then that credit would just be put towards the bill and the DD wouldn't be taken, or would be reduced to a few quid if I hadn't quite paid enough in in advance. Octopus doesn't do that, which is nice. 
(This all relies on you using variable direct debits, i.e. you just pay your bill amount each month, not the stupid fixed monthly DDs that all the utility companies try to push you onto, and most people seem to assume is the only DD option). 

fly-catchers

Fingerbobs said:

I do this regularly with all of my utility suppliers and council tax. I like to leave the DD in place as a fallback, but generally make manual payments by credit card to earn the cashback. 
When I was with British Gas, they used to take the DD even if a manual payment was made after the bill was produced. To avoid that, I used to make a manual payment of a bit more than I thought the bill would be, and then that credit would just be put towards the bill and the DD wouldn't be taken, or would be reduced to a few quid if I hadn't quite paid enough in in advance. Octopus doesn't do that, which is nice. 
(This all relies on you using variable direct debits, i.e. you just pay your bill amount each month, not the stupid fixed monthly DDs that all the utility companies try to push you onto, and most people seem to assume is the only DD option). 

How do you get the variable DD? Going through the BG setup it just gives you the fixed amount each month which covers 11 months. I am assuming the figure they are giving me are still based on the current variable rate tariff as well. So that would mean it could rise considerably anyway!  

Gerry1

fly-catchers said:

Fingerbobs said:

I do this regularly with all of my utility suppliers and council tax. I like to leave the DD in place as a fallback, but generally make manual payments by credit card to earn the cashback. 
When I was with British Gas, they used to take the DD even if a manual payment was made after the bill was produced. To avoid that, I used to make a manual payment of a bit more than I thought the bill would be, and then that credit would just be put towards the bill and the DD wouldn't be taken, or would be reduced to a few quid if I hadn't quite paid enough in in advance. Octopus doesn't do that, which is nice. 
(This all relies on you using variable direct debits, i.e. you just pay your bill amount each month, not the stupid fixed monthly DDs that all the utility companies try to push you onto, and most people seem to assume is the only DD option). 

How do you get the variable DD?

Phone or chat.