Paying Builder with Credit Card

PoGee

I have a credit card with Santander. I've agreed to work being started in March. I spoke with trading standards for advice, who said I should make a small payment with a credit card and the rest by debit card. But when I spoke with santander, they said I can't do that, even if the credit card was in credit (by my transferring money into the credit card). Is it possible to pay with a credit card?

Doozergirl

You can pay whoever you like, with any amount within your limit with a credit card *if they accept credit cards*. 

I don't know what conversation you had with Santander.  The one you had with Trading Standards would have been around Section 75 that provides insurance if the product/service you purchase is between £100-£30,000. 

The issue you are more likely to face is that most or certainly not a lot of builders accept credit cards.  

TELLIT01

Have you spoken to the contractor to confirm that they accept card payment, credit or debit?  Many small traders don't.

Ebe_Scrooge

As above, the issue with many "small" traders is that they don't accept credit cards, in which case you're a bit snookered on the S75 front.

PoGee said:

even if the credit card was in credit (by my transferring money into the credit card).

You can't "pre-load" a credit card, it's against the T&Cs.  Theoretically they could close the account if you do this, though that's highly unlikely to happen in practice - but you could very well find the overpayment is either refused or immediately returned.  Why would you want to do this anyway?  To benefit from S75, you only need to make a part-payment by credit card - even 1p will do.  Assuming the total cost of the building work is classed as a single item, and assuming the total cost is between £100 and £30,000, and assuming the builder will accept a credit card.

Mutton_Geoff

It's not just small traders that don't accept them, I've probably spent 750k+ with various builders large and small over the last decade. None accepted credit cards for payment.