section 75 question (deposit for solar panels)

psychic_teabag

Hi,

    (apologies if this is the wrong forum.)  I'm getting set to sign up for some solar panels, and need to pay a deposit. I'd like to do this by credit card to get whatever section-75 protection is available.

Installer is Octopus Energy, and they want the deposit paid via my normal energy account (for electric/gas bills, paid by monthly DD). I can make a one-off payment by credit card, but since this is going into general account, from which they will take the deposit, does this count as a (part-) credit-card purchase of the solar system, or does it incur the third-party/paypal sort of issue, where the credit card payment is not a direct payment for the particular product, since it's being mixed in with my other energy accounts.

(I currently have a small balance, for example, so an argument could be made that the money I pay in with the credit card wasn't the money that was taken out as part of the deposit, for example. All sorts of wriggle-room there...)

thanks

km1500

You are correct - there needs to be a direct link between the payment and the thing you are buying

If you could get some sort of invoice for the deposit - eg "Please pay 101.38 as deposit for solar panels" and you then paid that amount into your account and then maybe even then emailed Octopus saying you had just paid the requested deposit by credit card  then you probably would be on strong grounds to say the payment was linked to the panel purchase deposit.

psychic_teabag

Thanks.

Good news: they've set me up a separate account, distinct from my normal energy bills, as they would have done if I wasn't already an Octopus customer. So that helps to keep the money separate.