Credit Cards & Direct Debits (?)

cgfw201

Looking at Business credit cards currently. Would help our cashflow to be able to pay with Credit Card  and pay off week by week once money hits our account which is 2-3 days after we get paid.

However, 95% of our spend is with the same few suppliers, and all via Direct Debits on GoCardless, which is paid via Account Number & Sort Code, and none of them have a credit card option.

Is there any way round this that people use, or is it just impossible to pay DDs with a credit card?

CliveOfIndia

You can't set up a DD from a credit card.  There is CPA (continuous payment authority) whereby you authorise a supplier to charge your credit card every month - but that's not quite the same as a DD.  And it's of no help if they don't accept payment by credit card anyway.

If the suppliers will only accept "cash", as it were, then a credit card is not going to be of much benefit to you.

DullGreyGuy

The name, "GoCardless" should be a bit of a clue on their desire for credit cards. 

DDs are from current accounts predominately and you cannot pay a DD via a credit card.  You'd need to ask your suppliers if they accept credit cards, remember that as you are not a consumer they are entitled to charge a fee for taking card payments. 

Credit cards work on a monthly billing cycle so you'd pay monthly not weekly 

lr1277

The following is not a recommendation as I have never used these services.

On the Headforpoints website, I have seen a couple of companies mentioned or discussed in detail.

There was a Swedish company (whose name I cannot remember) that allowed you to make bank transfers using a credit card. However they did charge. Back in June, they decided only to service ompanies. Now I can't remember if these companies needed their client to be a minimum size/turnover. 2nd edit: By companies, I mean the sending company which in this case would be your company.

Since the Swedish company stopped offering services to personal customers, I have seen another company mentioned, again one whose name I cannot remember. It might have had blue in its name. 2nd edit: But the implication was that personal customers could pay a bill using a credit card.

If you are interested, the headforpoints (hfp) site has a forum. You could ask on the daily chat forum. A new thread is started for each day of the week.

Also there is a board for 'Other payment cards'. You could trawl that board or ask the question on that board. But this approach might be seen by fewer people than on the daily thread.

Also if you choose ths approach, you will need to see if any fee charged is worth it for your company.

Sorry I can't be more helpful.

Edited to add: Regarding the Sweding company, you needed to have an invoice before you could make a payment to your supplier. Also I don't know if the company offers direct debits. They used to, and still might offer bank transfers.