Paying council tax bill at post office using American express

info_maniac

Has anyone been successful in paying council tax bill at post office using American express?

NoodleDoodleMan

Have you asked your Local Authority finance department, they should be able to confirm if they accept AMEX ?

We settle our Council Tax by weekly Direct Debit -  however it may be that not all LAs offer that frequency cycle of payments.

retiredbanker1

I do not think that you can pay any bill using AMEX at the post office.

If you did manage to get a transaction through there is every chance that it would do so as a cash transaction and you would pay the fee for this.

An alternative? - do you have a SPAR type of shop near you that accept pay point transactions? - If they accept AMEX (I know they take visa and Mastercard) you could try this method.

grumbler

NoodleDoodleMan said:

Have you asked your Local Authority finance department, they should be able to confirm if they accept AMEX ?

The OP wants to pay at PO. What matters is whether PO accept Amex for bills of don't. AFAIK, most councils don't accept credit cards. Most likely, that's why the OP wants to pay at PO instead.

WillPS

info_maniac said:

Has anyone been successful in paying council tax bill at post office using American express?

No.

The only potential way to get a council tax bill settled my Amex is if your council accepts PayPoint payments - in which case, unless something's changed, a Co-op food store (run by the Co-op Group and not another society) will accept Amex payment to settle a PayPoint bill.

Last time I checked not many councils do accept PayPoint, but some do. If yours, like mine, only accepts Post Office/PayZone, you're out of luck.

ns1993

WillPS said:

info_maniac said:

Has anyone been successful in paying council tax bill at post office using American express?

No.

The only potential way to get a council tax bill settled my Amex is if your council accepts PayPoint payments - in which case, unless something's changed, a Co-op food store (run by the Co-op Group and not another society) will accept Amex payment to settle a PayPoint bill.

Last time I checked not many councils do accept PayPoint, but some do. If yours, like mine, only accepts Post Office/PayZone, you're out of luck.

Some Tesco Express stores have PayZone, so will accept Amex to settle the bill

DullGreyGuy

retiredbanker1 said:

If you did manage to get a transaction through there is every chance that it would do so as a cash transaction and you would pay the fee for this.

An alternative? - do you have a SPAR type of shop near you that accept pay point transactions? - If they accept AMEX (I know they take visa and Mastercard) you could try this method.

Do AmEx have a "cash like transaction" clause? I know with mine they only state the purchase of foreign currency may incur a charge and looking at the Gold credit card the terms are "Cash advance (including transactions we’ve told you that we treat as cash on your statement e.g. purchasing foreign currency)" which would be much harder to use to charge paying a bill as cash given they have to have told you that they will. 

It's often a moot point as whilst AmEx acceptance is vastly wider than it used to be most government agencies etc still don't allow you to use them (many have blocked any personal credit card payments). 

NoodleDoodleMan

grumbler said:

NoodleDoodleMan said:

Have you asked your Local Authority finance department, they should be able to confirm if they accept AMEX ?

The OP wants to pay at PO. What matters is whether PO accept Amex for bills of don't. AFAIK, most councils don't accept credit cards. Most likely, that's why the OP wants to pay at PO instead.

https://www.paymentscardsandmobile.com/post-office-to-accept-american-express/

WillPS

NoodleDoodleMan said:

grumbler said:

NoodleDoodleMan said:

Have you asked your Local Authority finance department, they should be able to confirm if they accept AMEX ?

The OP wants to pay at PO. What matters is whether PO accept Amex for bills of don't. AFAIK, most councils don't accept credit cards. Most likely, that's why the OP wants to pay at PO instead.

https://www.paymentscardsandmobile.com/post-office-to-accept-american-express/

They accept Amex for payment of Post Office services (i.e. postage, One4All gift cards) but not for bill settlement (debit card only). It used to be that the dreaded Horizon wasn't smart enough to treat them differently, so it was up to the staff to enforce it, but a few years ago an upgrade stopped any possibility of it.

WillPS

ns1993 said:

WillPS said:

info_maniac said:

Has anyone been successful in paying council tax bill at post office using American express?

No.

The only potential way to get a council tax bill settled my Amex is if your council accepts PayPoint payments - in which case, unless something's changed, a Co-op food store (run by the Co-op Group and not another society) will accept Amex payment to settle a PayPoint bill.

Last time I checked not many councils do accept PayPoint, but some do. If yours, like mine, only accepts Post Office/PayZone, you're out of luck.

Some Tesco Express stores have PayZone, so will accept Amex to settle the bill

Does this actually work? If Tesco put the card payment through on their own tills, it probably will. If the customer is asked to put their card in a device connected to the PayZone terminal, I expect it probably won't.

retiredbanker1

WillPS said:

ns1993 said:

WillPS said:

info_maniac said:

Has anyone been successful in paying council tax bill at post office using American express?

No.

The only potential way to get a council tax bill settled my Amex is if your council accepts PayPoint payments - in which case, unless something's changed, a Co-op food store (run by the Co-op Group and not another society) will accept Amex payment to settle a PayPoint bill.

Last time I checked not many councils do accept PayPoint, but some do. If yours, like mine, only accepts Post Office/PayZone, you're out of luck.

Some Tesco Express stores have PayZone, so will accept Amex to settle the bill

Does this actually work? If Tesco put the card payment through on their own tills, it probably will. If the customer is asked to put their card in a device connected to the PayZone terminal, I expect it probably won't.

I have a workaround which works for me at SPAR using credit cards (I get cashback rewards) - you buy anything such as a pint of milk - when you go to the till the milk gets put through first the I ask for my gas and leccy top-ups and hey presto I get cashback that I would not have got just by buying the top-ups.
I do have a council payment card (not used as I pay online) but I am wondering if this would work for the OP?