Credit cards and direct debits

thor

I've just recently acquired a zero percent purchase credit card(HSBC) and am currently putting all my shopping on to it. I would also like to pay my bills using it but they are all set up as direct debit payments from my current account. Will I be able to change payments to a credit card? In other words can credit cards set up direct debits?

TheSpectator

thor said:

I've just recently acquired a zero percent purchase credit card(HSBC) and am currently putting all my shopping on to it. I would also like to pay my bills using it but they are all set up as direct debit payments from my current account. Will I be able to change payments to a credit card? In other words can credit cards set up direct debits?

No, you would have to pay the company direct every month by credit card and only if they accept it as a payment method.

martinbainbridge1975

you can set up continuous payment authorities up on a card, it would be down to the direct debit providers if they accept card payments recurring every month - some may not 

DullGreyGuy

thor said:

 In other words can credit cards set up direct debits?

No, direct debits come from bank accounts not credit cards.

The equivalent to a DD on a card is a CPA. Not all places that offer DDs also offer CPAs. Not everywhere gives the same discount for a CPA as they do a DD. 

Given you are explicitly talking about credit cards, some bill types may be considered a "cash advance" rather than a purchase were it to be paid by a credit card which doesn't qualify for the interest free period and often comes with a transaction fee. 

Make sure you understand your purchase card's promotion, some 24 months interest free is for any purchase at any time in the 24 months, for others its only purchases made in the first X days (eg 90 days)

thor

Just after posting and deep down I knew the answer to my question that DDs are a current account thing. I have the 20 month 0% HSBC purchase credit card and had a look at the t&cs about cash advances which stated "Buying travellers’ cheques,
foreign currency, purchasiing money orders and other similar payments ". No mention about bills or anything else so I guess I'll be ok paying my water bill or insurance premiums.

CliveOfIndia

thor said:

Just after posting and deep down I knew the answer to my question that DDs are a current account thing. I have the 20 month 0% HSBC purchase credit card and had a look at the t&cs about cash advances which stated "Buying travellers’ cheques,
foreign currency, purchasiing money orders and other similar payments ". No mention about bills or anything else so I guess I'll be ok paying my water bill or insurance premiums.

Yes, you'll be fine paying those by card - as long as the supplier will accept payment by credit card.

To be honest, though, is it really worth the hassle?  You'll need to contact the suppliers to ask them to change from DD to CPA, then when the 20 months 0% promotion on your card expires, you'll have to contact them again to stop the CPA and set up a new DD.

Yes, in theory you should put the money that you would have been using to pay the bills into a savings account.  You'll need to keep it safe, as you'll need it to repay the credit card when the promotional rate expires.  You'll earn a little bit of interest on it over the 20 months.  But for the relatively small amounts your talking about, and for a relatively short period of time, will the small amount of interest you earn make it worth the hassle?

Don't forget you'll still need to make the minimum payment to the card each month.  And, as pointed out by DullGreyGuy, check whether the 0% on purchases is limited to the first 60 or 90 days or whatever of account opening.  It's more common for Balance Transfer cards to limit transfers to a specific time period, but there are some purchase cards which also place a time limit on qualifying purchases.

DullGreyGuy

thor said:

foreign currency, purchasiing money orders and other similar payments ". No mention about bills or anything else so I guess I'll be ok paying my water bill or insurance premiums.

Water and insurance are likely to be fine. 

Repaying finance, taxes and various other things are on much more ropey grounds. There are several threads on here where someone says they got charged a "cash like" fee for "buying a washing machine" when in reality they used the likes of Klarna for a Buy Now, Pay Later type setup and they used the credit card to repay the finance and hence why it was treated as cash

SacredStephan

Your local authority may allow your Council Tax to be paid by credit card.

sausage_time

I pay my council tax with Amex using PayPoint.  Could be any credit or debit card.