Nursery only accepting payment by bank transfer

[RavenAndBust]

As it says above-- I assume, as a money saving measure (to avoid PayPal and Merchant card fees), our Nursery has now said they only accept monthly payments via bank transfer.

Now, this is never usually an issue! We always pay on time, and via bank transfer, since they began asking for it a few months ago.

HOWEVER: Cue car trouble. Thousands of pounds outlaid to rescue it. Fine. Okay. I'll pay the nursery bills on credit card this month, and we'll catch up next month.

...but I can't pay by credit card because they only accept bank transfer.

Would I be unreasonable to ask if I can pay them via card this month? And would they legally be allowed to refuse?

I very much appreciate them trying to retain as much of their income as possible; it's expensive running a nursery! But life happens to us too, you know?

Tried to pay a family member nursery bill last year a they couldn’t afford after unexpected trouble. Imagine my shock to find they’d rather serve her notice than take my credit card?! It was bank transfer or nothing. I honestly couldn’t believe it under the circumstances.

Is it too late to put some or all of the car expenses on your card instead?

They have probably cancelled their facility to take card payments to save on the fees, so they won’t be able to process it.

Pay other bills with the credit card to free up money for nursery
I think you can often get a zero % cash advance on a credit card too - pay that to your bank and then pay nursery.

Can you pay the car on credit card?

Businesses dont legally have to offer methods of payment such as credit card, but they accept it may mean customers dont purchase services. Your nursery doesnt offer this payment method. Your garage more likely does.

Can you ask for late payment, or get the money from elsewhere for once? Or make any other payments such as shopping on the CC to enable you to pay by bank.

Shift things round to accomodate

Transfer money to yourself / your husband via PayPal from your CC. That's what I do.

It is too late! I didn't even think it would be an issue. We've had a very expensive 4-5 months that has ended up depleting our savings, which is okay; just one of those things. I find it immensely frustrating to know we can afford to pay the bill...but they wouldn't accept credit card? We've been at this nursery for 6 years, and they're very good.

They will have to pay a fee on the transaction
You can dispute the fee and reclaim the money.

This!
Draw the cash out off the credit card and pay it into the bank.

It’s probably not that they have just decided they don’t want to, it’s more likely they actually can’t as they haven’t got the facility set up to take credit card payments. They’re not going to be able to set it up now right now just for you. You know their payment method of you’ve been there a long time, you know credit card isn’t an option. We’ve used a couple of nurseries and neither have accepted credit card either, I don’t think it’s unusual.

If you can't move things around and pay other bills by card, you could apply for a loan, which usually comes through on the same day.

Do you not use the tax free childcare scheme? It will save you up to 20% off your childcare.

Talk to your bank about an overdraft facility, this is a good example of what it’s useful for (as opposed to general spending beyond your means) many banks allow you to apply online, alternatively a personal loan to cover the amount

They won't have the technology to accept card payments now I wouldn't think. They absolutely can refuse as well.

It's an expensive business, they will be losing about 2-3% of their income, plus paying monthly for the terminal, plus extra is the minimum amount of transactions aren't met.

I get it's inconvenient for you, but they are trying not to increase the fees to cover it all.

Are you in a position to get a loan? You would be paying the credit card back anyway so won't be worse off.

The last few months sound very difficult for you, I hope things improve.

That is genius! I'm filing that away in case I need it!

If they don't take credit card payments they aren't registered for credit card payments and simply cannot do it as a one-off.

Surely though just paying for the car repair by Credit Card would have stopped this from causing a problem. You need to ringfence your nursery fees to come out of your salary before you spend money on anything else.

As presumably it's too late to change the fact that you spent the nursery fee money on something else you will need to borrow it in another way. The easiest way to get a short term loan is to run up a credit card debt of spending on your weekly groceries and other expenses that normally come from your current account, then get a new credit card with a 0% transfer deal to transfer that debt on to. Then make sure you pay it off before the 0% window expires.

How do you suggest they take the card payment? Do you expect them to go and buy a card machine? Or set up PayPal business (they can’t just use a normal PayPal account - it needs to be a business one). What do you think they should do here?

You’ve been there 6 years so you know their payment terms. You can’t pay by card.

Draw the money out of your credit card or make a PayPal payment to your husband with your credit card and he can move it to a bank account.

Taking payments on credit card doesn’t always mean the bill gets paid, for people in financial difficulty. Plus it’s an antifraud mechanism to only accept payments via bank transfer.

you either need a loan or an overdraft. Taking the cash of the card is the most expensive way to pay this bill.

What options have you got Op?

You should have paid your emergency bills by credit card. This is not the nursery's problem.

I used to run a small business and we didn’t have a way to process card payments. The amount of people asking ‘could you just make an exception’ and not understanding ‘I am unable to because I don’t have a card reading machine to process it’ was astonishing.

I work in a small business and we only accept bank transfer. Card payments is additional software and systems so we just use bank transfer. I see the nursery point of view on this one. I'd withdraw cash on the credit card and lodge to the bank.

This. They have no way to process card payments now. Why would they?

I'd be more surprised if they did take credit cards to be honest. Very expensive for them and bank transfer just seems the appropriate way to pay for a service like this.

If they took credit cards they'd have to raise their fees by around 2% just to cover the cost, penalising the majority who are happy to use bank transfer and arrange their finances to accommodate this.

You know the rules you should have paid car repairs on your credit card.

Sorry to be blunt but “find it immensely frustrating to know we can afford to pay the bill…”… sounds like you’re missing the point - you’re in this pickle exactly because you can’t afford to pay the bill and that is not the nursery’s fault.
I hope you figure out something that works for you, but blaming others when your finances haven’t gone to plan seems a little unfair.