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Original poster

Paying bills with credit card

7 replies

HP87 · 11/01/2025 19:41

Hi everyone, I have a quick question of an Instagram video I got on my targeted advertising (I've been looking at savings tips etc so this makes sense!)

Does anyone pay their direct debit bills with a credit card? She was saying about paying with credit card to get points which makes sense. Is there any downsides to using a credit card instead of a debit card?

We do switch accounts to get the cash from the banks but we have maxed that out now. We also have a few of out own (phone bills, contact lenses and dh has a charity and lottery) which are the ones we use when we switch. But out of our joint account we have all the other ones like council tax, octopus, virgin, Netflix

OP posts:
TheFlis · 11/01/2025 19:46

We pay as many of our bills as we can with a cash back credit card. No downside as long as you pay it off in full each month.

Brahumbug · 11/01/2025 23:31

TheFlis · 11/01/2025 19:46

We pay as many of our bills as we can with a cash back credit card. No downside as long as you pay it off in full each month.

Absolutely this! I have several direct debits going out from my cashback credit card as well as doing all my spending on it. Paid off in full in each month.

SweedieLie · 12/01/2025 07:52

Disagree with the pp's. Absolutely are downsides.

If you call each one every month to make a manual payment with a credit card and pay it off in full each month - there's no risk. Still a massive downside though as what a ballache that would be.

If you're setting up continual authority transactions on your card there absolutely IS a massive downside, which is that you don't get the protection offered under the DD Guarantee - DD's can only be created on a current account. So if your optician is supposed to take £19 but takes £91 - no protection, raise a dispute which dependent on what bank it is can take weeks. If it was a DD you could call the bank and get the money back the next day.

If a wrong payment was taken for over £100 on a credit card you'd get the standard consumer protection - but still, far more of a PITA to go about claiming than with the DD Guarantee.

The risks are obviously far higher if you're on a tight budget. If, for instance, you don't have enough spare to cover a £95 bill that should have been £15 - you could be in a position where you're going through a dispute process with your credit card, can't pay it off in full, interest then starts accruing.

SweedieLie · 12/01/2025 07:53

I have several direct debits going out from my cashback credit card

You might have continual authority transactions but that's very different to a Direct Debit. You don't have any Direct Debits being claimed from a credit card.

NewPanDrawer · 12/01/2025 08:15

SweedieLie · 12/01/2025 07:52

Disagree with the pp's. Absolutely are downsides.

If you call each one every month to make a manual payment with a credit card and pay it off in full each month - there's no risk. Still a massive downside though as what a ballache that would be.

If you're setting up continual authority transactions on your card there absolutely IS a massive downside, which is that you don't get the protection offered under the DD Guarantee - DD's can only be created on a current account. So if your optician is supposed to take £19 but takes £91 - no protection, raise a dispute which dependent on what bank it is can take weeks. If it was a DD you could call the bank and get the money back the next day.

If a wrong payment was taken for over £100 on a credit card you'd get the standard consumer protection - but still, far more of a PITA to go about claiming than with the DD Guarantee.

The risks are obviously far higher if you're on a tight budget. If, for instance, you don't have enough spare to cover a £95 bill that should have been £15 - you could be in a position where you're going through a dispute process with your credit card, can't pay it off in full, interest then starts accruing.

If you're setting up continual authority transactions on your card there absolutely IS a massive downside, which is that you don't get the protection offered under the DD Guarantee

Interesting point, but hardly a massive downside. I've been banking and using direct debits for forty years and I've never had to rely on the direct-debit guarantee. And the worst case scenario is it might take a bit longer to get some money back then it otherwise would. I can live with the risk!

TheFlis · 12/01/2025 11:07

@SweedieLie who calls to make payments these days?!? Most of ours are set up to be paid automatically each month and the couple that aren’t as the amount varies, we do online which takes a few seconds.

Original poster
HP87 · 12/01/2025 11:53

They will definitely be paid off each month in full so no worries there. We have some savings if anything were to happen and they take the wrong amount. Boots recently took my contact lenses twice but it was paid back within a week after they noticed their error so I'm not concerned about double/more payments. We have some savings that can be used if anything like that happens. Boots had emailed acknowledging the double payment before I'd even written "ring boots" on my to do list 😂.

Thank you everyone for the information, I have a tesco credit card at the moment for groceries shopping which I do at tesco and get the extra club card points so I'm going to look into using that card for it.

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