Can you pay for a house using a credit card?!

[threeleftfeet]

This is less bonkers than it sounds, honest!

I bought my London flat over 10 years ago.
We're selling up now, and I reckon we can afford to buy a small house in our new town, using the equity from the London flat, so we'll be mortgage free. (I do appreciate this is a very lucky position to be in).

Neither myself nor DP are in a position where we will be given any new credit at all (because we're students as we're retraining, not because of dodgy credit history I hasten to add!)

I do however have existing credit cards which i keep for emergency, and I think I am about £4K off the credit limit.

Could I use this towards an offer for the new house? How would I actually get the money out of the credit card and to the seller?! (Sorry if a stupid question but I use the card rarely, and when I do it's in shops or online).

I know it's not a great idea to get in debt, but seeing as we won't have a mortgage to pay off I don't see why not?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

I would suggest that if you haven't found a house yet, you're likely to spend £4k on day to day living between now and completion on a new property anyway, so if you were to put on a credit card all your food shopping, travel costs, rent (if your agent/landlord takes cc payments), bills (cancel direct debits from your cash account), etc, you would have that amount of cash remaining. Would that do the trick?

Personally then, I would sit tight in your current rental (it will be worth it in the end) - lower your asking price and you will definitely sell your London flat faster. You need to focus on your end goal - sell the London flat first and move on. You will be in the perfect scenario although it may not feel like it to be chain free which makes you a rare and precious buyer! You are under no pressure to buy within a certain window of time (as you do in a chain) so you can have the luxury of waiting for better properties to come on the market.
Outside of central London and prime areas, prices are going down imo. You have a lot to gain and not a lot to lose - really! We rented between buying for 3+ yrs due to becoming forced landlords in the 2008 credit crisis and finally selling in 2010. We searched for another year before finding our long term house and being a glutton for punishment - we're living through a major house renovation/building project atm. Rentals are rarely ideal but it's merely a means to the end, just bear that in mind.

When placing an offer on a house as a cash buyer, you will need to prove that you are in a 'position to proceed'. (you will need to show documentary proof of sufficient funds to cover purchase price, solicitors costs, stamp duty, etc.)

myron, nice idea. Almost the same as the one we have when we decided to sell last December.

But it's taken until last week for our London tenant to move out (she's a friend which complicated things no end).

We had planned to put the flat on the market in April, and hope to move in the summer (when we're not studying. I don't have time to read a book for fun / watch a TV program / read a paper term-time, let alone move house!)

The plan was to sell when we got a buyer and then take our time choosing a place here.

Things have changed though. In our area, in the price range we're looking in, asking prices have actually gone up in the last 6 months! (I think it's because we're a small town with large, reasonably priced houses, where you can easily commute to a larger town which has all the jobs and really expensive houses - we're getting the overspill of people who can't afford it there anymore I think).

There's no way we're going to lower the asking price in London! We'll just be able to afford a 3 bed here if we're very lucky. (We plan to rent the third room out). If we lower the asking price, we can forget about getting a 3 bed!

My plan is to try to get a good price in London, then spend it as quickly as possible on a nice house down here. My upstairs neighbours in London had a buyer for their flat within weeks of it coming on the market,and the top flat within 3 viewings so I'm hoping ours will be the same. In fact in an ideal world we'll have sold and found a new place by the end of September! (A tall order I know!)

FWIW I don't see this house as our long-term family home. Once we're in a position to get a mortgage, we'll be off to the countryside outside of town I think (maybe in 3-5 years). I'm happy to buy the nicest of whatever's available this summer, as long as it seems like a sound investment.

And if you've read all of that, well done!

We were cash buyers and didnt need to show written proof of funds to make the offer- that comes later. Initially i just had take my soicitor through were the money was coming from. To complete we did have to account for al the cash. This is so solicitors can comply with mobey laundering regs so bank statements were certified and shares paper trail provided if yuis all house equity that will be much easier.

Why not just discuss the insand outs with your soicitor.
Th

Sorry on phone!

Crocodilio I think that's what we're going to have to do yes. Sadly out LL won't take CCs (they're private LLs rather than an agent).

But I'll use the card where I can so as not to eat into the savings. I'm a bit nervous about using up our contingency (the CC). But needs must I guess!

RambleOn and everythingtodo useful info, thanks.

Haven't got a solicitor yet, but will probably use the same one as last time if he's still practicing. Should probably sort that out soon!