Paying household bills with a Credit Card

[SnoopZ]

It's not something I've ever thought about as I use Direct Debit with Chequing Account.

Who pays household bills with a Credit Card, it must be better if the CC gives you points?

[Jaymoss]

I guess it may well have changed since the SVT stopped decent deals but you used to get penalised for none DD . Not sure if that is still the case

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a quick google for octopus says this

Cheaper Rates for Direct Debit:
Octopus Energy offers slightly cheaper rates for customers who pay by Direct Debit because it costs them less to manage these accounts

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https://octopus.energy/help-and-faqs...-direct-debit/

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of course the points could well be of a higher value than the extra charges though worth investigating. Please let me know the results hahaha

Sometimes you can authorise recurring payments from a credit card but in the past I’ve found these harder to cancel than bank debits. Also I’ve only ever used such things to renew an annual subscription for something rather than a monthly bill.

I’d also observe that once you start to push absolutely everything through your credit card, you use up your credit limit much more easily, so you need to make sure your card can cope. One of the benefits of a credit card is you have the ability to pay an emergency bill and then adjust your monthly repayments to spread the cost. It’s not so easy to do that if your entire credit limit is used up on regular stuff.

[Jaymoss]

Originally Posted by Chris

Sometimes you can authorise recurring payments from a credit card but in the past I’ve found these harder to cancel than bank debits. Also I’ve only ever used such things to renew an annual subscription for something rather than a monthly bill.

I’d also observe that once you start to push absolutely everything through your credit card, you use up your credit limit much more easily, so you need to make sure your card can cope. One of the benefits of a credit card is you have the ability to pay an emergency bill and then adjust your monthly repayments to spread the cost. It’s not so easy to do that if your entire credit limit is used up on regular stuff.

recurring payments would not benefit you. I would set it up and pay monthly manually if there was no penalty

Originally Posted by Jaymoss

Octopus Energy offers slightly cheaper rates for customers who pay by Direct Debit because it costs them less to manage these accounts

I actually pay Octopus off every month using my credit card.
I dont pay extra because I have a DD set up with them, they just never use it.

[papa smurf]

i pay using my debit card, i've never had a credit card.

[Jaymoss]

Originally Posted by Paul

I actually pay Octopus off every month using my credit card.
I dont pay extra because I have a DD set up with them, they just never use it.

Maybe Octopus need to edit their info pages then haha. Good though. I will asked them about it on X :-) they are good on there

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Octopus reply makes sense

t depends what tariff they're on - if they're on Flexible they will pay more if they don't have a direct debit, but other tariffs it's the same amount whether you have a direct debit or not.

All the best,
Megan 🐙

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So Snoopz go for it nothing stopping you but you would be better to pay as you go.

[SnoopZ]

Alot of of interesting info here thanks.

My mistake was thinking I could setup a Direct Debit with my Credit Card so if I can't do that it probably isn't worth the hassle because I don't want to pay more for none Direct Debit bill payment.

[Taf]

I've always paid by DD, an equal payment each month, as it gives a slight discount and makes accounting easier. At least it did until all these price hikes started.

[Jaymoss]

Originally Posted by SnoopZ

Alot of of interesting info here thanks.

My mistake was thinking I could setup a Direct Debit with my Credit Card so if I can't do that it probably isn't worth the hassle because I don't want to pay more for none Direct Debit bill payment.

I thought you were on one of the smart tariffs? only the Flexible costs more

[SnoopZ]

Originally Posted by Jaymoss

I thought you were on one of the smart tariffs? only the Flexible costs more

I am on Tracker but I thought if someone doesn't pay by direct debit there is an extra charge, whether it's virgin media or octopus or any other company.

Your comment seems unrelated to my question.

[Sephiroth]

Whenever a recurring payment can be made by AMEX (rarely!), I take advantage of it so that I can earn air miles.

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

Whenever a recurring payment can be made by AMEX (rarely!), I take advantage of it so that I can earn air miles.

Yup, us too - we get 1.5 Avios points for every Pound spent, and get a free Companion Voucher (which is valid for two years) if we spend over £15k in a year (which is easy to do); plan B is a Barclaycard Avios card (for places that don’t take Amex), and we get 1 point per Pound spent.

[Jaymoss]

Originally Posted by SnoopZ

I am on Tracker but I thought if someone doesn't pay by direct debit there is an extra charge, whether it's virgin media or octopus or any other company.

Your comment seems unrelated to my question.

Did you miss the quote where I actually asked Octopus who is your supplier I believe ?

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by Hugh

Yup, us too - we get 1.5 Avios points for every Pound spent, and get a free Companion Voucher (which is valid for two years) if we spend over £15k in a year (which is easy to do); plan B is a Barclaycard Avios card (for places that don’t take Amex), and we get 1 point per Pound spent.

Thanks for the tip. I should swap my Barclaycard for the Avios card so that I can dedicate those points to BA. My AMEX points will be used for Qantas.

I particularly like the very high AMEX credit limit - needed for 2x business class return ticket to Australia! Then there's double bubble - Qantas points and the equivalent AMEX points.