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Looking as a first time buyer, so apologise for the ignorance
Since there are lots of fees involved in a house purchase, what services can be bought using a credit/debit card
It may be worth leveraging points whilst at the process.I have been told to pay the soliciter you need to make a bank transfer, this sounds a bit dodge and gumtree like
Additional protection from CC would be good too get some experience here, thanksPaying a solicitor by bank transfer is not ‘a bit dodge’.
You should ask your solicitor what payment methods they will take.
Note that lots of the costs of buying a property will be paid for initially by the solictor rather than you and you will be reimbursing them later.
But costs such as home insurance / utilities / council tax / buying furniture etc are down to you so you might get some points from those.
You should be able to pay the SDLT by card as well
The solicitor *is* your protection, they are meant to be working for you to ensure you get what you think you are paying for.
If you think your solicitor is dodgy you need to find another one you trust.
I suppose you could pay the solicitor fees on a credit card and Section 75 would apply to the provision of the conveyancing service – but if the solicitor doesn’t provide what you’re paying for, you will have far bigger problems (the seller would have somehow managed to hoodwink your mortgage provider).
In theory if the total price of the house is under £30000 Section 75 would also apply if you paid it directly and the card provider might be on the hook for another house.
They’re usually very careful about sharing their bank details (Usually they post them to you or similar) and they’d pretty much never change so if anyone ever calls or emails you with updated details make sure you find their phone number and call them
Otherwise not many opportunities in my experience, I’ve never looked into paying my own stamp duty. But plenty of opportunities to spend money once you get the keys 😂
Thanks for the insight
Billhop may be an option if it’s worth the 2.95% fee – I did this last year with some legal work I needed doing to help hit the massive Platinum Amex SUB which was on offer at the time.
SDLT can’t be paid with a personal credit card I believe. Limited points earning opportunities for this. I believe Tesco Pay + is an option.
I’m at the start of the buying process with an offer accepted a week ago, so I’ve had a little look into this, and decided playing with a straight bat when it involves my home is better than taking a risk for the sake of getting a few Avios.
Resurrecting this thread. I’ve instructed a building survey and the firm only takes payments via bank transfer (not card), as expected. Is there any way I can pay via credit card using Paypal and, if so, without being penalised please? Definitely don’t want to take the chance of problems having read all the Amex F&F threads. If it’s doable and above board, my options would be Amex, Barclaycard Avios and Curve (packed by Barclaycard).
Hi @Expat, I think anything to do with house purchases is all tied in with money laundering rules so bank transfers are the norm (and companies avoid cc fees!)
There’s something called Bluechain which is similar to Billhop, there’s a thread on here about it. If paying via Paypal but I think the fees are also fairly hefty to do a bank account transfer as opposed to just paying into someone else’s Paypal account.
Son is going through the same and bank transfer seems to be the only option for solicitor. Need to pay £500 for a full structural survey but can’t work out if we could put that on a card. I think in this you are paying the surveyor and not the solicitor. So many years since we did this, I forgot what an absolute faff it all is.
@NorthernLass thank you, I will look into Bluechain. I did at least manage to pay for the searches with my Barclaycard Avios CC without any additional fees so a small win there!
Son is going through the same and bank transfer seems to be the only option for solicitor. Need to pay £500 for a full structural survey but can’t work out if we could put that on a card. I think in this you are paying the surveyor and not the solicitor. So many years since we did this, I forgot what an absolute faff it all is.
Ask the surveyor if they will take card. Very unlikely they will. Most contractors in general these days expect payment by bank transfer.
Son is going through the same and bank transfer seems to be the only option for solicitor. Need to pay £500 for a full structural survey but can’t work out if we could put that on a card. I think in this you are paying the surveyor and not the solicitor. So many years since we did this, I forgot what an absolute faff it all is.
Ask the surveyor if they will take card. Very unlikely they will. Most contractors in general these days expect payment by bank transfer.
Thank you for your reply. I suspected this would be the case, feels a bit cheeky to ask.
@Carlos – it’s also worth looking at the associated fees eg our estate agent opened a PayPal account at our request to enable us to pay using the BAPP
@Carlos,
We prepaid our estate agents selling fees to our solicitor. Used hsbc WE card to keep paying, paid off, then a new payment. He’s a big avios collector too, so he loved the idea. No limit imposed either. He also took pre payment for our SDLT for a sale before then. He just needed to check the source of our funds, ISA savings, that was clear and all above board. Our surveyors were paid that time by Billhop, boy do we miss that service. So yes, much of what you need to spend could be paid by card. Must check out Bluechain too.
@runnerbean that was genius what your estate agent did. Very original.
We are on the hunt for a car now, so will be checking who takes cards for those payments. Hate bacs, avoid mostly.
Will be checking previous threads on that topic especially @Northern LassHi @polly, I think there is a thread about paying for cars with more recent experience than mine. We’ll be doing the same in about 12 months – lack of use during and since the pandemic means we can easily squeeze another year out of our current vehicle.
BTW, @Carlos posted 2 years ago – @Expat resurrected it a few days ago 😂
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