Paying BPAY bills with amex?

[beardoc]

Gettin' a bit OT here ...

With a CC you can "dispute" the transaction (If done soon enough). It's much harder with debits from standard cheque/savings/transaction accounts.

In any case it's still a PITA if/when it happens.

Whilst banks will try to tell you all sorts of things about direct debits from savings accounts (that they can't stop them, only the merchant can stop them, etc.), in reality it is not true. The banks are subject to a code of conduct with ASIC that requires them to stop charging direct debits with sufficient notice. I have done it successfully (I've had direct debits with various companies that have gone under administration and kept charging despite no service being provided.

Check this out from ASIC:

direct debits how to mke them work for you - Australian Securities and Investments Commission

 

[oz_mark]

The banking code of practise was tightened in 2004 in regard to direct debits, with the change oulined below
Code of Banking Practice

Direct debits:
You can ask your bank to help you if you want to cancel a direct debit request on your transaction account other than your credit card account that you have given to a supplier, like a retailer, from whom you are purchasing goods or services. Your bank will promptly process your instruction to cancel the direct debit request. If you want to lodge a complaint about an unauthorised or irregular direct debit, your bank will promptly process your complaint. In the case of a cancellation or a complaint, you will not be asked to first sort out the matter with the supplier concerned but in helping you, the bank can suggest to you to approach the retailer.

 

[JohnK]

Personally, I prefer not to have direct debits; it places too much onus to make sure funds are available at the correct time lest you run the rick of incurring hefty penalties.

And also having to remember to call the companies you have setup for direct debit and provide them your new details. OK, the card does not expire very often but I had a nice backlog trying to catch up the last couple of months when the Amex expired in March.

 

[cardiology]

Could anyone tell me which MC credit card allow BPay via online payment?
Do they cahrge a fee for the BPay, if not, it would be good to earn extra points on the card.
I noticed that many company now charge a fee for payment using any credit card (not to say AMEX) e.g. Telstra, AGL Gas, AGL electricity, energy, etc.

 

[beardoc]

Could anyone tell me which MC credit card allow BPay via online payment?
Do they cahrge a fee for the BPay, if not, it would be good to earn extra points on the card.
I noticed that many company now charge a fee for payment using any credit card (not to say AMEX) e.g. Telstra, AGL Gas, AGL electricity, energy, etc.

The company accepting BPay can also restrict which accounts you can pay the bill from (either savings/cheque account only, or savings/cheque/credit card account). Usually the companies that you mentioned above that charge fees for the use of a credit card payment also restrict the BPay payment so that it can only come out of a savings/cheque account, and most banks will not permit payment to BPay by a credit card. Some banks still will, but these banks will tell you and it will be treated as a cash advance (i.e. no points for payment, and interest accrues).

Some companies do charge for BPay as there are fees for using BPay to accept payments - I seem to remember when I was with them, Diners Club was one of those but they may have changed now.

If there are any examples of companies who charge extra fees for direct payments with a credit card but still allow fee-free payment with a credit card via BPay, I would be interested to hear about it.

You can check on the BPay website (Welcome to BPAY) what the biller you're looking at accepts credit cards or not - just plug in the biller code on that site and you'll get that sort of information.

 

[cardiology]

Thanks. But I actually want to know:
1. which MC credit card allows Bpay online with no extra charge?
2. for common utility companies, which one accept credit cards without a fee or charge?
Then I could earn more points for my crdit cards (e.g. VISA or MC)

 

[Mal]

Thanks. But I actually want to know:
1. which MC credit card allows Bpay online with no extra charge?
2. for common utility companies, which one accept credit cards without a fee or charge?
Then I could earn more points for my crdit cards (e.g. VISA or MC)

Commbank allows me to Bpay from my Visa to selected organisations. It includes Optus (I think I pay an Optus fee for this because they treat it as a credit card payment), gas (Origin - no fee), my electricity co (no fee) and a few other bills I pay.

There are no commbank fees for this.

 

[AnonymousCoward]

Thanks. But I actually want to know:
1. which MC credit card allows Bpay online with no extra charge?

Just about any Mastercard will let you do this. However you might be charged extra by the company that you are paying - because it costs them extra to receive payment by credit card

2. for common utility companies, which one accept credit cards without a fee or charge?
Then I could earn more points for my crdit cards (e.g. VISA or MC)

Most utility companies have surcharges now.