Paying UK tax with your BMI Mastercard – the definitive guide!
Sep 11, 2009, 3:40 am
#62
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: London, UK
Programs: BA, FB, LH; PC/IC, HH, MR
Posts: 964
Quick Q to my clever FT-ers.
I have some money to pay off my mortgage, and was going to use my bmi Mastercard. Unfortunately, my mortage provider won't accept payments on a mortgage by credit card, either over the phone, online, or in a branch!
If I made the payment to my mortgage a/c number from mbna, it would be a balance transfer and hence I'd have to pay 4%, and also I wouldn't get the miles
Can anyone think of another way of doing this so I can grab some miles, or am I scuppered on this earning potential?
Thanks all
I have some money to pay off my mortgage, and was going to use my bmi Mastercard. Unfortunately, my mortage provider won't accept payments on a mortgage by credit card, either over the phone, online, or in a branch!
If I made the payment to my mortgage a/c number from mbna, it would be a balance transfer and hence I'd have to pay 4%, and also I wouldn't get the miles
Can anyone think of another way of doing this so I can grab some miles, or am I scuppered on this earning potential?
Thanks all
Sep 11, 2009, 3:55 am
#63
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Pretty scuppered, I think, unless you pay the money to the Revenue and then ask for an immediate cheque refund which you then use to pay the mortgage. You also cannot use the PayPal Top-Up Card with a non-Amex without paying the cash advance fee and losing the miles.
Sep 11, 2009, 3:57 am
#64
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: GLA
Programs: BD (in memoriam), BA
Posts: 1,359
If they will accept a debit card payment, then you might get somewhere with a Paypal Topup Card, but as Raffles says you need to load that from an Amex to avoid cash advance fees - check out the Amex thread over on the BA board for more details.
Sep 11, 2009, 4:11 am
#65
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: London, UK
Programs: BA, FB, LH; PC/IC, HH, MR
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Cheers Raffles and raikje. That was kinda what I thought.
Sadly the revenue option isn't open to me as I'm PAYE, and I don't want to start messing about. I currently don't have to do the dreaded return!
Ach well. What I really need to find is a friendly shopkeeper with a credit card machine, and a cheque book to pay me back. I guess that's not allowed though, otherwise someone would have set up an FT "money clearing house" by now....
Sadly the revenue option isn't open to me as I'm PAYE, and I don't want to start messing about. I currently don't have to do the dreaded return!
Ach well. What I really need to find is a friendly shopkeeper with a credit card machine, and a cheque book to pay me back. I guess that's not allowed though, otherwise someone would have set up an FT "money clearing house" by now....
Sep 11, 2009, 4:28 am
#66
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: London
Programs: BA IHG
Posts: 1,370
If they will accept a debit card payment, then you might get somewhere with a Paypal Topup Card, but as Raffles says you need to load that from an Amex to avoid cash advance fees - check out the Amex thread over on the BA board for more details.
Sep 11, 2009, 4:30 am
#67
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: London
Programs: BA IHG
Posts: 1,370
Accepting a credit card payment incurs a fee - so sure if you had a friendly shop keeper you could do that - but a % would be lost (maybe 2-3% in fees). You could just pay money into your paypal account from your creditcard - and then transfer it into your bank account - but you pay fees to paypal for the credit card transaction.
Sep 11, 2009, 4:36 am
#68
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... which is why it doesn't work. If you value a BMI mile at 1.5p-2p then its not worth paying 2-3% in fees, even on the Premium Mastercard, as you're paying 1p-1.5p per mile. Paying the Revenue 0.91%, on the other hand ...!
Sep 11, 2009, 4:50 am
#69
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: London, UK
Programs: BA, FB, LH; PC/IC, HH, MR
Posts: 964
Yeah, I've not really played with PayPal before, I have to admit.
I see their fees are on a sliding scale, with 1.4% at the top of the very top of the range, so a transfer of £100,000 (if only!) would cost me £1,400 and would net me 150,000 on my plat-branded, but normal mastercard - a cost of 0.93p a mile - not bad.
However, £10,000 at 1.9% would net me 15,000 miles at 1.27p per mile.
As you say, not worth it. At those levels, C+M is much better value (unless I've miscalculated something - always possible on a Friday!)
I see their fees are on a sliding scale, with 1.4% at the top of the very top of the range, so a transfer of £100,000 (if only!) would cost me £1,400 and would net me 150,000 on my plat-branded, but normal mastercard - a cost of 0.93p a mile - not bad.
However, £10,000 at 1.9% would net me 15,000 miles at 1.27p per mile.
As you say, not worth it. At those levels, C+M is much better value (unless I've miscalculated something - always possible on a Friday!)
Jan 6, 2010, 4:29 am
#71
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Jan 6, 2010, 4:31 am
#72
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: London
Programs: BA
Posts: 2,368
Amex
Has anyone asked HMRC why they won't accept Amex? It's not as if they take MC/Visa without an additional fee.
Does anyone know what relation the 1.25% bears to the true cost to HMRC so that we could work out what the potential Amex percentage would be?
Does anyone know what relation the 1.25% bears to the true cost to HMRC so that we could work out what the potential Amex percentage would be?
Jan 6, 2010, 4:43 am
#73
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It's worth remembering that HMRC treat the Paypal Visa top up card as a debit card, so no surcharge and miles earning when topped up with the right credit cards.
I've paid Mrs Roger's assessment. Just mine to submit, which since much is PAYE should still be manageable with this card.
I've paid Mrs Roger's assessment. Just mine to submit, which since much is PAYE should still be manageable with this card.
Jan 6, 2010, 5:12 am
#74
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: London
Posts: 2,385
They dont just pluck a fee out of the air, the 1.25% is written in statute. So its not possible to have different rates for different cards. AMEX is obviously unworkable at 1.25% so simple to exclude it.