I need to pay $10,000 to a contractor - but he doesn't process VISA. Does anybody know how I can pay somebody by my VISA if they don't do PayPal or visa trasactions (I.E. cash or check only). Like is there a 3rd party that does this?

In case it matters, I am using Bank of America's Visa for Alaska Airlines.

thanks!

Welcome to Flyertalk.

You might be able to find a third-party who will do it for a fee, but the cost will almost surely outweigh the value of the miles.

The reason your contractor doesn't take Visa is because Visa takes a percentage of the bill as a commission for processing the payment. It makes sense for businesses that process lots of transactions (like retail businesses and restaurants) to accept credit cards, because the convenience, reliability and speed of having all the billing automated and getting their money directly into their accounts is worth the cost of the commission. But for a business like a construction contractor, who only collects payment every now and then, accepting credit cards doesn't make sense.

Get the credit card company to send you checks. Depending on the deal you can snag, you might get a good rate - otherwise its similar to a cash advance, but you would get your miles.

Make sure you read the fine print on those checks before using them, since many credit card checks will carry a 3% up-front fee and accrue interest from the second they are cashed at an APR higher than the rate for purchases. Also, most of the time checks like that do NOT earn miles.

Remember, credit card companies are in business to make money, not to give away benefits for free. They give customers miles for regular purchases because they make more off the transaction commissions they charge merchants than they pay for the miles. The merchant doesn't pay a fee to cash a check, however, so the credit card company charges the customer for those (unless they are running some sort of promo to try to get you to run up a big bill you can't pay off).

My Chase United Mileage Plus and Priority Club Visas do NOT give miles/points for using the checks, and there was a maximum fee of $75.00 each time to use them.
Best to pay the contractor and move on, I bet.
Kate

It all depends. You have to call and ask. Especially if you tell them how much you want to put on there. Ask for a supervisor. I have been successful in doing this. 1% surcharge, same APR AND the miles.

http://www.payanythingonline.com/ will do it for fee.

Will the contractor accept a debit card? Some earn airline mileage.

the cost is close to 3% (2.89) almost $300 for $10,000 transaction.
http://www.payanythingonline.com/pricing_info.php

I'd rather pocket $300 instead of earning miles.

In this case, its better to pay the contractor by check.. and
buy yourself a ticket for $300 that you'll save in the fees.
You'll earn miles on that ticket

hmm, as far as i know, CIBC, MBNA, SCOTIABANK do NOT give points for checks written out as a cash advance..

Good luck nonetheless..!!

I had a major roofing job done a couple of years ago. Split the bill between BA Visa and Marriott Visa (I had to call and get the limits raised ). The total came to about $27,000 and I got miles/points for every penny of it.

It was a contractor and he normally took credit cards from people.

Might be a bit late to do this, but if you trust the contractor or can make billing arrangements with whoever supplies his materials, you can probably at least put those on your credit card. Depending on the nature of the job, how much is materials versus how much is labor/taxes/etc., those could be a big chunk of the total if you (or anyone else here) plans on more work down the road. (Come to think of it, there's that bathroom job I've been thinking about...)

Other than that, as posted above, there's no free lunch. The airline is not going to donate miles, so somebody has to pay for them. This contractor, by not accepting credit cards, is on record that he won't - though per the post right above this one some do, probably a function of market conditions in an area. The bank doesn't want to if it doesn't have to, has seen all the tricks in the book, and has plenty of experience in making sure they won't work. Who does that leave?

And welcome to FT!

I always pay materials. It reduces contractor risk of being out all that money. Plus if the contractor stiffs the material company they get a lien on my property. I often use gift certificates that earn lots of miles or 10-20% off coupons from Home depot or Lowes and sometimes combine these with double/triple miles deals, then roll them over to a 0% balance transfer.

I have a large number of properties and all of these techniques don't usually come togather at the same time, but I am paying 0-3% interest on a bunch of jobs that were completed at big discounts with miles years ago.

My contractor neighbor says he gets a 10% contractors discount on materials, then charges full price as part of his normal markup. If I were to buy the materials directly, his price to me would be higher. It's a point of negotiation. I do like avoiding the materials lien idea, though.

See if your contractor will take Paypal.