Credit card payment trade-off: loyalty points vs CC charge - how do you decide?

I need to make a payment for a purchase using either a credit or a debit card.

I will be charged £8 if I pay using my credit card, and zilch if I use the debit card. The credit card route will get me approx 1000 Nectar points.

Apart from 'get a life', can anyone suggest how to decide whether £8 is worth paying to get 1000 Nectar points, or should I just fish out my debit card?

BTW, the vagueness of 'approx 1000 points' comes from the card issuer. Most people here will know which one, and their website says "Earn an additional 1 point for almost every £1 spent ".

Reply to
zkat
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IANAL (or financially minded)

If there`s a remote chance of the purchase going wrong in any way, shape, or form - i`d be tempted to use the credit card regardless.

By buying it on a credit card the card issuer has joint liability under Sec75 of the consumer credit act, so the money isn`t just "lost" if the vendor goes out of business prior to delivering, or breaks within a reasonable time and the vendor is just piddling you about.

What the hell are you buying for it to cost an additional £8 in charges ? (its usually only something like £2 per single transaction)

I wrote to Visa in 2001 on this subject, but sadly I don`t believe their rules apply in the UK, but the response was...

------ Thank you for your inquiry concerning regulations for Visa card acceptance. Visa has certain regulations that all merchants which accept Visa cards must follow.

Visa merchants are not permitted to:

Establish minimum or maximum transaction amounts, even on sale items.

Submit a Visa sales draft for a dishonored check.

Pass on the merchant's transaction fee to the cardholder as a Visa "service charge," "service fee," or "surcharge," even on sale items.

------

Reply to
Colin Wilson

Another night-owl! Greetings!

Airline tickets, and the airline charges two quid per ticket. Looks like most travel websites charge for credit card payment anyway, either a flat fee or a percentage of transaction value.

Interesting, that, about merchants not being supposed to charge for Visa transactions. As you say, it's not something UK merchants follow.

Reply to
zkat

`ello :-)

I think i`d try to argue that its a single transaction, and therefore only one fee should be payable... Failing that, shouldn`t they be processing four seperate payments ?

Perhaps trading standards would be interested in the scenario, as it does seem like sharp practice, and I know a colleague was also stung by this recently...

I wonder whether somewhere like expedia try to fleece UK customers into these charges, as the odds are, the billing is being done offshore - I`d have to check on that though :-}

Reply to
Colin Wilson

The visa merchant rules have I believe (at least in part) held to be anti-competitive in the UK so differential pricing is allowed.

To answer the original question, 1000 nectar points equate to £5 in money off at participating stores. There may be occasional offers (usually on line) where it's more but 500 points=£2.50 is standard.

Difficult to argue with a web site about how many transactions it is....

Reply to
dtren

The law was changed to allow them to charge.

The Visa condition (if they still have it) cannot be enforced.

tim

Reply to
tim (moved to sweden)

Airline tickets, and the airline charges two quid per ticket. Looks like most travel websites charge for credit card payment anyway, either a flat fee or a percentage of transaction value.

Interesting, that, about merchants not being supposed to charge for Visa transactions. As you say, it's not something UK merchants follow.

This changed in September 2001 or 2002 AFAICR. They are now able to charge.

Marcus

Reply to
Marcus Fox

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