Paying solicitor using AMEX

[Ade]

Hello everyone,

I need to pay a solicitor around $60K. He has asked me to do a bank transfer. I checked with the solicitor and he said that he doesn't take credit cards. I was wondering if I could somehow use my AMEX to pay him and get QF points for this transaction?

Thoughts?

Cheers,
Ade

 

[docjames]

The solicitor would need to have an Amex registration and have capacity to accept credit cards.

Suspect you’re out of luck.

 

[ChrisFlyer]

A few options:

• If you have the AMEX Platinum charge card (or Centurion), you can call the concierge and ask them to negotiate AMEX acceptance specifically to see what might be possible, especially if you're willing to cover the processing fee on the transaction. Harder if they don't already have a merchant facility for other card types, however.
• You could use a third-party payment service like Yak Pay, B2BPay, RewardPay etc, which all allow you to fund a payment using AMEX and to on-pay the bill for you via EFT (bank transfer) - basically, you pay the bill payment service by card with a processing fee added, and then pay your bill by EFT in the original amount.
• If the company accepts BPAY payments, you could use the mobile app Sniip to pay.
• You could ask the company to sign up to B2BPay as a biller for free, which allows them to accept all credit cards (Visa/MC/AMEX/Diners) at no fee to them, as the fee is entirely paid by the client unless they choose to absorb it.
• You could ask them to sign up to Stripe and send you an invoice for the amount owed plus a surcharge to cover the processing cost (which on Stripe is around 1.75% IIRC).
• Final thought, can you 'send funds' via PayPal, and have the solicitor withdraw those funds from PayPal to their bank account? Suspect a $60k payment might cause issues, however.

 

[Ade]

Thanks everyone. I had a chat w/ my solicitor and he accepts bank transfers ONLY

And he wanted the cash today, no delays entertained. So I had to send him the money via bank transfer. It could have potentially "earnt" at least 75K points using my AMEX QF Ultimate ... but it's not meant to be

 

[ChrisFlyer]

Perhaps sign yourself up for Yak Pay or B2BPay for next time - you pay them with AMEX, they pay your bill via bank transfer.

IME, Yak Pay tends to be fastest with the payment going to the biller the next business day after your credit card is charged (B2BPay can take 3-4 days by comparison). Only thing, you need to be verified by Yak before you can use it, and every card you add also needs to be verified, so definitely set yourself up if you play to do the same again. B2BPay on the other hand, has more of a focus on verifying billers, and that process can take a week.

If I had to choose one, I'd go Yak - faster to pay, faster to verify, slightly lower AMEX fee, and extra reward points appear fast.

 

[ChrisFlyer]

Oh, I should also add - Yak Pay lets you split an individual payment across multiple credit/charge cards, so if you have to pay a very large bill and need to spread the charges across multiple cards due to credit limits, points caps etc (and want the recipient to receive all $$ as one transaction, not in bits and pieces), you can do that.

I signed up a while back where they had an intro bonus going (50k bonus QF/VA points for $10k in payments), but I haven't seen a similar offer lately.

 

[albyd]

I’ve been using BlueChain again. Can do both bank transfers and BPay. Payment turnaround is pretty quick. They on board new billers quite quickly. I don’t recall how long it took to sign up an account originally. They also currently have a promotional reduced rate.

Whichever method you use, would be up for a cost. Have to consider if the cost is worth it for the points you’ll receive.

 

[yojohnny]

FYI - BeemIt can now be used to BPay with a credit card; no cash advance in sight for my credit card but I believe this varies based on the credit card.

I am now paying my rent via BeemIt.

 

[bulldog88]

Being a solicitor, he probably doesn't want the risk/hassle of chargebacks..
especially for $60,000

 

[daft009]

FYI - BeemIt can now be used to BPay with a credit card; no cash advance in sight for my credit card but I believe this varies based on the credit card.

I am now paying my rent via BeemIt.

$2k daily limit and $10k limit per rolling 30 days

 

[yojohnny]

$2k daily limit and $10k limit per rolling 30 days

Thanks. More than I will need most of the time.

 

[albyd]

I’ve found will only work with merchants that accept credit card. Guess that’s why it wants us to add a debit card.

 

[PLM]

Best bet is to use a third party bill payment service like YakPay etc.

 

[yojohnny]

Best bet is to use a third party bill payment service like YakPay etc.

Why? It's not free. Beem It is!

 

[TravellingSquid]

Why? It's not free. Beem It is!

Beemit doesn’t work with American Express (unless they’ve recently changed something)

 

[albyd]

Doesn’t. Assuming. We can’t fund a payment from MC/Visa with Beemit unless it’s to a billed that accepts credit via BPay or is there more to it?

 

[daft009]

Due to the low limits I'm saving beem for the big man only. So no issues there with the amplify visa