Paying QR bill with Credit Cards

Life Hacking
1

Hello fellow mustachians,
I wanted to buy something from a shop. I could have used my credit card ( cashback amex cards of course), but i forgot to get them. Owner agreed that I need to pay them only later once delivery is done and he sent the Qr bill by email to me.

Now , had I payed the amount in the shop using credit cards, i would have got some cashback points.
If I pay via QR bill, I assume money directly goes from my bank account ( as domestic payment ).

Question is can I pay the Qr bill via “some app” which uses my credit card details…

I would also like to extra polate this scneario to understand , can I pay my taxes, other bills which are being sent as QR bill to be payed “somehow” using my credit card ?

2

You can, see https://www.credibill.ch/ but there’s a fee.

3

Basically no. The closest thing I know: you can use Visa/Mastercard as a source of funds for Twint.

And for Google wallet etc. of course.

5

AFAIK, no Swiss credit card issuers reward you for purchases of cash equivalalents. That is pretty standard everywhere in the world. So you won’t earn rewards for purchases from Credibill, Revolut, stock brokers, lotteries, etc.

If you simply need to pay a bill (but not get rewarded for it), that only makes sense if you have the Migros Cumulus credit card. In that case you could withdraw the cash for free at a Migros and use it to pay your bill. No cash advance fee, no interest (if you pay your card bill in full at the end of the month).

Sonect is a paid-but-affordable way to get low-cost cash advances with other credit cards. Crediting Revolut used to be fee-free back when I used it, so that may be another option for cost-free cash advances.

Credibill is expensive. It only makes sense for people who have bills to pay but no cash on hand. But even then, a personal loan would work out cheaper than the combined Credibill fee and credit card interest (if they carry the balance).

Or you could just pay by bank transfer. No rewards, no cost, minimal time and effort.

3 Likes
6

Hi All,

I am now possessing two creditcards from Swisscard, 1 AMEX and 1 Mastercard, both with cashback benefit (AMEX = 1% adn Mastercard = 0.25%)

From the online app or online login to Swisscard portal, I see that I cannot order any payment.
I understand that physical credit cards are used mostly to pay with with POS of physical shops or online purchases, though I want to use them also to pay my bills.

In particular:

  • rent monthly: I don’t have a bill but just the owner IBAN and I woudl like to make the payment with the creditcard
  • car leasing: I have 1 bill to set up a standing order monthly to AMAG Leasing.
  • CSS health insurance.
  • Yallo monthly invoice for mobile service.
  • on demand bills (e.g. Electricity, Billag, garbage tax, etc.).

Any suggestions how I can achieve that?

Many thanks in advance!

Pietro

7

Wasn’t it answered above? (EDIT: just saw the post was moved from its initial thread.)

Additionally, you may come across the solution to pay your bills at a Post office. They won’t charge you a fee for it. However:

  • They do charge a fee to the receiver. In many cases they will add this fee to your next bill. And if they don’t, they factor those costs into their prices which are then paid by all other customers. Your optimisation shouldn’t have a negative impact on others in my opinion.
  • They do not accept all cards, and afaik they do NOT accept any cards which offer cashback.
  • The time and effort it takes is just not worth what you will get as cashback.
8

Just to add: whenever you pay with a MasterCard, Visa or Amex, the receiver of the money gets charged 0.5 to 3.8% depending on the card you use, their payment provider and their size.

There is just no interest for a health insurance or electricity company to lose that kind of money just to allow you to have your glorious 0.25-1% cash back.

Also, people paying with credit cards tend to spend more, and those with cash back spend around 3-4 % more than those paying by debit. I seriously doubt that you actually save money by getting cash back because of this.

9

4 posts were merged into an existing topic: Going back to debit and cash - Credit card use and cashbacks probably increase overall spending

10

There is a service provider called Credibill which lets you pay bills using credit cards from Bonuscard, Cembra, UBS, Swisscard, Topcard, and Cornercard.

You pay a fee for the service (2.5% or 2.75%, depending on the card issuer). I think it’s safe to assume that the charge would be counted as a cash equivalent, so your wouldn’t earn credit card rewards.

I can only see it making sense for someone who either:

  1. Needs a short-term loan (i.e. for unexpected bills which your standard budget and available cash didn’t account for) which they can repay by the end of the billing cycle.
  2. Loves the convenience of having everything accounted for in one bill and statement, and is willing to pay good money for that.

For a person who sometimes finds themselves in situation 1, having the Migros Cumulus credit card which lets you get cash at Migros for no fee is probably a better choice.