Paying tax, utility, and insurance bills with Canadian Tire credit cards | Page 5 | Credit card reward programs | Discussion forum

When you pay your taxes, or any other bill via the Canadian Tire credit card, it is treated just like a purchase (and specifically NOT a cash advance)? I wouldn't want to be paying cash advance fees just to get some Canadian Tire money!

If I understand correctly, using this service effectively allows me to pay bills that I normally can't via CC. It won't cost me anything (if I pay my CC in full by the due date), payment of my bills put on the card effectively delays me paying out cash for them to my CC due date, and I'll get a percentage Canadian Tire cash-back.

Do I have that right?

CanSaver said
When you pay your taxes, or any other bill via the Canadian Tire credit card, it is treated just like a purchase (and specifically NOT a cash advance)? I wouldn't want to be paying cash advance fees just to get some Canadian Tire money!

If I understand correctly, using this service effectively allows me to pay bills that I normally can't via CC. It won't cost me anything (if I pay my CC in full by the due date), payment of my bills put on the card effectively delays me paying out cash for them to my CC due date, and I'll get a percentage Canadian Tire cash-back.

Do I have that right?  

All u said is correct, but keep in mind of the following:

Its been reported on forum that CT does it manually, thus check to make sure whats being sent to the payee is indeed the right amount.
Also since its done manually, there are reports of post dated transactions being missed, results in penalty interest charge which of course CT wont reimburse you for. Personally I only do spot transactions.
The first time you set up the payee, test it with a $1 transaction only. Its not the easiest process to try to retrieve payment sent to the wrong account if its your fault to provide wrong info.

smayer97 said
I've been doing it for years, paying 6 utility bills, 2 property taxes, insurance premiums, etc... NEVER one missed or incorrect... so far!

BTW, not sure how manual this can be... they way it works is that they process the payment out of a back-end bank account so that it appears to the recipient like it is a bank payment... the recipient does not see or recognize it as a credit card payment. I'm sure the volume would be such to make manual processing very impractical.  

Yes the process is basically what you described. And based on their ‘tech’ capability, I can easily believe it has to be done somewhat manually as oppose to 100% automated. It’s essentially their high yield loan business, trying to capture potential 21% interest charge for late payment vs paying away up to 1% CT money.

matkokubko said
Can you pay CRA?

I can't find it on the list, but perhaps it's under a different name.  

I don't believe so, but it works very well for paying house taxes if you pay them yourself (vs being rolled into your mortgage).

smayer97 said
I've been doing it for years, paying 6 utility bills, 2 property taxes, insurance premiums, etc... NEVER one missed or incorrect... so far!

  

Good to hear. Gives confidence. Do you make the payment via the CT credit card exactly on the due date for the property taxes or sometime before to ensure sufficient processing time? If before the due date, how many days before do you recommend?

CanSaver said

By Wednesday, logging in to my municipal tax account, I could see that payment was received.

Of course, YMMV.  

Thanks CanSaver. I'd like to determine a more precise lag time. Can you confirm the payment was truly only received on the Wednesday or could it have been received on a earlier day?

Lodown said

Good to hear. Gives confidence. Do you make the payment via the CT credit card exactly on the due date for the property taxes or sometime before to ensure sufficient processing time? If before the due date, how many days before do you recommend?  

NEVER on the due date. There is some processing time. Lead time varies...can be as fast as next day but can take a few days; varies by service.

Lodown said

Thanks CanSaver. I'd like to determine a more precise lag time. Can you confirm the payment was truly only received on the Wednesday or could it have been received on a earlier day?  

But think about it, who cares? The money does not come out of your pocket until the day your CDN Tire statement payment due date. This gives you the flexibility to pay the vendors many days in advance with no cost to you (unless managing the timing of using up your credit limit is the issue). So, I optimize it based more on the statement date (preferably after) vs the vendor's due date and try to give myself margin where possible. In other words, my charge window is anytime after the CDN Tire statement creation date but before the vendor's due date.

smayer97 said
……
But think about it, who cares? The money does not come out of your pocket until the day your CDN Tire statement payment due date. This gives you the flexibility to pay the vendors many days in advance with no cost to you (unless managing the timing of using up your credit limit is the issue). So, I optimize it based more on the statement date (preferably after) vs the vendor's due date and try to give myself margin where possible. In other words, my charge window is anytime after the CDN Tire statement creation date but before the vendor's due date.  

Exactly!

CanSaver said

I authorize the credit card company to take full payment of my card from my bank account on the due date. This way if there is any snafu, it's their fault (or my bank's), but in either case it isn't mine so I wouldn't be on the hook for any late charges.

The only thing I need to do is ensure there is enough cash in my account on the due date.  

Yep. And I have a line of credit on the checking account, so if the account were to go into the red for a day or two it wouldn’t be a big deal. I think at one point it did go negative and I was charged like 3% annual rate of interest for a day so about 0.01% of a few hundred dollars.

A lot of value in not having to do a thing and automating cc withdrawals.

savemoresaveoften said
I would never authorize autopayment on any cc. In fact I wont do authorize any auto payment of any kind whether utilities or cell phone bills etc. My reason is if there is any dispute of any kind, you end up payment the wrong amount first and then try to resolve and get it back. Also cancelling

I used to have over draft ability on my checking account. I purposedly told the bank to remove it. This thing if the account was hacked or compromised, its only limited to the funds in the account.  

To each their own.

Our overdraft on checking account is $20K, and all bills are automated. I couldn’t imagine having to make all the regular payments mechanically every month. The risk you are talking about exists (although never happened to me) but in most cases losses would be compensated. And if not… Well, the convenience is worth the risk.

The only issue I had was when someone initiated e-transfers out of a savings Meridian account. The loss was reimbursed very quickly. Automating payments had nothing to do with it.