Billpay will not process Halifax Visa Debit Card

As I have mentioned in a previous post, I wanted to pay my AIB visa card via my Billpay Account.

However, I have discovered that Billpay will not process payments with the Halifax Debit Card, it only supports Laser.

Confirmed by mail, shown below:

My mail to Billpay

Hi there
I am a Billpay.ie customer.
I have recently switched my current account from AIB to Halifax Bank.
The AIB account had an associated Laser card, which I used as my payment method with Billpay.
However, as you probably know, my new Halifax current account does not use Laser, rather I have been provided with the internationally known and accepted Visa Debit card.
I am concerned that the Visa Debit card is not on your list of Payment methods to fund my Billpay account.
Can you tell me if there are any plans to add the Visa Debit card to your system, or do I have to set up an alternative payment method?


Regards,

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Billpays Reply:

Dear xxxxxxx,

Thank you for you email to Billpay.ie

Unfortunately it is not possible to pay bills on the site using a visa card.

The Payments methods which we support are Direct Debit from your bank account and Laser card.
We apologise that this payment method is not currently available.
It is based on requests by the utilities that this service not be made available.
If you wish you can contact the utility and request its availability
If you have any further queries contact us at customersupport@billpay.ie or call our helpdesk on 1890 61 71 71.

Regards,
Customer Support.

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"It is based on requests by the utilities that this service not be made available."

I think what the utilities wants to avoid is that one pays one credit card bill with another credit card.

In any case, I have given bill pay a direct debit mandate for my halifax account and use that for payments.

I have not noticed any difference in the time frame that my payment is credited with either tesco visa or mbna visa. Money is as fast their as with my past PTSB laser card payments

The money is actualy now faster from my current account than with laser. with DD it's about 2 days and with Laser it was usualy 4-5 days. So I' worse off in that sense.

But I think Billpay, and others, are confusing the Halifax Visa Debit Card with a Visa Credit Card.

I had the same problem when booking a short break with

I wanted to pay from my Halifax Debit card, but the person in the call centre was only allowed to accept payments from Visa/Mastercard Credit Cards or Laser.

I think I will continue to have problems with this Visa Debit Card until they become more widely used

BTW, I do not wish to denigrate the above hotel site, as they provide excellent value IMHO.