Which London letting agencies accept credit card payments for rental deposits?

[ExpatInBerlin]

I have the fun task of viewing flats in London this week, it’s been a while since I last rented in the UK so am interested to hear people’s experiences of whether many (or any) letting agencies accept credit card payments for rental deposits or even rent? Not that this would sway me in terms of choosing a property, just trying to see if I can at least get some avios out a deposit by paying on my Barclaycard! I presume smaller/independent agencies don’t but perhaps the big ones like Foxtons/Dexters/KFH?

[SamG]

I’d guess none – risk of chargeback / fraud . Been a good few years since I’ve rented but strictly bank transfer only !

[NorthernLass]

I’ve heard of landlords accepting PayPal but I have no idea about London!

[neojago]

Foxtons accepts payment with cards (Amex included), there is no problem to pay for Deposit and first month, including paying more than one month, if convenient to you.

The rent itself depends by the contract, but I can see that on my Foxtons lease portal, there is that option, guess I should have asked for it, or applies only to property managed and let directly by them.

[redlilly]

neojago wrote:

Foxtons accepts payment with cards (Amex included), there is no problem to pay for Deposit and first month, including paying more than one month, if convenient to you.

The rent itself depends by the contract, but I can see that on my Foxtons lease portal, there is that option, guess I should have asked for it, or applies only to property managed and let directly by them.

I think this is the one – I.e. where rented and managed through a single agency, but as you say depends on the tenancy terms. Otherwise agents see problems with fraud as @SamG states above.

FWIW, we had been renting via Savills until recently, when we bought the property off the LL. Savills collected the rent, and the LL managed. Savills insisted on a bank transfer, from one account (I.e. you can’t mix and match the account it is coming from every month) and only one transaction per property per month. This makes sense, given the costs involved monitoring otherwise.

[ExpatInBerlin]

Thanks all. Found a flat this week and was required to pay a holding deposit which had to be made via bank transfer (which I did just using my banking app without thinking as time was of the essence). Now wondering if I could have made this via PayPal using a credit card (e.g. Barclaycard), would this work? If so I will try paying the security deposit/first month’s rent that way and see if it works.

[NorthernLass]

It’ll only work if they accept PayPal, they would need to have their own account to receive the payment at the other end, AFAIK, anyway.