Credit card deposits for vendors- Safe?

amwong22

Hi All,

We are about to pay our wedding coordinator her deposit. I was more than ok paying the deposit via credit card, but my FI thinks I'm crazy for trusting someone I've spoken on the phone a few times with our credit card. I think he's being paranoid, but what have you all done when paying deposits. We are from Canada, so I'm not sure if we can do an electronic money transfer? If so I guess we could just do that or we could send a money order, but that will take longer. Any tips or advice would be appreciated as I know we will have many more deposits coming our way in the near future (photographers, djs, florists, etc). 

HaYnCaNdi808

I tried to do as many deposits as possible on credit card as we were trying to rack up enough miles to fly free for our honeymoon. Did not run into any problems.

fizzhiser87

We have been putting as much as we can on credit cards for the same reasons, points points points!

We haven't had any issues either and I think it's pretty common practice.

But if you are concerned you could always ask for alternative methods of payment.

If they're not open to that, just be ultra diligent with checking on your credit card charges. 

Good luck! 

Ringer101

I paid with checks... I agree your FI and consider myself as being paranoid, too... =(  

h1jung

We paid with checks in order to avoid the credit card fee. I would have liked to use our cc to get the miles but the 3% charge wasn't worth it.

Tanq&Tonic

Does your bank provide virtual card numbers? This lets me generate a unique number that charges to my main account.  That way, if they try to use it for other things, I know exactly who it is.  I absolutely used cc for everything I could. The 3% isn't that significant compared to knowing you have buyer protection in case someone screws you over (like my dress shop did).

destiny1108

We used credit card for almost everything to get miles.  We did not have any issues.    There were a couple of vendors that only accept check.    Our WC had a credit card authorization form that we signed that noted the specific amount to be charged.  

SavvyLittleBride

We sent checks for all of our deposits except the cake. Did not have any problems.

amwong22

Thank you for all the tips ladies. My gut feels like since I've done all the research and spoken to my wedding coordinator that I can trust her. She does have a form that we will fill out with the deposit amount with our signatures, so I feel that is probably enough. But now that my FI has casted doubt, I will ask her if she does any sort of alternative payment like EFT or paypal, and we can pay her by those means.

I have never heard of the virtual card #'s, but maybe I will ask my bank our options...I agree that getting points or money back from our credit cards is a huge perk of paying on CC. We paid for our vendor using our credit card, but he felt that since it is the Marriott we didn't have to worry where as all of the rest of our vendors are less well known vendors. Sigh... :-(

pikakegirl

Your concerns are valid, but, I LOVE points. I'm a CC girl whenever possible (and I don't incur the 3% fee you're talking about).

If your vendor is one of the highly regarded ones that a lot of the girls here have used, I'd trust her with the CC. If they're fairly unknown to you (and all of us), you'll probably be more comfortable proceeding with caution.