I'm looking to make a large purchase using a 0% credit card instead of taking out a loan. Trouble is, the vendor says there will be a 2% charge using a credit card. On £9k that takes it up by £180. It's still cheaper than the £300 interest I would have incurred on a low rate loan but still... The charge is annoying

Any way around it?

Depends on how badly you want it TBH. My usual stance on surcharges for credit cards is one of going to a vendor who doesn't apply surcharges. They either want the business or they don't.

That doesn't help if you are stuck for choice though. If the vendor knows you have no other option they will usually stick to their guns.

You could ask about PayPal, and then fund PayPal with a credit card. That's another one I use when I need international transactions or the seller only takes PayPal.

It costs them money to process, so unless they are, effectively, up for discounting by a couple of percent then there is little choice.

If it isn item that you can get elsewhere worth shopping around maybe ? 2011 Stornaway Grey 5.0SC Autobiography

There will still be fees to pay on Paypal by either you or the seller unfortunately.

How about taking out a loan and then paying it off with the credit card ....

Can you do that? How? I didnt think you could clear a debt by creating another one?

Not sure to be honest, just throwing ideas out there ...

The 0%'s always have a one off handling charge

Also check what the minimum payment per month is as that varies by card.

Then do NOT use it for anything else at all or it starts costing silly interest,

Do you have a Debit card or even an Electron card

Get a new credit card with an initial 0% interest rate.
You pay the £180 at purchase but more than make it up in the interest free period.

That's what I've done.

Funny, last time I made reasonably large purchases in the UK no one wanted cash.

Yeah but you are a dodgy character ,,,,,

It was when I was buying all that glass for my upskirt perving glass floor, so maybe you're right.

I think I may have found a slightly cheaper way around this.
Nationwide are doing a 0% balance transfer card for 26 months with a 0.75% fee. If I can do a money transfer from my existing card to my bank then immediately do a balance transfer to put the account back in credit, it should only cost about £67 instead of £180.
That's assuming I can transfer a large sum of money!

If I remember the max is £10k