Any1 actually pay for a car on their credit card? | FerrariChat

Any1 actually pay for a car on their credit card?

Discussion in 'Other Off Topic Forum' started by ttforcefed, Feb 27, 2004.

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  1. ttforcefed

    ttforcefed F1 World Champ
    Rossa Subscribed

    Aug 22, 2002
    18,753
    tried buying an audi on my credit card and they said they wouldnt accept more than $2500 on a card, wtf!
     
  2. Teenferrarifan

    Teenferrarifan F1 Rookie

    Feb 21, 2003
    3,098
    Media, PA
    Full Name:
    Erik
    I work at a car dealership and we won't let anyone buy a car with a credit card. You are only allowed to make a $2500 or $3k payment on a credit card. I don't know why.
    Erik
     
  3. Tyler

    Tyler F1 Rookie

    Dec 19, 2001
    4,274
    dusty old farm town
    Full Name:
    Tyler
    Hmmmm. Strange. Back in another life(10 years ago) I used to work at a car dealership and we had more than one person pay with CC. There never was a problem that I was aware of. The stipulation was that the customer also had to pay for the service charge from the CC company. May be new rules these days.
     
  4. andrewg

    andrewg F1 Rookie
    BANNED

    Sep 10, 2002
    4,667
    Chester, England
    Full Name:
    AndrewG
    As the credit card Co's charge the dealer per transaction you can't blame them for not wanting too much visa /mcard /amex payment, not sure of the figure but in the UK its about 2% so thats your profit on a car almost gone!
     
  5. MarkG

    MarkG Formula Junior

    Nov 3, 2003
    369
    Colorado Springs
    Full Name:
    Mark
    My Dad bought his Cadillac with his Discover Card. Paid it off at end of month, but it was a Line of Credit rather than regular CC, might make a difference.
     
  6. M.James

    M.James F1 Rookie

    Jun 6, 2003
    2,721
    Worcester, MA
    Full Name:
    Michael.C.James
    A friend of mine bought his Ducati motorcycle from a licensed dealership with a credit card, back when APRs were 0.0% the whole year. Best financing deal in town, frankly. WOULD I buy a car with a credit card? Tough call - I've lived under $30,000 worth of credit card debt. Pure hell, since I was staring down 29% APR on that debt, and my annual income was less than twice the debt ceiling I was under. For $30K, you can buy a damned-nice 308 with low miles these days....you cannot imagine the hatred I had for debt in those days, since I had plastic and no Ferrari.

    Now, If I had no prior debt, and the APR of plastic was ZERO percent for the life of the loan, you'd be a fool NOT to in lieu of a standard car loan of around 9.9% interest. Now, credit cards come with balance transfer checks, and those checks look just like a regular check - if you have the balance, and the dealership takes the check (why wouldn't they?) then you still can buy a car and put it on plastic.
     
  7. ttforcefed

    ttforcefed F1 World Champ
    Rossa Subscribed

    Aug 22, 2002
    18,753
    i just want the miles/points from the credit card...i dont care about the apr because i would just pay it off in one shot...i have the cash, i want the points.
     
  8. Mitch Alsup

    Mitch Alsup F1 Veteran

    Nov 4, 2003
    9,252
    My credit limit would allow me to buy one, just never have tried.
     
  9. KennyH

    KennyH F1 Veteran
    Owner

    Aug 13, 2001
    5,238
    NYC
    Full Name:
    Kenny

    lol assh0le:)

    What Audi are you buying?
     
  10. TigerAce

    TigerAce Formula 3

    May 29, 2003
    1,793
    Dallas, TX
    Full Name:
    Yoshi Ace
    About 5-6 years ago, I bought a car w/ a credit card, so I tried to do the same for F-car & Benz last year. Neither accepted this method of payment, as max. amount was $2500 or $3000.

    They told me that they cannot do this, because some people charge to a card, and never pay to the credit card company. Some people drove the car for few months w/out paying, then card companies are stuck w/ unpaid amount. The car which was bought w/ a card is not worth the amount of owed. (you know depreciation starts right after you drove out from the lot) Nor a card company cannot reposess the car. It was a glitch for this payment method. These people didn't care what happens to their credit rating, and it happened for higher priced cars than lower priced cars.

    I also suspect a card company didn't want to users to earn those bonus points quickly!

    I wonder AmEx Black card is exception to this. I heard you can buy a house w/ the black! (never confirmed w/ AmEx)

    Yoshi Ace
     
  11. Dr C

    Dr C Formula Junior

    Dec 1, 2002
    480
    Kansas City
    Full Name:
    Ed
    I've not had a dealer allow me to put over $1,000 on my American Express card for a car. But, I have paid almost $15, 000 for jewelry and charged it to my Platinum card. Actually, it was an interesting transaction each time I have done this. The jeweler calls a number at AmExp. AmExp, in turn, asks to speak to me. They ask me about purchases I may have made, say, 6 months ago. When, where and what, what amount -- information that a thief would have a hard time getting hold of. When they were satisfied, they had me put the merchant back on the phone and approved the transaction.

    Now, the AmExp Platinum may be treated differently because I think that AmExp guarantees the merchant payment.

    someone else can certainly chime in here if they chose.
     
  12. lawwdog

    lawwdog Formula 3

    Dec 4, 2002
    1,178
    Northern California
    Full Name:
    Mario
    No credit cards are accepted because of the following:

    card holders ability to dispute charges

    Cost of Transaction

    Delay in payment to the dealer

    Potential for identity theft and complete loss of asset.

    I don't accept credit cards but I will allow $2500 to be charged. Most people don't.


    I wish I could pay for my inventory with credit card too. I would be in first class every trip!
     
  13. ttforcefed

    ttforcefed F1 World Champ
    Rossa Subscribed

    Aug 22, 2002
    18,753
    kenny, u crackhead....just trying to buy out the A4 since the lease is up...capisce??

    :)
     
  14. TSMIV

    TSMIV Formula Junior

    Jan 27, 2004
    374
    Columbus, MS
    Full Name:
    Robert Goodman
    I have always liked the idea of buying a car with a credit card, but it is not possible for a new car. Used car lot guys will accept any credit card. When I say used car lot guys I mean sellers not associated with new dealers.

    As far as big ticket purchases, They just run the card. They never check with the issuer. I had never thought about it until now, but you would think the machines would prompt the cashier to make the call. Good thing I always double check my statements and receipts.
     
  15. jonathanp

    jonathanp Formula Junior

    Oct 31, 2003
    687
    Dallas, TX
    Full Name:
    Jonathan Peck
    As a dealer we cannot take credit cards because of the dispute liability.

    Texas is a non recourse state. If you pay on a credit card, you have the ability to dispute the charge after you have taken delivery of the card.

    If you pay at time of delivery either in full or finance/lease options, recourse is not a factor.

    It is a loop hole for dealers unfortunately, it hacks me because I have tried to buy a few tradein's from a few dealers with my credit card and was not allowed to even being an employee.

    Jp
     
  16. W00dEar

    W00dEar F1 Rookie
    BANNED

    Feb 24, 2004
    3,592
    LI, NY
    Full Name:
    Chris
    CC merchant service takes transaction fees, which is about 2%. So if you go buy a 50k car, dealer is out of 1k profit, why would they do that??
     
  17. f355spider

    f355spider F1 World Champ
    Owner Rossa Subscribed

    May 29, 2001
    17,913
    USA
    Lawdog has it right on the money. I tried to buy a car in Canada on my Visa card (better exchange rate on my credit card, plus frequent flyer miles) but they wouldn't do for the reasons Lawdog states...ended up having to wire transfer the money.
     
  18. bobafett

    bobafett F1 Veteran

    Sep 28, 2002
    9,193
    In the late 80s (?) my father bought what was then the flagship benz, the newly released 560SEL, on his amex card. That day some SVP of AMEX called him about the transaction (I think it was ~85k), and offered him their "brand new, exclusive" Optima card.

    I don't know if you can still do it, but he said he bought another car on his card too.

    --Dan
     
  19. davem

    davem F1 Veteran
    Silver Subscribed

    Jan 21, 2002
    8,210
    Stepford, Connecticut
    Full Name:
    dave m
    Same experience here. Most the dealer would take was $2500 from credit card. Can't blame them. Love those points too. Best deal ive found for me is 12,000 miles, gets me a night at any Ritz-Carlton with breakfast for 2.
    Love it!
     
  20. Alxlee

    Alxlee F1 Rookie

    Apr 8, 2002
    3,697
    Wilmington, DE
    Full Name:
    Alex Lee
    It's been done, but it's up to the dealer's discretion. I work for one of the top credit card issuers and one of our accounts/affinity cards is one of the major airlines. Back when I was a loan officer, I heard from people that wanted line increases to put cars on their cards just because they wanted the miles. They paid the purchase off at the end of the month and they got their miles. Couple stipulations though, one, unless you're a frequent flier (Premier, Elite, etc...usually 25K miles a year or more) you had a ceiling of 10,000 miles per month and 50,000 a year. This probably isn't a problem for many folks here as it seems they travel a lot.

    Most dealers we dealt with (I was on the phone more than a couple times to verify credit lines etc...) would NOT take credit cards due to the interchange fee. 1% to 5% most of the time was not something a dealer wanted to lose. Three cases comes to mind. One was a lady wishing to purchase a new Audi A8 on the card, the dealership accepted it as far as I know. Another was a Lexus dealer that took the card. Last one was a Porsche dealer that declined. There were more that declined to accept than accept a credit card though.

    Some dealers took up to $9K for credit cards, but the majority was less than $5K.

    The fraud issues are a concern; however, unless it's an internet purchase, you do still have to dispute a charge. If we have your signature, it's a lot tougher battle. (I'm sure this varies by card issuer) While we set aside OVER $1 billion, yes, billion a year (I think it's actually closer to $3 billion) in preparation for fraud and charge off's. Keep in mind that we do have large departments of collections specialists, both internal and external that we set lose on those that don't pay.

    Those convenience checks are quite handy too. I've seen people pay off houses with those things. Cars too, but keep in mind that in most cases, you won't get miles or reward points for those checks. Nor will you get points/miles for cash advances or pseudo-cash transactions.

    OK, enough babbly from me!
     
  21. darth550

    darth550 Six Time F1 World Champ
    Lifetime Rossa

    Jul 14, 2003
    60,788
    In front of you
    Full Name:
    BCHC
    Almost 5 years ago, my then business partner and I were driving by FBH. He saw a new yellow 355 Spider in the window and told me he liked it and he wanted it. On kinda half a dare I challenged him to buy it right then. We went to his house and I called them and introduced him to the dealer (I had recently purchased my first 550). Long story short, he put it on his AMEX card. The car was delivered to him at his garage by that night!

    The transaction did not phase either party at all.

    DL
     
  22. Kurt RSF

    Kurt RSF Karting

    Dec 27, 2003
    83
    Rancho Santa Fe, CA
    I occasionally buy expensive art or jewelry, and have even called Amex in advance so they could verify my cash balances in order to approve the charge. But the merchant generally prefers a check, and gives me a much better price for paying with a check.

    The only reason to charge it is for the points. I rarely use the points, but it's fun to rack them up.
     
  23. F328 BobD

    F328 BobD Formula 3

    Mar 17, 2001
    2,327
    Southlake, TX
    Full Name:
    BobD
    I absolutely tried to put as much on my AAdvantage Visa card as I could for mileage... but they limited me to $3-4K.
     
  24. 150shot

    150shot Formula Junior

    Jun 15, 2003
    807
    San Dimas, CA
    Easy way is to get a cash advance for as much as you can go right into your bank account or one of those checks they send. I did it once for $5k for a daily beater...
     
  25. F360@20

    F360@20 Karting

    Nov 24, 2003
    244
    San Diego
    Weird, when I bought my M. It was payied in full with A.E card and that was only 4 years ago.
     

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