Any1 actually pay for a car on their credit card?

Lawwdog hit the nail on the head. Normally we draw the line at $ 3,000...........

We'll let you do it however.....but we'll collect the 1.75% upfront and we had better know you from past experience......if we never met you before over the years or had never done business with you.....no chance.

 

I used to have a merchant account. I would never take a credit card for a car purchase. The customer has 120 days or so to dispute the charge. Its too much hassle to fight a potential chargeback. Plus, Ferrari's excepted, the 2-5% fee is more than most dealers make in profit on "normal" cars. Its not good business. If someone gets pissy about it, they can go to their bank and get a cash advance on the card.

ED

 

Must really like that car- my buddy has an A4 2.8 and it started to fall apart after hitting 20k miles (much like my moms A6)- be careful!

 

I bought one car (not current one - that was cash, as usual) several years ago using 2 cards - 2,150 x 2 = 4,300 after talking the pre-tax asking price down from 7,300 to 4,300 - with 4,300 being the tax-included price - muahahaha. Once they agreed to the price (Though their stipulation in return was they took the 30-day Used Warranty deal out of the car sale), I whipped out the plastic. The salesman's conversations dwindled to one word, such as "Card" and "Sign" - I don't think I was his best friend anymore. Used the Air Miles, switched what was left of unpaid balance to another 0.0 interest card after interest kicked in on other cards. Subsequently paid that off. Means to an End/End to a Means = car was paid for Same As Cash.

 

While i have not purchased a new car on a credit card, I have purchased a new jet ski on one. At first the dealer did not want to take the card and after i told him well you will not take an out of town check, you have to take a the card if you wnat the sale!. To be honest i was the one that was in between a rock and a hard place as my other jet skis hull was crushed beyond repair in an accident the day before a major race.

In the end it was not worth it since the modified motor in the old hull did not last the race and i ended up DNF ing the race

 

Hey Wax, good one! On a similar note, is there any possible way to pay a mortgage using a credit card and thus getting miles?

I thought that I could maybe Paypal the mortgage payment but no go, as the lender does not accept Paypal. Maybe it would be possible to buy a car using a Paypal account? The dealer may be protected and thus agree to it.

If you use Paypal and your cc option then you will get miles for it.

Anybody have any ideas?

 

The BLACK AMEX is THE CARD. You are invited to have one, you cannot apply for one and yes, you can buy ANYTHING.

 

I bought a car on a credit card once. It was about 1990, and the car was a 62 Rambler. Paid about $400, IIRC, although I did have to agree to buy the salesman lunch!

 

With AMEX, it can be done even today. But vendors like AMEX even less, because of it's nearly 6% fee for merchants.


Debt consolidation checks are I belive considered Cash Advance. (which usually *check your fine print!* carries a much higher APR and not subject to 0.0% offers, *or the 25-day intrest-waived peroid for purchases* on most cards.)

However, I see no reason they could not be used to pay for a mortgage. Especially if you find one with favorable Cash Advance policies (if you get one with 0% and miles, might as well run everything through there.)

Call your CC company and ASK. Also ask for a lower APR at the same time. It pays to re-negotiate with your CC company at least every 6 months. Despite what they may claim early on, they are entirely flexible, and often willing to give you a lot if you are 'considering going elsewhere for a better deal.'

 

FWIW..........our quoted rates are as follows...........1.75% for VISA and M/C.

We do not take AMEX because of the 3.5% fee they wanted............the Centurion card is worthless if it cannot be honored.

Apparently there is/was quite a fuss in NYC recently because a lot of restaurants and other merchants are not taking AMEX anymore due to their higher rates. I'd suggest that only 1 in 5 merchants where I live display the sign.

Anyways.....10 years ago I had a guy buy his new 911 on M/C.......charged him the extra rate...no problem...the voice of the rep at M/C when I phoned in the $130K charge was kind of funny though.....she must have thought it was a joke until she had to give me the approval code.....she could barely speak.

 

My wife bought a car on her Amex card a few years ago for our daughter. It was only $8k but the dealer didn't have a problem nor did Amex. I found it interesting considering she is a stay at home mom with her own credit rating. Amex seems to like here and every time we go on vacations or out to dinner she uses the card. They told here if she needs to purchase anything over $10k to call a certain person to get it authorized.

 

From what I understand the balance transfer cheques incur an interest % as soon as they are used. Additionally, they also incur that transfer fee...

I think a few years ago (95 and earlier) there was a loophole where this was not the case -- in theory you could carry two cards and keep on transfering the balance between the two of them every month - never paying any interest nor transfer fees.

Can anybody confirm this was the case?

 

You can apply for one w/o a problem, and frankly, you can buy just as much on any other card as it. Don't believe the BS / marketing hype.

--Dan

 

This is exactly what I did. Plus you get the massive protection that the card offers, if it does so.

For ex; I bought both mine and my brothers Cadillac Escalades on my AmEx.

The only thing preventing you from doing it is the dealership. Some times they argue they have to pay 3% or so to the card company for you to use it....which is true. Just make sure the price is set and offer them 3% or what ever, over the price to cover their end. If they still will not deal, contact me and...depending on where you live, I might be able to help.

{Edit: My company; we paied 2% for Visa/Mac and 2.5% for Amex. Most will pay more at least for the Amex.}

DrS

 

Ricky it is simple, tell them you will pay the 3% and do the deal right there. (Now make sure you are going to have no trouble withthe card. To do this call the card first and get let them know the charge is comming and from where.) And if the dealer says no, speak to the GM-- NOT the sales manager, he most times can not make serious decisions and is really a prop in some stores. If they still say no, walk.


Where are you anyway?


DrS

 

Ricky, weren't you going to London or something? The last time I checked my name was warren now it has to be warenn. Anyways, my dad bought an ML on his am ex card I think it was around 40 or 50K -something like that. The dealer charged like $1000.00 more.

 

If you want charge-card points, just wait until the major service. At Ferrari of Denver I just put over 9K on my card for the full bore 30K.

 

$2.5 mil on Amex for a learjet in the early '80s. A high volume Amex account was all you needed then. Now, the black card will do it.

 

KKSBA- that's about the biggest I've heard of.

The Annual fee on the black AMEX is pretty exhorborant too if I recall. Especially for what it buys you over their own offerings and that of their competitors. Still, I was under the impression it was still invitation-only. Not so anymore I guess? (was it ever then?)


PS: Currently evaluating a CC gateway/merchant that will 'cap' my discount rates at $2k. (so I only get charged 3% of $2k for any charges above $2k, and 3% of the charge for charges below $2k.) May be for corporate cards only, I will have fine print in my hand monday.

 

Where could one apply for it? Everything I've seen says that you have to be invited.
Gagan

 

I remember a story about 10 years ago where a guy bought some significant pieces of art at auction and used his AMEX to get the miles. It was a few million $$.

 

I was just "invited" to get the Black Card. The annual fee for the first card is $2500.00 and each add'l is $1,500. I must admit the offer was presented in a very nice way, but it just doesn't make sense why Amex would think they are rewarding their high use customers by offering them a card with such a high membership fee. This card won't do anything more for me than a regular "green" card. I think they should "reward" their good customers with a card without an annual fee.

 

Ed: It all depends on what you do. I dont remember if it was another thread on this site or another one I was reading (been looking into it a lot lately)... But if you look at it (at the Amex press release from '99 or just other sites with info), if you dont travel much, then theres no point to go with that, and you're better off with a Green or Platinum. At that point its just status. However, if you travel, it can pay for itself. For me its the upgrades and the companion tickets. My sister and I are both at med school in the Caribbean, so for the extra maybe 20-50% for the business or first class ticket for one person, I'd get a second ticket for free. In the long run it works out.

As for the invitation, if you dont mind, PM me I'd like some more info about it.

Thanks
Gagan