CC Rewards on vehicle purchase!!

[crazymomof4]

Never hurts to ask!

DH needed to replace his pick up truck. Found one, pre-owned, at a Ford dealer. Being ever-so-keen on getting as many rewards dollars as possible before our Sept wdw trip, I wondered if the dealer would take credit cards. DH said, "No way". I said, "Can't hurt to ask".
Asked and YES, they do! As many cc's as you wish to use! So..... first in line are the 2 Disney Visa cards, then 2 other Visa's. Had initially planned on paying for the truck with a check that draws on our HE line of credit, but will instead just write that out to cash and deposit in our checking and then pay off the cc's when the statements roll in. By "running" the purchase through the cc's, we will earn $420 in rewards dollars. DISNEY MONEY!!!
Not gonna lie, I was more excited about getting *free* money for the trip than getting the truck. LOL There is something very wrong with me!

 

[HappyHappy]

I know exactly how you feel. Very impressive!!

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Lots of car dealerships accept credit cards, but there is usually a limit on the amount they will let you charge.

 

[Patience]

We did this when we bought our daughter in college a new used car last year. The dealership wouldn't let us put the whole amount on our credit card but they did let us put $5000 of the price of the car on our rewards credit card. We put just about everything we can on our rewards card, including our daughter's college tuition bill, and then transfer money and pay it off online. Works like a charm and we've saved quite a bit of money since we started doing this.

 

[Marionnette]

Never hurts to ask!

DH needed to replace his pick up truck. Found one, pre-owned, at a Ford dealer. Being ever-so-keen on getting as many rewards dollars as possible before our Sept wdw trip, I wondered if the dealer would take credit cards. DH said, "No way". I said, "Can't hurt to ask".
Asked and YES, they do! As many cc's as you wish to use! So..... first in line are the 2 Disney Visa cards, then 2 other Visa's. Had initially planned on paying for the truck with a check that draws on our HE line of credit, but will instead just write that out to cash and deposit in our checking and then pay off the cc's when the statements roll in. By "running" the purchase through the cc's, we will earn $420 in rewards dollars. DISNEY MONEY!!!
Not gonna lie, I was more excited about getting *free* money for the trip than getting the truck. LOL There is something very wrong with me!

Good for you. Most dealerships will tack on a fee for using a credit card. That fee is generally more than what the consumer would get back in rewards.

 

[Angrypenguin]

I usually advise against using CCs for a car purchase because they usually bake in the swipe fees into the purchase price of the car. If you pay with a card, that 2-5% is headroom they may have given back to you....

 

[clh2]

NICE...We have never been so lucky. The dealership will take part of the payment from a CC, but I think the highest we've been able to charge has been $2000 or possibly $2500.

Going off topic - we are able to charge our DD's tuition, without a surcharge, so we do that. Just an idea for others - as long as they can do it without a surcharge. Another thing we do - if we are having a big repair done on the house AFTER WE GET THE QUOTE IN WRITING- we ask if they take CC's, or if they give a discount for using cash.

I agree, it never hurts to ask!

 

[HM]

NICE...We have never been so lucky. The dealership will take part of the payment from a CC, but I think the highest we've been able to charge has been $2000 or possibly $2500.

Going off topic - we are able to charge our DD's tuition, without a surcharge, so we do that. Just an idea for others - as long as they can do it without a surcharge. Another thing we do - if we are having a big repair done on the house AFTER WE GET THE QUOTE IN WRITING- we ask if they take CC's, or if they give a discount for using cash.

I agree, it never hurts to ask!

Same here. We've never been able to put more than $2000 toward a car.

And our kid's college tuition had a large processing fee to use a CC for, so we pay by e-check. My DH takes college classes and has been able to pay via CC for his tuition though.

 

[JeremyGNJ]

In my opinion this is usually not the best option.

Credit card processors have to pay a % fee on your credit card transaction. usually about 3%.

If you explain to the car dealer that you are about to use a credit card, the numbers guys will very quickly offer you a discount equal to the fee they are about to pay on the CC transaction.

So if you were going t0 charge $5000 to your CC, you would get $50 back (in the case of Disney Rewards). However you can most likely convince the car dealer to give you up to 3% back, or $150.

 

[powellrj]

We have only been able to charge $2,000 on ours when we have used them to buy cars with. The last time we were able to use our debit card, because I thought we were just looking and DH found a great deal and wanted to buy right then and I didn't bring the check book.

 

[scard192]

Lots of car dealerships accept credit cards, but there is usually a limit on the amount they will let you charge.

I put down $4000 down payment on my car and there was no fee. Dealer could only charge $2000 per day so did it in 2 charges. $4000 on my Disney Visa. went home and as soon as the charges hit the card I paid it off using the money in my savings.

 

[scard192]

We have only been able to charge $2,000 on ours when we have used them to buy cars with. The last time we were able to use our debit card, because I thought we were just looking and DH found a great deal and wanted to buy right then and I didn't bring the check book.

same thing happened to me! I thought I would be negotiating a final price and would come back to get the car another day. Nope, 2.5 hours later drove off with my new car. I still had the title to the old one at home and they could only charge 1/2 the downpayment. I never carry my check book anymore either.

 

[Crystal824]

It depends on the law of your state. We were also able to put $4,000 on a cc as part of our down payment. Wish we had been able to do more but state law in PA prohibits putting more on a cc.

 

[HappyHappy]

I was only able to charge a portion but my deal was finalized before I brought out my cc. No fee or price increase. It read like the OP had finished negotiations as well.

 

[OhMari]

We did this when we bought our daughter in college a new used car last year. The dealership wouldn't let us put the whole amount on our credit card but they did let us put $5000 of the price of the car on our rewards credit card. We put just about everything we can on our rewards card, including our daughter's college tuition bill, and then transfer money and pay it off online. Works like a charm and we've saved quite a bit of money since we started doing this.

The UW System in Wisconsin won't let you do this, it had to be from our checking account or like others said, they charged a 5% fee.

 

[dex08]

Our dealership allowed us to put $2000 on our credit card so we could get our points and we immediately paid it off.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

We just bought a used car for $16k that we were going to pay cash for. My husband wanted to get airline reward points so he asked if we could use our card. They said there'd be a 4% fee, but my persuasive husband got that written into the deal at the end. It does feel good to get a little extra benefit!

 

[crazymomof4]

I am assuming the salesman or his supervisor (who was present and OK'd the cc downpayment) would have advised us of any fee and they did not. Also, we have the invoice and no fee is listed there for the using the cc for the downpayment. They told us we could use as many cards as we wished and charge as much of the purchase as we wished. The salesman even said, "I would do it this way too!"

BUT..... just to be sure, I just sent off an email to the salesman with my questions. We don't pick up the truck until tomorrow night, so will just change our plan and just use the HE check for payment.

 

[ICF]

I've used a CC for a down payment (either $3K or $3.5K) for my last 4 cars -- at 3 different dealerships.

Never paid a fee....never had the sales guy tell us he'd give us a lower price if we gave him a check for the down payment vs a CC.

It's been a very easy way to earn lots of free rewards from whatever CC I was trying to earn rewards from at the time.

 

[Arielle22]

I am amazed so many dealerships will let you put the car on the credit card. I worked for 7 years in a dealership. We allowed deposits only. If you put the full car on the credit card, then the customer has both the protection of the laws on car purchases plus the ability to dispute the charge on the credit card.