Has anyone successfully charged a new car to a credit card for the rewards points?

[LoveBWVVBR]

Clearly we'd pay it off immediately, so no interest involved. I've been doing much research on this online, and it looks like it IS possible as Visa and Mastercard do not allow their merchants to limit transactions per their merchant agreements. Once I have the deal hammered out on my new car, how do I insist that they allow me to charge it? Do I just get up and walk out or what? I'm not emotionally invested in the new car...there is always another deal. The icing on the cake would be the rewards points for the purchase tho. Thanks!

 

[jrmo]

The last time we bought a car, they only allowed us to charge $2000.

 

[msmama]

When I bought my car there was a limit to what the dealer would let me put on the card (I wanted to put as much as I could on there). I want to say it wasn't more than like $6000 or something like that - I want to say that maybe it was only as much as could be considered a down payment.

This was 6 years ago so your mileage may vary (I don't know if this is something that would vary by dealer). Good luck!

 

[mistysue]

My sister charged a car about 5 years ago. I think it was around $15,000. Obviously from these posts it is going to vary by dealership.

 

[JKMJ441724]

My mom bought a car and the dealership here would only let her put about 2K.

 

[ICF]

We were allowed to put $3K or so on a CC and that was it when we bought our last car a few years ago.

 

[scard192]

$2000 was the limit when I bought my car last summer. I put down $4000 so I had to do 2 transactions over 2 days. Both went on my Chase Disney Visa and I went home, transfered the money from my savings account to checking and paid the amount to Chase. Easy $40 for WDW vacation.

 

[3boymthr]

We bought our van using a CC. What we did was use the "special offer" checks that they sent us. The check was good for up to $10,000 (which was more than the price of the van - which cost $9,800) and we got 0% interest for 2 years.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

We bought our van using a CC. What we did was use the "special offer" checks that they sent us. The check was good for up to $10,000 (which was more than the price of the van - which cost $9,800) and we got 0% interest for 2 years.

Did that get you rewards points though? I did consider using "special offer" checks if the dealership wouldn't take the credit card directly. Don't know if you get rewards points on those tho??

 

[Lita]

You may have to check to see if there is a daily spending limit. If so, you may need to request a temporary increase.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[jenflamingo1]

I bought a Toyota Sienna in August of last year and the dealership allowed me to charge $10,000.

 

[Malibustyle23]

We had help getting our latest and only brand new car. A relative put down over half of the $20k pricetag. For various reasons they chose to put it on their credit card. The financing officer at the dealership tried to talk them out of it saying the credit machine wasn't working, they could bring in a check tomorrow, etc, etc. this relative is very headstrong and determined. Once the f.o. Was told that wasn't the only option we were offering it worked.

 

[rlduvall]

Just last August, I owed $6,000. after trade-in of my vehicle and they let me put the entire charge on my Capital One credit card. I was surprised, but certainly took advantage of it. Earned $120. towards airfare - every little bit helps.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

I bought a Toyota Sienna in August of last year and the dealership allowed me to charge $10,000.

That is what I am getting! 10K is better than nothing, but I think my total after trade will be a little over 20K. I'm going to see what I can do to charge the whole thing.

 

[blessedby3]

When we bought DS's first vehicle 15 mos ago, I wanted to charge the whole thing for points. The dealership only let us charge $2000....BOO! Guess that was better than nothing, but I would have loved to charge the whole thing!

 

[hsmamato2]

we got a new car last year,only allowed to put down 2500 on our cc...wouldv'e LOVED to max it out on that car (had the cash to pay it off right away) it would have been quite a few free flights if we had!

 

[TheRustyScupper]

1) Every dealership is different.
2) There is a simple reason.
3) It costs the dealership money.
4) The dealer PAYS to use the credit card.
. . . VISA/MasterCard = 2.1%-2.5%
. . . Amer Express = $4.4%-6.5%
5) They have to make it up somehow
. . . reduce the profit
. . . reduce the salesman commission
. . . increase the car price
. . . reduce the trade-in allowance

 

[cmwade77]

If your credit card has a high enough limit, then I would first call them to make sure they temporarily raise the daily limit for the single transaction.

Then calculate what the rewards points would be worth.

Negotiate the price of the car after trade in first, telling them that you are going to pay for it on the spot.

Then once you have the agreed upon price and trade in value in writing, tell them you want to charge the entire amount to your card.

Then if the dealer gives you a hard time about doing it, simply tell them they allow you to charge it all (with no extra charges for using a credit card) or give you the value of the rewards points off the transaction or you are going to go to another dealer who will let you do this. The car industry is so hungry for business right now, they should be more than willing to do this to keep a customer. Especially if you are buying a car that will cost $20K after trade in, as these cars temd to have a higher profit margin, since they are over priced (basically you are either paying for the name or a premium price for features that are nice, but in reality actually cost very little to manufacture and install) I am not saying its not worth paying for those features, just realize that the features cost A LOT less than what the dealer is charging for them.

On that note, there are now several websites that will tell you what the dealer's costs are before you go, I strongly recommend using them. There are also several websites where you can tell it what kind of car you are looking for and your zip code, as well as what your trade in is and it will find a dealer in your area and give you an offer that includes all taxes, dealer fees, etc. Even if you don't use those dealers, I would recommend having an offer in hand when you go to the dealer. We got our car for about $500 less than the offer by negotiating a bit.

To that end when negotiating, make sure you agreed upon price includes all of these fees as well.

Another option may be eBay motors, especially if you are looking for a brand new car. You would need to do your trade in on its own in many cases, but there are many dealers who will buy your car, even if you aren't buying one of theirs now.

 

[njsweetP]

Just bought a car last Saturday and the max that could go on the credit card was $2500.

 

[powellrj]

When I bought my DSs car a few years ago, they only let me put $3000 on it, but every little bit helped.