Buy A Car with your Credit Card

[AH013]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/buy-car-credit-card-100022389.html

The funny thing isn't so much the actual article itself, as it outlines why this isn't a smart idea (worse interest rates than a traditional car loan), and how most dealers won't allow this (because of fees) and if they do allow it it's only for a small down payment or they simply have added the merchant fees into the quoted price.

The funny part is the comments.  All the people informing everyone else how smart they were that they earned so many points / miles / whatever the past 5 times they've bought a new $30-$40k car, since they found a dealer willing to take plastic (or strong-armed them into taking their rewards card by threatening to walk off the lot).

Yeah, you really showed the world how financially savvy you are -- you got a $2,000 vacation including round-trip flights & 3 nights in Vegas for free (after $400 in airport taxes, hotel taxes & resort fees) because you spent $200k on cars/trucks/SUVs over the last 8 years.  #EpicFail.

[cdub]

Well I would have LOVED it if the Honda dealer would have taken our AmEx gold card for the full amount of our used minivan purchase.

And yes THINK OF ALL THE POINTS!!!

But they wouldn't... so we had to write a check instead. :(

[Timmmy]

In the past I've purchased 2 motorcycles with 0% no fee credit card checks.  It doesn't earn any rewards that way but it was sort of like free money for the 12-18 months. 

Both times it was to replace a current motorcycle with a slight upgrade.  So I didn't have to sell the old bike before I had the new one. 

I'm guessing that's not what this article is referring to.

[DrJohn]

Tried this once trying to buy a used VW for the points after haggling the price down.  Response: The biggest shrug and long face I ever saw.  No, it was Cashier check only...  Naturally, cash was in the bank waiting.

[mpg350]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/buy-car-credit-card-100022389.html

The funny thing isn't so much the actual article itself, as it outlines why this isn't a smart idea (worse interest rates than a traditional car loan), and how most dealers won't allow this (because of fees) and if they do allow it it's only for a small down payment or they simply have added the merchant fees into the quoted price.

The funny part is the comments.  All the people informing everyone else how smart they were that they earned so many points / miles / whatever the past 5 times they've bought a new $30-$40k car, since they found a dealer willing to take plastic (or strong-armed them into taking their rewards card by threatening to walk off the lot).

Yeah, you really showed the world how financially savvy you are -- you got a $2,000 vacation including round-trip flights & 3 nights in Vegas for free (after $400 in airport taxes, hotel taxes & resort fees) because you spent $200k on cars/trucks/SUVs over the last 8 years.  #EpicFail.

Not really a epic fail.  I mean if they were going to go on vacation and they got say 75% free I think they did ok.

[usmarine1975]

We have used a 0% credit card to purchase a car.  Mind you it was in the MMM range for buying a car so we paid it off before paying interest.  Why not use the banks money for free for a time.  We have even used 0% cards for down payments on property.  You have to transfer the money 2 months before applying for the loan so the cash is seasoned.  But it's worked for us.

[tat96]

This is funny because I actually tried to buy a car with a credit card once and the sales manager told me I couldn't put more than $5500 (of $25k) on the cc.  I put the $5500 on the Mastercard and refused his in-house financing (already had other financing lined up).  The sales manager looked at me like I was crazy.  In retrospect the car wasn't the most financially savvy purchase ever but being able to buy large dollar items with cash gets you weird stares sometimes.  His entire disposition changed toward me when he found out I wasn't going to be financing with his company!! 

[usmarine1975]

We did the same it was a company we knew but man do they make some extra money on the financing.  We paid with a credit card and some Cash.  I won't buy a vehicle with a loan anymore.  Although we did consider new and looked into it, until the sales agent told us that most people only consider the monthly payment not what they actually pay for the car.  We ran.

[AH013]

Agreed, if the vehicle is a planned, necessary & reasonable purchase, and you can put it on a credit card that you either A) plan to pay in full off immediately or B) have some special 0% or very very low rate promotion, AND it gives you miles/points/cash back to boot, then yes, kudos to you sir/madam for winning.

But the comments on the article were taking on a tone of Kohl's version of "savings" -- which is buying unnecessary stuff to earn rewards to "save".  Someone even went so far as to warn people not to fall into the rewards trap of buying extra stuff just for credit card rewards, and was negged out.  Spending $200k on a $40k truck every 2 years and getting $2k back in 1% cash rewards is being crafty.  Spending 80% less by only buying 1 truck and driving it for 10 years until the wheels fall off instead is being smart.

[Elderwood17]

Once I bought an ATV (for my farm) on a credit card.  Paid it in full when the bill arrived and banked a few points.   Not overly lucrative, but I had already saved the money for it and got a new one being cleared out.  Used ATVs can be pretty beat up.

[usmarine1975]

I have flown quite a bit using miles. Even gifted a flight here and there. All on money that would have been spent anyway.  Not as lucrative these days.

[MoneyCat]

I bought my car with a rewards credit card with no dealer surcharge and then went home and immediately paid the bill in cash.  I cashed out the cashback from the card when it posted and it went into my savings account.  I think it was a pretty smart idea actually.

[firelight]

We tried putting everything on rewards card when we bought our car but were told we can put only $3500 on it. We should've tried strong arming them but guess my husband just wanted to get the car purchase done :| So we wrote a check for the rest

[firelight]

I still think of all the cash back we could've got out of one single purchase...the car was 40k+ and will be used till it falls apart