My thrifty co-worker used his credit card to pay $10,000 of the purchase price on a new VW (the maximum they would allow), paid the rest in cash, collected his $100 in reward points and paid off his credit card balance on the first due date (avoiding any interest).

In my case, I will need to (conventionally) finance 40% of the car. My $1000 deposit is on a credit card, but I wonder how much more they’ll let me put on a credit card at delivery time, as opposed to writing a check and getting no perk for doing so. Seems like they'll (understandably) want me to have some real skin in the game.

So…
1.) Is it legal?
2.) Is it going to interfere with my pre-approved financing when the bank sees (for example) a last-minute $10,000 charge?

 

I dont think this would interfere with your pre-approved financing. For one thing they cannot do another credit inquiry without your approval. Another point is that this charge would not appear on your credit report unless the credit card company reports to the credit reporting company immediately after you put the charge on your card which is highly unlikely.

 

Why don't you just ask your dealer how much they will let you put on a card? At my dealer, I think $2,000 was all they would allow.

And charges to a card wouldn't show up on a credit report until the next billing cycle. And wouldn't you have the check from the bank at the same time your card is charged by the dealer?

Mavemini was correct, too, that the bank wouldn't run your credit again after they've already approved you, unless you're waiting several months and they feel the old information may be outdated.

 

Hmmm... They wouldn't even let me use my check card to pay my down payment. I was hopeful so that I could get my cash back, but they said no deal.

 

My dealer limits it to $2000 on a credit card as well. (Plus I put my initial $1000 on the card too.)

 

I put $5000 down on my car. $2500 when I placed the order and $2500 upon delivery. The dealer max was $2500 per transaction.

 

I think that most dealers will limit the amount that you would be able to charge on a credit card due to the fee's the credit card companies charge.

I was only able to charge my depost of 500...after that it was check and bank financing.

I did purchase a used VW once all by credit card. That was awesome. 10 g's worth of points.

 

I could only do $1000, and it had to be on the deposit.

 

I will indeed end up asking the dealer, but first I wanted to get an idea what others were experiencing (particularly if it’s negotiable).

The possibility of $100 cash back may not seem like much in the scope of the deal, but it’s the equivalent of free floor mats, or one ticket to the scholarship raffle for the convertible:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums/raffle.php

 

Didnt know dealers limited so low. The SF dealer allowed 1k deposit and 5k on the card.

 

After the trade in all I needed was just under $5000. The dealer has a $2000 limit but because of some miscommunications on some of the dealer added options they let me put the entire amount on my credit card. It'll be a nice addition to my current points!

 

We put the entire purchase on the credit card (no trade in), got the points, and then paid the card off 2 weeks later. I won't know how much cash back we'll get until next month, but it should buy a mod or two

 

And we have our winner...

 

Wow. My dealer only let me put $5K on my card.

 

we could only put $4k on and they said it was the max due to the credit card processing fees. then, as we are getting ready to sign, the SAME guy was going on and on about a previous customer that put a 745i entirely on his credit card.
LOL

 

I started this thread, and put my dealer maximum ($2500) on a credit card with 1% rebate yesterday.

However, when tens of thousands of dollars are changing hands during the MINI purchase, even hundreds of dollars (in fees or savings) start to look like peanuts.

The $25 back is better than nothing, but I think I got more smug satisfaction when I recently redeemed a 50 cent grocery coupon on a dollar can of Manwich.

 

I am going to put a significant amount on my Mini Visa when I pick up my car on Saturday. I have already notified the dealer of this and they did not respond. I spoke to both the 800 number for the Mini card and the corporate offices for Visa. It is in the merchants agreement that allows them to accept Visa cards that they CAN NOT limit the maximum amount you can charge as long as you have the amount available on your credit line.

They can suggest that they only want you to put $2,000 on the card for example, but if they refuse more, they are risking losing their ability to accept credit cards. I have worked at one of the largest banks in the country for over 20 years.

 

That's interesting, because I asked my FA twice...and was told $2500 was the max for all charges (not just one), and had previously asked my MA if I could bump it higher by using multiple cards (and was told no).

I didn't have the confidence to challenge them further.

Now I'm curious to see if you can successfully wrestle them to the mat on your deal (given your background).

 

2,500 was the max here per transaction ... put 1000 for a deposit and 2500 on the pickup day ...

 

Interesting. Let us know how it goes down on Saturday.

 

I was told that they wanted 10% down when I ordered which was fine. But I figured if they wanted to ensure that I wouldn't back out by requiring so much that I was going to make them pay fees on my Amazon Visa charge and I'd reap the rewards. So I charged $2500 on the card and when I pick it up I'll try to charge more. They didn't tell me there limit but I'm going to find out soon.

 

See page 2-22 of this document for MasterCard: http://www.mastercard.com/us/wce/PDF...ire_Manual.pdf or page 9 of this document for Visa: http://usa.visa.com/download/merchan..._merchants.pdf. Both are very specific about the fact that they cannot require a minimum OR maximum. If you need to, just bring a copy of the appropriate merchant rules with you.

 

I used a 0% card with 12,000 limit on it to purchase my Acura. The sales manager approved it at the dismay of the finance manager. Have any of you considered traditional financing and looking around for a 0%/12 MONTH card and transfer the balance to the card.

This would give you 12 months to pay a huge portion of the car off at 0% This is what I'm currently doing. I have a loan balance of 10000 and have recently transfered 5,000 of it to a 0% card with a limit of $5,000 for 12 months. I'll pay this off in 5 months, continue to make the minimum payment to the bank as well and then transfer the remaining balance to the 0% card and pay the whole car off in less than a year @ 0%, plus a little finance payments for the original loan, but not much.

You don't necessarily have to use the credit card at the Mini dealer if you can transfer the purchase later to your card for the max of the card. My .02

 

Most credit card companies do not give reward points on balance transfers and/or charge a fee for transferring a balance. Otherwise, people could keep transferring balances between cards and never have to pay, and in the process keep racking up rewards points.

 

So how did this go? I was pretty po'd that Herb Chambers wouldn't let me use my visa to pay a good chunk of the car off. I was wondering if that was legal. Did you use your credit card after all?
Blackdog