Car Buying Cost Cutting System Article Discussion Area

Just in case it helps anyone: we bought a newish car last summer for about 5.5k. We had to get a loan and the best rate we could get then was with Northern Rock at 7.9%, but there were no penalties for settling early. After a few months when I started reading this site I applied for a BA Amex with 4.9% life of balance transfer and an Egg Money card. I balance transferred the outstanding loan value 'from' Egg Money to the Amex, giving me a +ve balance with Egg, and then used that card to repay the loan.

This leaves us not only with a more manageable interest rate, but also much more flexibility to overpay etc, and I also netted about 50 quids worth of cashback on the Egg Money card (as it treated the loan repayment as a purchase) and a few pence interest from the time the money hit the Egg account but before it left for NR.

There are obviously cheaper ways of doing all this using 0% cards, but this was good for us and less hassle than 0% tarting.

Ian_M wrote:

I saw Martin's other article on the best cash back cards.

Do the major car dealers accept Amex Platinum credit cards? Sounds like a great way to save money on a large purchase like this (or even the deposit).

Thanks!

A lot of dealers now accept credit/debit cards. However, due to the large amounts of the purchases, I am pretty sure they will charge 2.5% for credit card transactions which in essence would eliminate any cashback.

However, if you used a Halifax Debit Card, then you would get the cashback and no fee!!

Re: Amex Platinum cards

I recently went along with my father to buy a new Mercedes from a genuine Mercedes dealer on a part exchange.

They allowed payment by credit card without a charge, but the amount you could pay on credit cards was limited to £2000. However, it wasn't possible to drive away the new car on the day, and a deposit of any amount needed paying. I suggested he use his Amex Platinum (that I recommended he go for because of my parents high spending) and pay the full deposit.

I would suspect that other dealers impose a similar spending limit of credit cards.

Just a thought...


1) Whats to stop someone haggling with the dealer, and then letting them think that you are taking an "expensive" ott interest rate finance deal (which usually means they give you more off the top end price of the car) but then, when the finance agreement comes through, cancelling it and paying the balance off by cashback and/or 0% credit card or even using a super balance transfer to allow you to pay by debit card if credit cards arent allowed...?

This depends on the finance deal having a 7 day or 14 day cooling off period (which I think most agreements of this type have?) during which you can cancel and pay the balance...

Any comments on this approach from someone in the know? I'm just surmising what might be possible to get the best deal...

I'm tempted at the moment by a rash of dealer offers of 0% for 4 years after 20% to 30% deposit.

I've seen the various cars cheaper on other sites, but that would require me to take out a loan or more than likely draw down on my 5.5% offset mortgage.

Is there any right way of calculating the true cost of this too me if I took money out of my mortgage?