Clever ideas when spending a big sum please

Tidyprofit

Hi All
I am soon going to buy a car. One possible seller has credit card facilities. As I already have the money for the car stashed away I was thinking of buying it on a cashback credit card- which I have yet to apply for. That way I could effectively save a chunk more on the car. The trouble is the seller doesn't take Amex, which has the best cashback rate so I think I would be stuck with 1%. The next problem is that as I do not yet have the credit card I may only get a £4-5k limit and the car is the best part of £15k. Does anyone have any ideas as to what I can do or whether there are any other ways of saving on such a big purchase (apart from haggling, which I have already done!)
Cheers
TP

joedenise

Have you other other cashback cards you could use? If you've got 3 cards with a limit of £5000 you could spread the cost between the 3 and then pay off all 3 cards to receive the cashback.

Denise

opinions4u

Have you asked the seller if he charges a fee for accepting your credit card (tyically around 2%)?

If he does, there is little point gaining 1% cashback on the transaction.

luci

Agree, when I thought of doing it the dealer wanted something like 2.5-3% fee.

big_Daddy_Dave

is this your first credit card?

i dont think you'll get a 15k limit

and as others mentioned theres the cc charges

if you have the money why not use a debit card?

Tidyprofit

Thanks all
I don't have another cashback card unfortunately. I don't believe the seller charges commission on the transaction. Although I did ask if he would reduce the price by 1-1.5% if I paid cash. That way he would avoid the charges that apply to the seller. But he said there weren't really any charges (not sure I believe that actually as I know others who sell via credit cards.
The reason I don't want to just pay cash is because I may be able to gain this benefit of cashback which I wouldn't if I pay cash.
I have toyed with other rewards cards and I also might call up the credit card company and ask for a higher limit.
There must be a way of making the most of this transaction.
Cheers
TP

boots_babe

Well as others have said, there will undoubtedly be around 2.5% card processing fee, so not worth going for cashback.

However, if you're intent on getting something out of it, only possibility I can think of is purchase it spread over a couple of 0% cards, then instead of paying them off, keep the money in your savings account or offsetting against your mortgage.

Obviously only worth doing this if the rate you'd get by saving/offsetting is greater than the credit card processing fee.

We're currently going round all the 0% cards for spending and offsetting the money against the mortgage, and can say that Virgin money gave decent limits (£12k). So maybe worth trying them first.

Tidyprofit

The charge is something I will have to double check but I'm sure that's built into the cost, hence trying to haggle it out.

I will have a look at Virgin, thanks

TP

jonesMUFCforever

IMO if the dealer accepts a credit card payment without surcharge then you are overpaying!

nelly12

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

IMO if the dealer accepts a credit card payment without surcharge then you are overpaying!

Fact: dealers get charged in the region of 1.8% for a credit card transaction.

Fact: average dealer has a net return on turnover of 2.5% in current climate.

Why should a dealer pay the charge and not pass it on to a customer?

Your average business would not accept such a return and unfortunately so many on people are quick to slag dealers off without knowing anything about the motor trade.

opinions4u

nelly12 wrote: »

Fact: dealers get charged in the region of 1.8% for a credit card transaction.

Fact: average dealer has a net return on turnover of 2.5% in current climate.

Why should a dealer pay the charge and not pass it on to a customer?

Your average business would not accept such a return and unfortunately so many on people are quick to slag dealers off without knowing anything about the motor trade.

I think the poster you responded to was basically saying margins are usually tight, so if there's no credit card surcharge they're probably making a little bit more on the deal than you'd usually expect. Your post says much the same, doesn't it?

I didn't see the post as one that was slagging off the motor trade.