Part payment on a car with credit card, a good idea?

dogmatix72

We are buying a used car from a dealer. They have a credit card surcharge of 3% and the car is £7000, so that would be £210 charge if we paid the entire amount by card. So, I thought it might be a good idea to part pay with a bank transfer or cash, say £6000 and pay the rest £2000 with credit card. This way I reduce the 3% charge but get some protection with the credit card payment? Is this idea born out in practice? Would I actually get some protection?

We have the money to pay for the car, I only want to use the card for security, will part payment with a card give us some security?

[Deleted User]

Yes.

However, there should be no charge for using a credit card (unless applied to all payment types).  Presumably this isn't any kind of main dealer. 

There's also no need to pay as much as £2k by card. Any amount will do - eg £1.

eskbanker

Unless you'd be planning to pay with a business credit card rather than a consumer one, it's unlawful for the dealer to impose a surcharge to pay by card.

Should you choose to ignore that and go ahead with them anyway, in general it is a good idea to make a partial payment by credit card to secure section 75 protection, but literally a penny is good enough to gain this for the full transaction amount.

dogmatix72

Brilliant, thank you for your help!

They are not a main dealer. But the car does come with a warrantywise 3 month warranty. The 3% surcharge is clearly in the advert on autotrader. Hmmm now I am wondering if I should be buying from them. It seemed a reasonable fee, but now you said it is unlawful, it makes me question their practices regardless of the fee.