0% interest credit cards for high value purchases (eg new car)

MrFrugalFever

Whether you’re buying a brand new car or a used car via dealer provided finance, third party finance or ‘outright’, the deal should be the same (with the exception of Manufacturer deposit contribution). This is largely because they cannot incentivise their finance over other funding sources.

You are charged interest with a PCP/HP agreement, even if cancelling within a 14 day cooling off period or settling in full after 30 days, unless the finance was 0% to start with.
The reason for this is to do with the CCA1974 rules around statutory interest of 56 days and the right to charge for a period after a consumer has exercised their right to cancel the agreement within cooling off period. It is worth noting, any deposit contribution as part of the agreement may well be retracted if cancelling the agreement, but unlikely to be if settling in full. Settling in full very early on in the agreement on more than one occasion may result in a decline with that lender later down the line.

Your thought process seems perfectly acceptable, why put all your eggs in one basket when you can borrow the bulk at 0% and still earn something back. The only downside is the depreciating asset but it will depreciate regardless of purchase method.

Alex9384

KoobsA20 said:

I think my general discomfort with sinking a lot of my own capital (40k), upfront into an asset that isn't generating money when there is the offer of cheap finance on the table, that can be paid back steadily with Income.

May be a nit-picking but I wouldn't call your car an asset at all.

Your personal car is a liability (sometimes even a money pit) just like your house if you're living in it.

Now back to the topic, I bought my current car with a 0% credit card last year. But the car was only 7k and from a small dealer.
Maybe the price was bumped up but at least I negotiated a discount. The car then turned out to have a major fault, but the dealer refunded me several hundreds which covered the cost of repair. Not so bad in the end.

MallyGirl

When we bought our last car (in the OP's price range) they would only take £2k on a card and the rest had to be by bank transfer. This was a main dealer purchase.