Car Purchase

monstercop

I have 12 months remaining on a car HP agreement, which gives a rebate if paid off early (currently approx £150 for £3k), and I am looking to buy a new car, which may require a £2-3k deposit in addition to a car. In order to get this through, I am looking at the following:

Take the American Express Platinum for the car deposit (with 5% cash back)
Use Virgin money CC with CC cheques to pay off car HP (doesn't appear that Amex does CC cheques)
Do balance transfer of Amex to Virgin straight away for 0% BT for 15 months.

All will be paid off within 15 months offered by Virgin

The two things I am not certain about are:
Whether Amex do CC cheques
Whether there is another method of doing this which would be more efficient?

I have read a few similar posts but would be pleased to hear views.

missile

No Idea if Amex do cheques, but most garages accept CC payments. My Audi dealer had a limit of £2K, but acceted payment using 2 cards i.e. £4K on plastic plus a cheque.

lisyloo

I would advise you to check with the dealer first as to whether they accept cards.
In my experience a lot don't want to take them because of the fees.
You can of course offer to pay the fees (expect 2%-3%) if you really want to pay by card.
Some garages might but on the whole I think they are reluctant. Of course you might get lucky. Would depend on how deseperate they are for business, but it's just another things that eats into their profits.

BenL

We are buying a car on Monday using a credit card at JCT600.

2% fee on my card to buy it then my g/f is balance transfering to her new barclaycard as its her car.

monstercop

Thanks for the comments guys.

The issue of Amex and cheques would mean that it may get round the fees issue for the garage, and would simplify the payment of the HP agreement by issue of an Amex cheque to the Finance company. This would leave both free to be transferred to Virgin for 0% BT. Having re-read the stoozing article http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cards/stooze-cash-credit-cards I could just do the lot to Virgin, but would miss out on the cash-back...

If Amex do issue cheques (other then travellers' cheques which they do issue - and not sure about the amounts and feasibility of paying for part of a car with them), I can pay for the car and HP with this...

Martinslovechild

Bear in mind that most credit card companies also charge a fee for using a cheque -- and the transaction attracts the card's cash withdrawal rate -- and interest starts accruing immediately, so it's important to get the BT in place ASAP.

Bokkens

monstercop wrote: »

If Amex do issue cheques (other then travellers' cheques which they do issue - and not sure about the amounts and feasibility of paying for part of a car with them), I can pay for the car and HP with this...

American Express do not issue or use the cheques that others like MNBA use.
If you are desperate to get the cash back there is one way.
get a American Express Travellers cheque card(nothing to do with cheques) and load the card with £'s sterling from your American Express card .(You get cash back for this as it is classed as a purchase)
The AMTCC is meant to be used at places of purchase instead of their travellers cheques.As it is preloaded it is swiped at the till as normal and the price of the item you are buying comes off the card.
Simple.
All you have to do now is get the garage to accept it.There are no fees to the garage as they are effectively accepting cash.

monstercop

Nice idea Bokkens, but the American Express Travellers' Cheques Card was discontinued in October http://www.americanexpress.com/uk/tcc/index.shtml

By obtaining the cash back, I am trying to mitigate the charges made elsewhere, so that although I may be charged more by the car dealer, it won't be similar with the bank...

All that said, as long as I can get 15 months of IFC for the deposit and HP, I'd be content with that...

BritBrat

The best thing to do with credit card cheques is put them through the shreader.

monstercop

Indeedy - that seems to be the message. As it hapens, the garage does accept cards, and has a 2.5% charge, so with 5% CB from Amex that should do the job, and cover all payment charges for the BTs.

Cheers!

Bokkens

monstercop wrote: »

Nice idea Bokkens, but the American Express Travellers' Cheques Card was discontinued in October http://www.americanexpress.com/uk/tcc/index.shtml

By obtaining the cash back, I am trying to mitigate the charges made elsewhere, so that although I may be charged more by the car dealer, it won't be similar with the bank...

All that said, as long as I can get 15 months of IFC for the deposit and HP, I'd be content with that...

Sorry I wasn't aware it was discontinued I'll stop talking about it.
They probably closed it because of the loophole I used it twice and had cashback on 16k so it was useful.