Can I make a very large purchase at once, combining 5-6 cards entire limits?!

[Anonymous]

Hello,

can I just purchase, say, an expensive car with credit cards?! Using 5-6 cards of $6000-15000 limits to make around $50000.

The reason is not to use credit on cards, with interest. Rather, I have the savings anyway, I do not want auto loan or credit, I will pay in full on time as usual; I just want the rewards and bonuses, and keep activity on my cards.

I have never made such large purchases with my cards (very low credit utilization), nothing more than an international plane ticket, guitar and macbook.

So, the actual question is, can a bank get suspicious and block my use of $9000?

Or if I make swipes of $8000 at once, using 6-7 cards from different banks, would all banks see this in their system and be alerted.

Or can I just even buy a condo if I wanted, granted that I am within my limits provided in my cards?

Thanks in advance,

[noobody]

The hard part is find a dealer take 50K credit card charge AND give you the best possible price on the vehicle.

[Anonymous]

Very few car dealerships would allow more than a few thousand dollars to be paid via credit cards; I highly doubt that any would allow only credit cards to be used for the entire purchase.  In order to allow this they'd have to inflate the price of the car by 5% or whatever they deem the CC fees would cost, which would more than eliminate the 2% or so at best that you could get back via rewards.

Certain things simply don't make sense to use credit cards on due to the fees.  Expensive cars are one of them.  Another common one would be mortgage payments.

[blondy250]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello,

can I just purchase, say, an expensive car with credit cards?! Using 5-6 cards of $6000-15000 limits to make around $50000.

The reason is not to use credit on cards, with interest. Rather, I have the savings anyway, I do not want auto loan or credit, I will pay in full on time as usual; I just want the rewards and bonuses, and keep activity on my cards.

I have never made such large purchases with my cards (very low credit utilization), nothing more than an international plane ticket, guitar and macbook.

So, the actual question is, can a bank get suspicious and block my use of $9000?

Or if I make swipes of $8000 at once, using 6-7 cards from different banks, would all banks see this in their system and be alerted.

Or can I just even buy a condo if I wanted, granted that I am within my limits provided in my cards?

Thanks in advance,

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The simple answer is no. Most dealers will not let you put more then 3-5k on a credit card, it costs them to much in fees. The same with property.

[Anonymous]

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@noobody wrote:
The hard part is find a dealer take 50K credit card charge AND give you the best possible price on the vehicle.

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Exactly correct.  Sure you can get your $1000 back in rewards, but you'll spend $5000+ more on the car in order to do so.  It's the old stepping on a dollar to pick up a quarter thought process.

[Anonymous]

Yarp. That's right, totally makes sense from the point of view of dealer and property owner.

But my main curiosity was the banks. Let's say I buy an 8000 dollar painting with my SPG Amex using full limit, an alienware for $6000 with my Chase Slate using full limit so on and so forth. Would this type of spending in one month alert these separate banks and eventually stop me using my legal and legitimate limits. Is there such a thing like being blocked before one could use all her CL limits?

I just don't want to be turned down..

[resilient]

If you have an AmEx card issued by AmEx Centurion Bank, there is a network of dealers that accept at least $2,000 up to the full purchase amount on AmEx cards. Google AmEx Auto Purchasing Program, or click here.

https://www.americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/benefits/detail/auto-purchase-program/premier-gold 

[UncleB]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Yarp. That's right, totally makes sense from the point of view of dealer and property owner.

But my main curiosity was the banks. Let's say I buy an 8000 dollar painting with my SPG Amex using full limit, an alienware for $6000 with my Chase Slate using full limit so on and so forth. Would this type of spending in one month alert these separate banks and eventually stop me using my legal and legitimate limits. Is there such a thing like being blocked before one could use all her CL limits?

I just don't want to be turned down..

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That's a different question... now you're asking will your lenders mind if you actually 'use' your credit line. 

The answer is that in theory, you should be fine.  Now in reality, whenever I make a purchase that is outside my usual pattern I call the issuer to let them know what's going on to prevent a decline at the merchant, but it's not really required.  Capital One in particular advised me to simply use my card and call them if there's a problem (so far there never has been). 

If you're wondering if your lenders would be concerned about you doing a 'bust out', that's a possibility, but they won't have the information about your increased balances with your other lenders until your reports cycle, which could take a few weeks.  By that time you would likely have a problem, since maxing out all your cards simultaneously will definitely set off flags, as it should.

I'm actually curious why you're concerned about this... is this 'academic', or do you have a specific need?

[Anonymous]

No, income-wise I am totally fine. I believe the banking system is just ridiculously irrational with many weak spots.

I am not that well-read about the legal operation and customer rights on banking, and trying to satisfy my curiosity.

[noobody]

Call bank before you make purchase.

Pay it off before statement closing

Enjoy the benefits, and have nothing to worry about.