OK to put car down payment on CC?

[electra]

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@enharu wrote:
You will be fine.
My dealership allowed only 2500 on a credit card because I was really hard on the price lol. Got my car 1400 below true car prices. No other dealership in California was even willing to go 800 below true car for what I wanted.

Check with your dealership what's the max they allow. The more you bargain on the prices, the less they will allow. You can always ask them for the discount upfront and just pay cash. They are going to get charged transaction fees if u use a card, so might as well let you have a bigger discount and they avoid that fee altogether.

For cars 80k and up pretax, most car dealerships will let you pif using a credit card without any issues unless you really got a good bargain on the price.

My friend only has 10k limit on her csp and Beverly Hills Porsche allowed her to put the whole car on the card. She literally had to do 11 payments and drop by the branch 11 days in a row except Sunday to pay in full before she was able to finally pick the car up. The trouble she went through for rewards.... Worth it I suppose.

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I've already agreed on a price...definitely they are making a tidy profit.  The car I'm getting is in very high demand so none of the dealerships were wanting to bring the price down much.

Good to know your friends experience.  I guess Chase didn't mind or take any negative action or maybe they actually raised her limit afterwards?  I'm surprised that if she can afford to pay cash for a $100k plus car she wouldn't have a higher credit line. 

[longtimelurker]

There really is no problem doing this with the CC company, it is just a standard purchase transaction.  As others have said, it is the dealer who is the gating factor, the more you put on the card, the lower their margin.

(So, if the dealer allows you to put a LOT on the card, you probably didn't bargain hard enough!)

But basically if the choice is between paying the downpayment from your bank account, with no rewards, or doing part of it with a rewards credit card (and pay that off in full of course), it really is a no brainer.  And the CC company doesn't care at all, it gets the transaction fee just as if you were buying (a lot of) coffee or something.

[steve23111]

Back in February I bought a new 2013 Civic.  As part of the initial negotiations I inquired as to whether they would allow all or part of the down payment on a credit card so I could maximize the cash back.  I actually ran this by several dealers I was working with, and every single one of them not only allowed it but stated they wanted me to be able to get as many miles/points/etc. as possible.

The particular dealer I ended up going with had their credit card policy posted in the finance office:  maximum $2500 per transaction.  Other dealers had allowances ranging from $1000 to $3000 "per transaction" -- but I never did ask what constitutes a "transaction" (whether it's their way of saying per credit card or per vehicle purchase).

Despite the $2500 per-transaction limit, I was allowed to charge $3500 on my card.  I was going to max out the allowed $2500 on the credit card and write a check for another $1000.  Without hesitation the finance guy said "I can just put all that on the card if you prefer."  Sure!  Got a nice chunk of cash back from Chase Freedom the next month!

[jm00ser]

definitely possible OP, and recommended, as long as you pay it off before it hits the statement. If you're able to get 5% that would be well worth it!. I think I might have just gotten 1% on my freedom and I was stoked!

[scenery_guy]

When I purchased my Range Rover last year I joked with the salesman about putting $25,000 - $30,000 on my AMEX as down payment. He asked me to hold for a second and went to another office. Came back and said sure, no problem. In the end I brought in a cashier's check for the down as I was a bit scared to red flag AMEX. Next auto I purchase I am putting a large down on my AMEX or I will find another dealer who will do it that way. Way I see it I just left 25,000 MR points on the table. 

[cottoncrown]

They would likely give you a cash price that would be better for both of you and negate any "rewards" that you could possibly get from that transaction. Just ask.

[Joteism]

I recently bought a car and for the downpayment, I put $2.5k on my Discover ($3k limit), $800 on my Chase Amazon ($1k) and paid $700 in cash. The dealer was happy to process multiple transactions. They just wouldn't do a single transaction for over $5k. I had just gotten these cards, so I was worried about getting so close to the limits. 

I paid both credit cards in full the next day. 

[jmpfora]

I did this exact same thing recently. I got a pre approval from navy federal to buy a new car and when it came time for a down payment, I used one of my credit cards and put down 2k to the dealership. I then opened the Navy Federal cash rewards card with 0% apr balance transfers with no transfer fees and transferred over the balance. I now have 1 year to pay off the 2k at no interest, which we plan to pay off before the end of this year.

Basically, if the interest on the card is 0% and you think you can pay it off in the time period allotted for the 0% interest, it makes sense to charge it to a card.

Btw.. some dealerships have a limit they will allow you to charge and others don't. It's usually 2500-5000, depending. Good Luck!

[shols44]

I would go ahead. I bought a Honda Pilot last month. Had a pre-approval from Navy. Put 10K down via my card, the rest on the Navy Bank draft. Paid it off 3 days later. Nice 10K point bump. If I had a cash rewards card, it would have been an easy $100!

Do it! Do it Now! 

[electra]

Well, the dealer told me I could put up to $2500 on a card. I was kind of surprised given this is a very high end Porsche-Audi dealer.  Trying to negotiate with them for more...