Mercedes-Benz Financial Payments w/ Credit Card

Anonymous · ‎06-26-2015

So sorry if this has been asked before. I've just done an exhaustive search and the topics only seem to either cover down payments, talk about the American Express MB cards or they're so out-dated, I'm not certain the information is still accurate.

I have a car lease through Mercedes-Benz Financial Services for about ~$650/month. I've been paying direct from my bank account monthly, but heard from a friend a few weeks ago that they were able to pay with their credit card for a $15 fee. They put it on an AMEX and apparently got the points and it was treated a purchase. Though I love my AMEX, I personally fly American Airlines and Oneworld and so want to earn AA miles for this transaction. This leaves me with Barclay Aviator and Citi AAdvantage as my options. I called MBFS, Barclay's and Citi - all state it will be treated as a cash advance with the associated fees and no rewards. My curiosity, though, is why they would all say it'll be handled as a cash advance, but American Express in this example handled it as a purchase that just comes through with the description "MB FIN SERV". I'm wondering if it's one of those "It should be this way", but their system is perhaps not seeing it as such?

Does anyone here have any experience specifically with MBFS and paying with credit cards for this purpose? Did it work out for you?

EDIT: MBFS did say the payment would be processed through Western Union.

Anonymous · ‎06-26-2015

@travisrauh wrote:
So sorry if this has been asked before. I've just done an exhaustive search and the topics only seem to either cover down payments, talk about the American Express MB cards or they're so out-dated, I'm not certain the information is still accurate.

I have a car lease through Mercedes-Benz Financial Services for about ~$650/month. I've been paying direct from my bank account monthly, but heard from a friend a few weeks ago that they were able to pay with their credit card for a $15 fee. They put it on an AMEX and apparently got the points and it was treated a purchase. Though I love my AMEX, I personally fly American Airlines and Oneworld and so want to earn AA miles for this transaction. This leaves me with Barclay Aviator and Citi AAdvantage as my options. I called MBFS, Barclay's and Citi - all state it will be treated as a cash advance with the associated fees and no rewards. My curiosity, though, is why they would all say it'll be handled as a cash advance, but American Express in this example handled it as a purchase that just comes through with the description "MB FIN SERV". I'm wondering if it's one of those "It should be this way", but their system is perhaps not seeing it as such?

Does anyone here have any experience specifically with MBFS and paying with credit cards for this purpose? Did it work out for you?

I seriously doubt that either Citi or Barclays is going to treat a lease payment as a cash advance. Try it once and find out but more than likely it will go thru as a regular charge.

Anonymous · ‎06-26-2015

I know when I had a car note through Chyrsler Capital and I used my chase csp trying to get points and they treated it as a cash advance because the payment went through western union

Anonymous · ‎06-26-2015

Yeah - MBFS told me they use Western Union to process their payments and their website also says they submit it as a cash advance - that's where my confusion comes in. I'm 50/50 right now.. trying to get a few more responses before I try

Anonymous · ‎06-26-2015

@travisrauh wrote:
Yeah - MBFS told me they use Western Union to process their payments and their website also says they submit it as a cash advance - that's where my confusion comes in. I'm 50/50 right now.. trying to get a few more responses before I try

Well then that adds more to the equation. If it's processed thru Western Union, it's going to be considered a cash advance.

Anonymous · ‎06-26-2015

Yeah sorry - I just noticed I had forgotten to mention that during my initial post. But that still doesn't seem to answer why it came through just as "MB FIN SVC" on my friend's AMEX. :-/

mssher · ‎06-26-2015

I just paid my GM Financial car lease for the 1st time on my Discover IT . . . . it shows up as paid through MoneyGram, and the category was processed as "Automotive". I'm hoping that category will qualify it for the rewards.

SOGGIE · ‎06-26-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
@travisrauh wrote:
Yeah - MBFS told me they use Western Union to process their payments and their website also says they submit it as a cash advance - that's where my confusion comes in. I'm 50/50 right now.. trying to get a few more responses before I try
Well then that adds more to the equation. If it's processed thru Western Union, it's going to be considered a cash advance.

+1

Life was a lot simpler when what we honored was father and mother, rather than all major credit cards. ~Robert Orben

Anonymous · ‎06-26-2015

I never used a CC for my car payments with MBFS. But i am using one of my Serve cards to pay MBFS. Unless you have an ISIS Serve card which still allows Visa, MC cards to load, you would need a co-branded Amex card to load. In my case, I am using the Amex Flexperks issued by US Bank. At least I earn some points for airfares rather than getting nothing if paying MBFS through my bank account.

$15 fee/$650 (=0.023) payment seems steep since MR points are valued at $0.02/$1 spent unlessyou fly long-hauled international flights

tmoney · ‎06-26-2015

I've benn using my Mercedes Benz Amex to pay my car payment to MBFS for the last couple yeers and their is the 15 dollar western union fee but I do get my points every month for my payment.As far as the whether it's a cash advance really doesn't matter Pay it off every month but like I mentioned I do get the points