@Anonymous wrote:
I've not played the auto loan game yet so can't speak directly to that. But...
Dealerships don't take too kindly to credit card purchases. Planning to put even the down payment on a credit card can affect negotiations.
Is the down payment going to be the same whether you use cash or a credit card/are you planning on paying in full? With car loan rates so crazy low I think it would be a bad idea to pay credit card interest on something that could get wrapped into an auto loan, regardless of the signing bonus value.
My credit union pre-approved me for a 2% car loan when I had 9 recent inquiries. Of course less inquiries is better but I honestly can't imagine one more hard hit would change much, especially if you get your auto loan before the account reports.
If you wait for the CSP to report before getting your loan, the drop in your average age of account would likely affect rates IMO.
One last thing: I love the CSP. It is a particular card though, and you need to have specific spending habbits to make it pay off. I'd suggest you make sure it's a card you want to have for a long time before you apply for it.
Cheers!
Lots of thoughtful observations here by EG5. If you are going to use a credit card for part of an auto purchase, you will need to be able to negotiate the most aggressive price possible (without them knowing that you intend to use a CC) and you need to know that if you do pull it out afterward that they have let you use it. If you can't be sure of both things in advance, you will likely end up paying for their swipe fee smuggled into a higher final negotiated price. Finally if you won't be paying your balance in full on the new card, you should have done your homework to see how much the interest will cost you while you are paying it off.
And a very sound observation about the CSP. Remember that the annual fee is substantial, so unless you are certain that you would be doing all that travel anyway even without the card, you may wish to think again. Bear in mind that there are always going to be amazing signup offers for various cards. Not even three months goes by without there being some apparently unprecedented awesome offer. Your credit profile is new, so you will have decades and decades to take advantage of these. When you are young, it is sometimes wisest to be looking to add cards that you can keep forever at no annual cost.
You may want to google (now and once a month) a search like best credit card signup offers no annual fee. For example, a few months ago you could have added the Citi and Amex Hiltton no annual fee cards and received 135,000 points for doing that. These kind of offers for no annual fee cards are not uncommon.
