Car purchase on AMEX

[Airbumps]

Hey guys,

I'm looking at putting a new car purchase of around $25000 on my AMEX, but I'm not sure what a reasonable surcharge should be for a major Holden dealer.

Does anybody have any experience with this? I've been told my some people to expect the first 3000-5000 without surcharge and then a surcharge of anything up to 3% for the balance.

Cheers,

 

[cove]

Why would you wish to pay a surcharge of between $500 and $750 to buy a car?
The lowest public offer for AMEX surcharge is 1.25% with the Tax Office so a car dealer is likely to be about double that seeing they want to make a profit on anything they sell.

 

[malmacdowall]

3% is pretty normal But this depends on the dealer and if they will accePt credit card payment..... When I took out a merchant facility from the ANZ for work, they negotiated a surcharge rate but also told me that I "cannot legally charge more than the same % that the bank charge me".
I purchased 2 fords from a dealer and they would only accept (reluctantly) cc payment of the deposit, but surcharge free... The bigger question is At what point does the percentage surcharge outway the rewards point benefit.?.. Like anything, build it into your negotiation with them. Ask what % they will charge and if you can pay it all on CC? Then shop it around and play them off against each other.... Good luck....

 

[jamesatfish]

Why would you wish to pay a surcharge of between $500 and $750 to buy a car?

It all depends on what value you place on the points you receive.

As an example, I had a trip last year where I needed to be in Washington DC for 2 days total - arrive Wed evening, work Thurs & Fri, fly out Fri night. As the trip was too short for my usual AONE4 or ACIR22 fares I had to purchase regular return tickets CBR-SYD-LAX-IAD.

An F return ticket was costed out at about $22K - absolutely stupid money given an AONE4 is only $17K. A J Saver fare CBR-SYD-LAX return came in about $7K, to which I added a YUPP fare with AA LAX-IAD return for $2K - a total of $9K.

I subsequently applied for (and received) points upgrades on both SYD-LAX and LAX-SYD legs for a total of 90,000 points, giving me the exact same trip in the exact same cabin as the F return ticket, but for $9K plus 90,000 points.

90,000 points on my Qantas AMEX equates to a $60,000 spend, and even at 3% surcharge for AMEX that's $1800 for 90,000 points.

Therefore in my case with my points valuation, $9K ticket + $1.8K surcharge is a better deal than $22K for the F return ticket.

As to the OP - out of the last 5 vehicles I've purchased I've bought 2 with no credit card surcharge at all (same dealer), 1 at 2.2% (Mastercard or Visa only), 1 at 2.7% (AMEX) and 1 dealer would only accept direct transfer into their account at least 48 hours before picking up the car.

 

[ozmille]

Have only paid the deposit on MC without surcharge. The rest was requested as a bank cheque upon collection of the car.

 

[lovestotravel]

I have purchased 1 car fully on Amex :mrgreen:

Audi

Deposit of $10,000 was paid with no surcharge then they did the normal "bank cheque" routine. I said this wasn't suitable, and after a long discussion they accepted Amex for the rest.

The much larger amount was paid over a few weeks as Amex declined the big payment in one go on my card....

I had to pay 2% surcharge

 

[Zippy7]

I traded in a car, and paid the whole $10k on Amex with no surcharge.
It was $2k "deposit", and then I put through an additional $8k on the day.
I can tell you the staff were very unhappy to do this, but I had pre-negotiated this with the salesperson.
The fact they didn't try harder to surcharge probably meant I paid too much on that deal

 

[casanovawa]

I bought a car around new years and paid all $20,000 on VISA/Mastercard... Had to spread it across two cards, got about 14,000 QFF poitns out of it i think... and the surcharge was 1% so about $200 (Amex would be more i'm sure, over 2% but dont' think this car dealer offered Amex option)... I then took out a St George credit card and balance transfered part of the amount over there and am now paying 0.99% interest for the first six months, so will shortly be time to find another cheap credit car to balance transfer the outstanding amount to for the next 6-12 months...

I had been talking about the upcoming purchase on a home buying site actually and some guy said he had bought a couple of cars on credit card, he said when they said there would be a surcharge for the credit card he just said he was walking out of the yard and may come back and he said they gave in and waved the surcharge...

Another guy who had been in the car sales busienss confirmed that sales staff usually wouldn't let you walk out of the yard and potentially not come back over $400-500 for the surcharge fee and would just wave it...

I probably could have got it all waved but am not a hard enough bargainer but thought i got an ok deal...

 

[trippin_the_rift]

I recently purchased a second car... once I had the best price possible from a multitude of dealers/unions/aggregators, I went to the cheapest and said I'll give you the business but only if the entire purchase is on Visa. That was $32K through zupps.

Just remember... they need your business more than you need theirs!

 

[The Rok]

I work in the industry, so perhaps I can help. Generally we will look at the profit/loss in the car and make a decision from there. We will generally allow up to $2,000 without a surcharge. A lot of the time it depends on the client and how we are getting along, if there is a bit of a relationship between client & dealership then I will allow a bit more.

You are however perfectly entitled to negotiate a surcharge directly with the sales manager, he might be accommodating.

Can I suggest that offering a carton of beer on delivery might help soothe the deal....

One last thing, it might be out of the hands of the sales staff. Some large dealership organisations have a blanket ban on credit cards over $2,000, is this dealership part of a large consortium or is it independent?

 

[Masonic Phantom]

I have purchased 1 car fully on Amex :mrgreen:

Audi

Deposit of $10,000 was paid with no surcharge then they did the normal "bank cheque" routine. I said this wasn't suitable, and after a long discussion they accepted Amex for the rest.

The much larger amount was paid over a few weeks as Amex declined the big payment in one go on my card....

I had to pay 2% surcharge

Like wise I purchased two new Audi A 6,s and payed 1.75% on Amex, which was payed for in lots of $10,000,so some dealers will accept it for the full payment...if not take your business to someone who will.

Cheers M.P.

 

[lovestotravel]

Like wise I purchased two new Audi A 6,s and payed 1.75% on Amex, which was payed for in lots of $10,000,so some dealers will accept it for the full payment...if not take your business to someone who will.

Cheers M.P.

Yep! Same as me, they rang me every time before processing the $10,000

With Audi at least there is a bit of competition left, same as BMW, so feel free to walk out if they still stick with the bank cheque rubbish.

Subaru - ALOT harder as I think all dealers in Melbourne are company owned AND they surcharge in the repair shop for Amex.. 3% from memory!

 

[gumpy]

My girlfriend's dealer asked us if we wanted to pay up to 6k (after the deposit) on the CC and I gladly accepted...

I'd love to buy a car and a house on amex...

can you imagine? 600-800k apartment on amex... with the points you could furnish the place... or go rtw in F like 3 times...

 

[trippin_the_rift]

If this helps.... when i put my recent one on card (entire balance, no surcharge and I got the best price possible) - they hit me up for 2%, to which I replied: "If you're not making 2% on this sale you shouldn't be selling it to me".

Don't fall for their 'below cost price BS', their system is setup to show you the 'cost' price, which is just a term and doesn't actually reflect the true cost to them. A lot of dealerships work on performance targets where their cash is made through rebates and not on the initial purchase price.

I am anti-surcharge and will not do business with any company that applies it to the purchase price.... except for my silent business partner in canberra of course

 

[KLN]

3 years ago purchase a new VW Passat at a reputable VW dealer in Sydney. Total cost was $71K.
they let me put $11K on AMEX without a surcharge as a deposit and paid the balance by bank cheque.

 

[Isochronous]

Like wise I purchased two new Audi A 6,s and payed 1.75% on Amex, which was payed for in lots of $10,000,so some dealers will accept it for the full payment...if not take your business to someone who will.

Cheers M.P.

Care to share which Audi dealership this was?

 

[Masonic Phantom]

Hi
No problems....Audi Centre Brighton

Cheers M.P.

 

[spentan]

I just bought my new car completely on Amex, ($30350) changeover, they were gonna charge me around $500 in fees for Amex, but I negotiated for $30500 flat with amex.

Put $10500 as a deposit, now just got a couple more transactions to go

 

[prozac]

When I enquired of my local Holden dealer (Brookvale) about payment in full by Amex if I was to purchase a car their response was 2.5% surcharge. This was before any negotiation. I was window-shopping at that stage.

 

[UP4014]

Be hard on car dealers, tell them how you want to pay. There are plenty around and I have no hesitation ordering a car from a country or interstate dealer and get it delivered.

Remember, they are happy to charge you plenty of extras if they can get away with it.