Points strategy on a car purchase

[Terbo]

I'm planning to buy a car for ~120. I've got an amex discovery with a high limit that pays 0.75qf points uncapped, but the dealerships are playing hard to get on waiving their card fees for amex, though they will for visa/master. My ANZ black only pays up to 7.5k per statement period, then halves to 20k and then zero. I also have a BW qf transaction account, but I can't remember how that works - anyone know? Any other strategies to consider? Many thanks

You could speak to Amex concierge and they negotiate on your behalf. Friend is concierge for Black card, asks the hard questions on behalf of premium clients and has some success, understands the actual margins, can see purchase history. YMMV on Discovery card though

 

[Bengingerflea]

You could just use Visa or MasterCard to skip the fees since Amex isn’t giving you anything extra. Or try talking to the dealer to cover those fees by throwing in some other perks like accessories.

Also, if you haven’t done it yet, check around for the best car price. I found this article on A1 Auto Transport: Compare Licensed Car Shipping Companies with good sites for car quotes. If you get a better price, it might help cover the credit card fees.

 

[MollyJones]

I recently bought a new car for around $60k and put it on my Virgin High Flyer card.
cost about $400 in fees and only got about 36,000 points due to the cap BUT also took advantage of the Virgin no interest, no fees deal for 3 months (confirmed with them prioe to purchase) so kept my own $ sitting in my offset and just paying the amount eaxh month. Due to timing of the purchase, the first instalment was about 8 weeks later so effectively got 4 months instead of 3.
The only tricky thing was having to break it up into 3 amounts so the transaction would go through their machine and they preferred to process the payment the day before I picked up the car.
So, not a huge points return but a pretty good deal nonetheless.