I want to use a credit card for miles... but the dealer said maximum is $3000 on credit card transactions.. how did you do????

 

I had no problem putting $5500 down at Hendrick Honda in VA in 2002 when I bought my CR-V, however when I bought my TL in May at Pohanka in Chantilly, VA, they wouldn't let me put more than $3000 on there. I imagine this is because they are charged a percentage of the transaction from the credit card company.

 

I had no problems putting $5K down on my CC with DCH Montclair Acura this past weekend.

 

THe dealer is trying to limit your downpayment due to the the 2 or 3 percent of the transaction they pay to the credit card company on that transaction.

You should be able to put more than $3,000 if they are making some profit off of you.

 

I put 5K down on my credit card, so I know have about 855,000 miles.

Michael

 

I wanted to rank up some points on my Hilton Amex but everywhere I call the max amount one can charge on their credit card is $5000.00

 

Radley Acura told me their maximum is $2500, but they gave in and let me put $5000 on American Express. I wanted to put $17,500 on it, but I understand why they didn't want to pay the merchant fee. When I think about I'm still a little pissed that they wouldn't go for $7500 or $10,000. I probably should have threatened to walk out on them, but I really needed to get the deal done because I was without a car at the time.

 

I put 10K on my Visa because I had not settled with the insurance company on my previous car that got totaled in an accident. The dealer made me pay 3% for anything over $2,000 or $240. I gladly passed that fee on to the insurance company for dragging thier feet.

 

I wanted to buy the whole car on the CC for mileage because I was paying cash, Acura would only let me put 2k on it, so I said funk that.

 

Anybody used Credit Card for Down Payment?

-yes

 

If they allow a credit card for a significant amount (after negotiations are finished), you didn't negotiate the best deal for the car. For example, on the $3000 amount on the credit card, the dealer is going to pay about $75 to the credit card company. So wouldn't you rather just pay $75 less for the car? It comes out the same for the dealer. Most dealers may be happy to do it, especially if they know BEFORE the negotiations are complete that you want to do this. (They'll just add the credit card fee to their required "profit".)

 

Dealer max was $2500

 

FYI: if a dealer imposes a limit on the maximum purchase amount that can be charged to a credit card, that may (and in most cases, does) violate his credit card merchant account agreement.

Visa and Mastercard, for example, do not allow merchants to set a limit on the maximum purchase price that can be charged to a credit card. Most (if not all) merchant account agreements that I've seen say that a merchant may not set a maximum purchase limit as long as the aquirer (the bank processing the transaction) authorizes the charge.

So as long as you are within your credit limit, you should be able to charge any amount you want. If the dealer does not allow you to do so, please report him to Visa/Mastercard/AmericanExpress/Discover or whatever card you are using.

Don't report him to the bank that issued your card, though, because that bank has nothing to do with this. Instead, report the incident to Visa/Mastercard/etc directly. The dealer may lose his credit card merchant account license over this. You may also want to copy FTC (Federal Trade Commission).

Just my 2 cents.

 

I smell a great way to rack up Membership Rewards points...1st post on the forum, hi to all.

 

Yes, you can pay 2.5% more for your car, or part of it, and get 1% back in "rewards" from your card! Great deal!

 

dealer only let me do $3000 - I wanted to put $15,000 on it, but no deal.

Upromise $$ baby!!!