I’m changing cars and I have the cash waiting to be spent so no financing involved.
I have one credit card that I use maybe once a year – is it a good or bad idea to increase its credit limit and use it to pay for the car?

Card would be paid off immediately but I’ve calculated that I’d earn about £900 in Pizza Express vouchers 🙂

My only concern is that I’d be increasing the credit limit from [say] £2k to £35k. If they agreed to the increase could this be a problem for my credit rating?

A credit card with a 35k limit?? I doubt they’d give you so much, unless of course you’re stinking, filthy rich? 🙂

I bought a mini for someone on a CC ages ago. It was about £20k.

Paid it off straight away with their cash obviously, but also picking up a ton of airmiles 🙂

That said, if you currently have a £2k limit, I’d be utterly amazed if they’d consider giving you a £35k one.

Dealers often pass on a 3-5% charge for using a credit card to buy the car.

You won’t get that much of an increase! Even in the old days you wouldn’t get that much unless you’re properly loaded. And if the limit’s currently £2k you probably aren’t.

You MAY be able to over-pay the credit card then use it – I did this once but that was about £30 on a £250 card, when I was a student – this is a bit different!

PS you can use debit cards to pay for cars. A friend did this, for about £15k though.

Dealers often pass on a 3-5% charge for using a credit card to buy the car.

This. I paid £70 on 0% card. TBH it was a pita.

Pay some of it on the credit card as then you are ocvered by it if something goes wrong with the car!

As above they will likely sting you for charges.

I did buy a 3 bedroom house with one one at auction, in full!

A credit card with a 35k limit?? I doubt they’d give you so much

You’re very probably right! I’ve no idea how much my credit limit is now… I suspect it’s somewhere between 5-7k. I don’t know anything about my credit rating either – it’s prob not very good as the only borrowings I’ve had are a small mortgage. I don’t like CC and generally only buy something when I’ve got the cash for it.
Oh well, just a thought.

Somebody I know did buy a car (about £5k IIRC) on credit card. A while later something did go wrong with the car, there was a dispute about whether it was a warranty fault, he just said “fair enough, credit card purchase, I’ll start a dispute and get the money back”, the seller folded and fault was fixed.

My dad bought an Audi TT on his 5% cashback card years ago(was when TT’s first came out) and got the full cashback paid back to him, so a nice discout on top. He purchases absolutely everything on his cashback card and hasn’t had any problem having the credit limit increased.

I bought a motorbike last year on mine, 1% cashback, but that was only because they didn’t charge the fee on it. If they had I would have used my debit card instead.

Mrs PP and I have bought a total of 4 motorbikes and one car on credit cards. Top price was around the £6k mark. But we’ve also put £8.5k for a kitchen on one too. We’ve paid very little interest, if any, in any of these transactions. I’m currently half way through 24months interest free on a Lloyds card on my Honda.
It’s a great way of doing it IMO as long as you can actually afford what you’re buying, if you know what I mean!
We’ve never paid any transaction fees at all on any of them. I’d tell ’em to poke it if they tried that wih me.

You’d be lucky to increase the limit to £3k let alone £35k! Especially as you only use the card once or twice a year.

There’s only a certain amount they’ll jump up to, speaking from my experience trying to raise the limit on mine to cover a new kitchen.

Just put £100 down with the card, then your covered for the full £35000 under section 75.

I bought a car for about £7k on a CC, as said though, can’t even begin to imagine you’ll get that sort of increase!

If you’ve bought a car/motorbike on a CC and not had to discuss the ‘fee’, you’ve overpaid.

buy the car for cash and ask for them to knock £2k off.
thats £1k pizza and £1k for coke and hookers.

No reason. The garage won’t like it as they have to pay a fee of 2%-3%. In fact they may refuse. OP, I have paid for a few large items with my debit card inc a car and a J-Boat deposit.

Pay some of it on the credit card as then you are covered by it if something goes wrong with the car!

This – I’d pay the deposit on credit card – needs to be over £100 I think

MSE Link

J-Boat deposit.

Which one?

If you’ve bought a car/motorbike on a CC and not had to discuss the ‘fee’, you’ve overpaid.

List price on a new motorbike that was in very short supply at the time? I think not….. 🙂

EDIT
Twice actually, like that.
TBH I think a lot of motorbikes are bought on cards. Most people have enough credit limit to buy a decent new bike with a PX.

Transfer the £35k cash onto the card.

Job done but only if the car dealer takes cards and the CC Merchant allows you to pay in that amount (they may suspect you of money laundering). Wonder if you’d get the cash back though?

PS tried to pay for a new car with a CC at a main BMW dealer and no chance. Debit card fine.

Just thought I’d finish this off.

Phoned CC company and was told I had a limit of £8K but couldn’t increase it because it had been automatically increased within the last 6 months – fair enough.
I checked with the dealer that I could put some of the purchase cost on a CC and they said it was fine. Clubcard vouchers here I come.
Get to the dealership – forgotten the PIN. Borrocks 🙁

edit: Tonyf1 – I asked the CC company if I could overpay beforehand and they said they do not allow overpayments and it wouldn’t work.

I bought my last car on my credit card (£6.5k). I rang the bank up beforehand just to make sure it wouldn’t be a problem and they said “oh we wouldn’t even check on such a small amount!”.

edit: Tonyf1 – I asked the CC company if I could overpay beforehand and they said they do not allow overpayments and it wouldn’t work.

That does not sound right, just overpay, what will they do? Send it back?

When I bought a used car from a dealer last year I asked about paying by CC (I get cash back on mine) but they wanted to charge me 2% CC fee.

That does not sound right, just overpay, what will they do? Send it back?

Yes, exactly that.

Some credit card companies will charge you a fee for a credit balance.