Having a very high credit limit on a Mastercard, a legacy from when I was working abroad, I tried to use it to pay for a car. The idea being to then transfer the balance to another card and pay no interest on the loan. I was informed by the the dealer that the most they could accept on a credit card was £1k. Whether this is a rule to all car dealers or just this one in particular I have no idea. Could it be seen as a way of money laundering, dunno?

It just took me by surprise at the time, having paid hotel bills and flights for £1,000’s whilst abroad I had just assumed you could buy anything from anybody that accepted credit cards. Obviously, I was wrong.

On 22 August 2024 at 09:07 V8Eng Said:

On 22 August 2024 at 08:29 Chris Crew Said:

Having a very high credit limit on a Mastercard, a legacy from when I was working abroad, I tried to use it to pay for a car. The idea being to then transfer the balance to another card and pay no interest on the loan. I was informed by the the dealer that the most they could accept on a credit card was £1k. Whether this is a rule to all car dealers or just this one in particular I have no idea. Could it be seen as a way of money laundering, dunno?

When I was in a position to swap cars every few years the credit card limit was always £1k AKA the deposit.

Wasn’t it due to the amount of commission that the card companies got on larger sums hitting dealer profit margins?

Several reasons why a business might choose not to accept a credit card, which is a way of drumming up business by making it easy for customers to borrow money with many negatives in the arrangement.  A big one is that credit card transactions cost businesses money above and beyond, from memory 2 – 3% of the transaction value.  On a big purchase like a car that’s a lot of dosh, especially if the dealer has already negotiated a low price with the customer.

Businesses used to be allowed to offset their credit card costs by surcharging customers, but UK law was changed to forbid this after Which? exposed a major scandal a few years ago.   Many businesses were over-charging anyone paying by credit card, and also surcharging Debit Cards, for which there is no good justification.   Though the law protects customers from greedy surcharging, it makes businesses less likely to accept credit card payments, especially for high-value purchases.

I paid for my last car with a Debit Card no bother.   No bother because I wasn’t borrowing money from a third party (the credit card company), or my Bank.   Plain debit card transactions should sail through provided there are sufficient funds in the account and the recipient is known to the Bank.   Except of course, nothing is ever simple!  These days, how well the  ‘recipient is known to the Bank’ is being tightened up,  which is why respectable honorary treasurers of long established model engineering clubs suddenly have to prove their organisation is not a front for organised crime or terrorists.  Suddenly being treasurer is horrible hard work.

I have two friends who came a cropper with credit cards, a valuable lesson for me because both are intelligent.   One used his first month of card ownership to spend close to his annual capital budget, after not bothering to understand how interest was charged.   As credit cards are a very expensive way of borrowing money, took him three years to to clear the debt.

The other took advantage of a scheme whereby transferring from one account to a new provider came with a juicy incentive such as 6 months interest free credit, and a higher limit.  Game on!  This silly boy assumed he could always safely support a huge debt because there would always be another interest free account waiting for him.  Not so, coming up to the date where interest was about to be charged by his most recent provider, he found no-one prepared to offer him anything other than an ordinary account.   To say the consequences were appalling is an understatement: included a divorce.   Didn’t help that his entire family had warned him: ‘Dave’, he said. ‘I thought I was so clever, when actually I was a bloody fool.’

My advice when big money is involved is read the small print.   And then think about it…

TL;DR  catches loads of people!  (Too Long; Didn’t Read)

Dave

Never had any problems paying over £1,000 on a debit card. (When I have the funds…)

Neil

On 23 August 2024 at 15:27 Grindstone Cowboy Said:

Drifting slightly off-topic, try withdrawing large amounts of cash from your own bank, even if you have more than enough to cover it.

Be prepared for a list of questions regarding what you want it for, are you being pressured to withdraw it, is it for crypto-currency, etc.

A simple “Are you sure you wish to withdraw this much?” should suffice.

Rob

I am very pleased if a bank asks these questions and consider that maximum vigilance is needed from the people we trust with our money.
Consider the number of reported frauds such as dodgy people taking others to banks so that funds could be withdrawn for non existent or vastly overpriced work etc.