0% Credit Cards and New Cars

leaskovski

leaskovski

leaskovski

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Joined
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Hello all...

Has anyone on here ever been out and brought a brand new car on a credit card (yes we are talking about 20k credit limit) and then transfered that balance to a new credit card that has 0% APR on balance tranfers for life?

I remember hearing some financial expert talking about doing it months ago on the J.Vine show on Radio 2 and was interested to know if anyone has ever actually done it?


Tar for now
 
Yep, I did that on my last car. The only slight snag is that most car dealerships charge you the 1.5% in credit card charges, meaning that it's not quite cheap.
Basically means that I bought a car in Nov 2004, and have only paid 1.5% interest on it so far.
 
What happens if you get a 20k car on a credit card, then next year you can't find a card that will give you a 18k limit or 0% offers arn't around, you will be stuffed with the stupid interest, only way out is a bank loan and if you can't get one of them your really in trouble.

Just thinking of the worst possible case!
 
He said 0% for life.. What CC company does this? I've got a 20k credit card, and I just darn't use it most of the time.. I should really cancel it.

Got myself in some real trouble many years back with credit cards. Had to work overtime and take a loan out.. Still paying for it even now in some ways.

I brought a new car 14 months ago, and just got plain old simple 48 payment 7.2% repayment scheme. At least I know where I am, and no hiked up % charges..

Bad news credit cards IMO... But good luck to anyone who makes it work..
 
I was gonna pay for the CTR on my credit card as it's a posh one so I need to have a minimum spend each year otherwise they charge me for it but the Honda dealer wanted to charge me something like 2% if I paid by CC.

In the end I just switched it as there was no fee. I thought it was quite strange that the bank didn't check the £14k transaction or anything yet they queried a couple of TFTs the other week and I had to phone them up to confirm that it was me that was placing the order and my card hadn't been stolen :confused:
 
Balance transfers are usually 6-12 months at 0% and you may have to pay a fee for the transfer (2% max £50), you'll pay £0 interest over that time though, so simply pay the minimum payment, after that period is up the card will revert back to standard interest charge, i.e 18.9%

0% life of balance transfers dont exist, seen 6.9% offered though.
 
Sounds risky but if you could afford the car anyway and just want it for 'free' then I guess its a funny game to play. 2% is what the dealer is charged by the credit company so they are only passing on the cost there.
I think Credit cards are much like overdraft and credit can be withdrawn with no notice if they should feel like.

American Express have done inflation level interest for me in the past with a lifetime promise but I'd have to use a few different cards to get 20k together tbh
 
I have heard this done with people paying 40k off their mortgage and moving from 0% to 0%. even with the £50 transfer fee and the charge for drawing cash off the cards at the start it still saves massive money on your mortgage.

Possible to make savings on buying a car this way but you do need to save money towards paying it off sometime ;)
 
Steve said:
I have heard this done with people paying 40k off their mortgage and moving from 0% to 0%. even with the £50 transfer fee and the charge for drawing cash off the cards at the start it still saves massive money on your mortgage.;
Click to expand...

Even if you did that for 6 months that would make a huge difference to how much your monthly mortgage payment would reduce your mortgage. Rather than mainly interest it would be also take a chunk out the balance left. Nice idea if you have HUGE credit limits :)
 
Unfortunatly the credit card companies have gotten wise to the old 0% transfer 'scams' (as they called them), I've not seen a lifetime 0% for a fair while, and most now charge a transfer fee in the small print :(
 
So basically this sort of 'game play' doesn't work anymore? Might as well just give the dealer some stick and try and wangle 0% finance. I guess most manufacturers tend to do this kind of deal at least once a year to clear stock?
 
Maxing out 20k balance on a credit card in short period of time actually does serious damage to credit rating. You'd be lucky to find a lender willing to provide you with that kind of transfer after 6 months simply because it would be more convenient for you to file for personal bancruptsy than pay it back. Especially nowadays, when your credit rating takes only approx. 2 years to restore. I'm not saying it's not possible - high enough income, half paid mortgage could balance out a 20k hit on credit card, but even then it would be one off.
 
If a credit card company offered 0% for life on balance transfers then I'd be doing a lot more than buying a car.
I would in fact get two or three of them and transfer to the max parts of my mortgage - which would make a hell of a difference to things.

However I'm yet to see any credit card company offer 0% for life on a transfer.
Actually, I lie...
I remember Cahoot offered it when they first started trading many, many years ago.
Everyone thought it was a con and were looking for the small print etc.
But that was literally a first week offer and I've certainly never seen similar since.
 
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