How to buy a car with an American Express card

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• The real John says:

  1 May1 May 15:56

  I have a 10 year old Toyota which has moderate damage to the bodywork, if it was undamaged it might fetch £3500. It recently passed MOT, I can’t be bothered to fix the damage as it doesn’t affect anything.

  I want to sell it before the tax and insurance runs out end of June as I have nowhere to store it except the public road and with a 2 year old we need a bigger car for road trips in July and August.

  Where is the best place to find a dealer/trader who would buy it to fix themselves

  • Charlie says:

    1 May1 May 21:25

    Have you had it appraised by somewhere like webuyanycar? Try them, if you don’t like their offer then take it to a garage to fix up the areas that need fixing up, which then will itemise for you. Consider the uplift in the price versus the cost of repair.

• Greg says:

  1 May1 May 18:58

  Forget Cazoo and Cinch. They offer a money back guarantee but don’t offer a warranty. Personally I’ve bought my last 3 card from a recognised dealer with 12 months warranty maximising any benefit from paying by credit card or curve debit card.

  • Bob says:

    1 May1 May 21:07

    I guess it depends on the price. Afaik Cazoo gives 3 months warranty, and can be etended with extra cost.

• Tarmohamed says:

  1 May1 May 22:53

  if anyone cares….

  Aug 2020 purchased a car from Cargiant for £17k (inclusive of all admin fees etc) – car was worth £18-19k atleast as was top spec.

  April 2020 previous owner had sold it to WBAC for £15k

  Wonder how they made a profit between WBAC, BCA and CarGiant.

  • Damian says:

    2 May2 May 09:15

    They probably got frustrated like the sales person did with me at Big Motoring World. Out of courtesy I listened to the sales chat on optional extras of additional warranty, cleaning protect kit etc. and the bill was presented at over £2000 more than what the car was be sold for. Naturally I politely declined and said if I wanted to spend £2000 more I would get a slightly better car. She then asked if I was sure I didn’t want finance despite being a cash buyer!!!

    Their business model seems to be to sell the cars below market value in bulk and make profit on the finance and additional extras.

• Gary Colclough says:

  2 May2 May 00:48

  Bought a car a few weeks ago and dealer was fine with Amex which surprised me, 40k deposit across 2 cards netting me 60k avios and 2 x 2-4-1 vouchers , nice 🙂

• BFT01 says:

  2 May2 May 10:09

  You don’t need to take your car to the dealership to have it serviced, so long as genuine parts are used and your service book is stamped, any reputable garage can service it for much less than a main dealer, for a 40,000 miles service on my diesel BMW I was quoted £590.00 of which £99.00 plus Vat was for engine oil, just because it said BMW. My local garage was £320 including a MOT.
  Dealership will tell you it needs to be serviced there to keep the warranty valid, it’s not necessary to have it dealer serviced, and hasn’t been for years. I managed a workshop for Shell Australia, and always looked after fleet cars of the local businesses near me, which is how I grew the business.
  The reason dealers want to sell you a car using their finance company is because they buy cars on a floor plan, the finance company buys the stock, the dealership sells you the finance and any other additional items which they all make a commission on.
  I bought a nearly new car in November and paid cash, said no to everything else, traded in my old car and got more for it than I was offered by we buy any car, after taking into account all of their fees, despite what the adds say the fees with WBAC are huge. Admin fees with car giant etc is another reason why I refuse to buy a car from them, it should not be an extra charge.

• flyforfun says:

  2 May2 May 11:40

  I was really annoyed when I bought my Toyota to find the dealership didn’t take Amex, even though their Lexus arm does. Then I was told they only take credit cards up to £2000 and the rest had to be on a debit card. I paid £500 on a credit card when I signed the contract, then a further £2000 when picking up the car. The balance I used my Curve card, linked to my Lloyds Avios card so at least I got some points.

  My existing car was 16 years old. Because we were in the middle of the last lockdown I couldn’t sell privately. Went to a few online dealers with pics etc, but WBAC came out almost triple the worst offer, but just over double once we got there and the marked it down for wear and tear – which we were expecting. I may have got a couple more hundred selling privately, but didn’t have the time and didn’t want to be sharing a car with a stranger for test drives.

• Jay says:

  2 May2 May 13:45

  With limited use during the pandemic, I returned by PCP vehicle and bought a nearly new car (with 18 months warranty left on it) using Cinch. The price was the most competitive I could find for the spec, got a load of Amex points for it.
  I could also transfer the balance to zero percent interest cards covering 2 years for peanuts. Overall, worked out very well and I will recommend Cinch.

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