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How to buy a car with an American Express card

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A common question that comes up in our comments section is whether you can buy a new or used car with a credit card, primarily American Express.

After all, it would be wrong to turn down a large chunk of miles and points as part of the biggest single purchase you are ever likely to make.

In reality, it is very tricky. This is partly due to the card fees that garages must pay, partly because of the large profits to be made if you take their own financing packages, and partly because many garages are wary of you making a Section 75 chargeback if there is a problem with the car.

It’s not impossible, however, especially with the larger quoted dealerships. The best advice to give is to only ask the question after you have negotiated a price, so the card fee isn’t secretly added to their ‘best price’.

Even if you cannot pay the whole sum on a credit card, see if you can pay the deposit. As well as earning a few miles, it gives you Section 75 protection in case of a problem with the car. Section 75 kicks in even if only part of your payment is by credit card.

Curve Card can help if debit cards are accepted

If your dealer will accept debit cards but not credit cards, take a look at Curve Card.

Our core article on Curve Card is here. In simple terms, you receive a debit card which recharges your purchases to another Visa or Mastercard credit card. This allows you to earn points on the underlying card.

If you take dealer financing, can you settle by credit card?

You may find that you can get a better price from a dealer by agreeing to their financing package.

If you can immediately pay off the financing package with cash or a personal loan, it may be worth doing for the discount.

If you intend to keep the financing deal, some packages allow you to make your monthly repayment by credit card.

Things are changing with Amex ….

Cazoo and Cinch are currently making big strides in the ‘online only’ used car market. You can’t fail to have seen their advertising. Cazoo is about to float in the US with a proposed valuation of $7 billion – not bad going for a business that is only two years old and has sold very few cars so far.

Both Cazoo and Cinch accept American Express. They don’t keep this a secret – it is in their terms and conditions. Visa and Mastercard are obviously accepted too.

The only restriction is that Cazoo does not accept ‘business’ credit cards, presumably because the fees on these are far higher. It also insists that the card is in the name on the person who will be registered as the owner.

Cazoo has an Amex cashback deal too

Whilst it is a bit late in the day to mentiont this, Cazoo currently has an American Express cashback offer running.

Until 2nd May (ie tomorrow!), you can get £250 cashback on a transaction of £1,000+.

If you are targetted, you will see the deal on the ‘Offers’ section of your online American Express statement or app.

Conclusion

For clarity, I know very little about buying cars and I know even less about Cazoo and Cinch. I’m certainly not recommending them based on any personal experience.

However, if you are in the market for a car and are thinking about trying one of these two new online-only players, being able to use your American Express card is an added bonus.

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Earning miles and points from small business cards

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Category

American Express Gold card, American Express Platinum card, British Airways and Avios, Marriott Bonvoy American Express

Comments (113)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Linda says:
    1 May1 May 06:39

    Our local Audi dealer would only take a maximum of £5,000 on our Amex but it triggered my 2-4-1, all their service takes it as well. Ford would not take it and I paid for it on my Lloyds Avios card before it goes.

    So my balance is building nicely again.

    I have decided to transfer all my Tesco spending onto Virgin so that is coming along as well.

    • Sarah says:
      1 May1 May 08:40

      My Audi dealership have said they won’t take Amex which is a shame

  • SN says:
    1 May1 May 06:56

    £25k Gold Amex to by Subaru in Swindon dealer, no problem. Drove half way to meet with unseen new car and took old one away p/x also without having seen it. Perfect transaction.

    Emailed two dealers at the same time who had the identical car with my terms and fastest finger first. Both called back within 10 mins, but Swindon did so within 8 mins.

  • Paul says:
    1 May1 May 07:16

    Excellent service from Cazoo and paying with Amex was easy (incidentally the part exchange we were offered was well above “market rate”). Sadly the car we bought had to go back (it smelt of cigarette smoke) but the whole process was handled brilliantly and the money refunded to Amex very fast.

    • Richmond_Surrey says:
      1 May1 May 07:32

      I would never buy used car online, unless it was pre-reg with minimal miles on the clock. Anything else would require test drive.

      • Sandgrounder says:
        1 May1 May 08:30

        You basically get a 7 day test drive with Cazoo, you can return for a full refund within this period. Agreed, it is potential hassle, and you would have lost your previous vehicle if you had part-exed it.

  • Richmond_Surrey says:
    1 May1 May 07:30

    I only managed to pay £5K on Amex once, when paying holding deposit on brand new car. Dealer refunded deposit by cheque. Otherwise, dealers usualy prefer debit card payment or bank transfers.

  • Mark says:
    1 May1 May 07:40

    A lot of online dealers like this claim to get better discounts than if you negotiate direct…what are peoples experience of this in reality? Of course it will depend how hard you can/would bargain in a main dealer but any thoughts appreciated! Thanks

    • Peter K says:
      1 May1 May 08:52

      An online broker can likely get a good deal on a brand new car. As always, do your research.

    • Rabbit says:
      1 May1 May 09:17

      I bought a brand new car from UK Car Discount back in 2015. Great transaction, picked my colour and spec and then they gave me a great price and I paid a very low deposit of £500 and then waited for the car to be built and got delivered directly to my house and paid the balance on the day of delivery.so hassle free, it’s the only way I’d buy a car these days…..sick of the nonsense sales patter in dealerships and having to play the negotiation game. I know four other friends who have also used them with no issues

    • Heathrow Flyer says:
      1 May1 May 09:28

      I’ve found CarWow can give good prices as it pits numerous dealers nationally against each other. Not sure how it compares to UK Car Discount though.

  • Anna says:
    1 May1 May 07:48

    You can sometimes pay for lease vehicles by Amex, but you often have to go to the finance company to find this out as the leasing companies often don’t have a clue about it!

  • Jordan D says:
    1 May1 May 07:58

    Bought our pre-owned Volvo from a mainline dealer back in January. Not only was I able to pay the whole amount on any credit card, they were more than happy to split it across cards. Managed to manage it to trigger both Amex 2 for 1 vouchers and also the two IHG Platinum free nights.

    • JandeW says:
      1 May1 May 08:04

      Jordan, Would be interested to know the name of your Volvo dealer for our next purchase. Ours is Doves Horsham

      • Polly says:
        1 May1 May 11:01

        Ours was Doves in Croydon

      • Jordan D says:
        1 May1 May 12:31

        Rybook Volvo. This was bought during lockdown, which may have driven their willingness to accept credit card in full, but they were excellent and would wholeheartedly recommend for good service.

    • Louise K says:
      1 May1 May 08:43

      My Volvo dealer would only take £3k on Amex. Currently paying the rest on Curve in £2k daily installments.

  • JandeW says:
    1 May1 May 08:02

    I have had a running battle for years with our local Volvo dealer (ultimate owner is Cambria Autos, Swindon) to persuade them to accept Amex for service charges, yet alone to buy a car! This included correspondence with their CEO – he claimed that they have been unable to agree terms

    • Peter K says:
      1 May1 May 08:54

      Can’t you go to a different dealer who does accept Amex?

    • Freddy says:
      1 May1 May 10:22

      Surely persuading a business to accept Amex is the job for Amex.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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