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Hello esteemed forum denizens,
Similar topics have been discussed but never in regards to a Tesla.
Has anyone had an experience buying a new or used Tesla and managing to use debit or credit cards for most of the sum? I’m keen to maximise the return to at least partially offset the absolutely ludicrous insurance costs…
Amex is probably a long shot, but I have a mix of Visa / Mastercards that are reasonably lucrative as well.
Cinch
Looks like you’re right! Unlike Cazoo, Cinch seems to offer it…
>Yes! We now offer split payments, so you can pay for your cinch car across more than one debit or credit card.
Its a while since i bought mine, but new and used it was possible to pay the deposit, but not the balance, with a credit card incl. Amex, direct at Tesla.
But the deposit is only £200. So thats 200 lousy points instead of 40,000
Hello esteemed forum denizens,
Similar topics have been discussed but never in regards to a Tesla.
Has anyone had an experience buying a new or used Tesla and managing to use debit or credit cards for most of the sum? I’m keen to maximise the return to at least partially offset the absolutely ludicrous insurance costs…
Amex is probably a long shot, but I have a mix of Visa / Mastercards that are reasonably lucrative as well.
Not with Tesla direct but as with any other car, used car dealers may accept debit/credit card, interesting about Cinch accepting them!
I believe Billhop closed to personal customers, but it might be worth looking for a similar service?
If you get a finance deal there are various options which let you pay monthly by credit card – you need to check who the car dealership uses.
If you get a finance deal there are various options which let you pay monthly by credit card – you need to check who the car dealership uses.
Thank you for reminding me! I took a business loan out with Alphara (?sp) for mine and paid a year of instalments then cleared the balance with… Amex. I dont know who Tesla use now for business car finance but you never know your luck.
Someone just mentioned it’s possible, but pricey to do BACS transfers using BlueChain. I jsut had a quick look and it does look expensive (2.3% fee on Amex payments) but I guess it’s an option. Though at that rate, a Chase debit card might be better!? Maybe there are cheaper competitors though
Someone just mentioned it’s possible, but pricey to do BACS transfers using BlueChain. I jsut had a quick look and it does look expensive (2.3% fee on Amex payments) but I guess it’s an option. Though at that rate, a Chase debit card might be better!? Maybe there are cheaper competitors though
Chase excludes car dealerships from cashback and even if it slipped through as people report some excluded category merchants do, it’s limited to £15/month for newer customers.
Sharing knowledge – local Tesla dealership confirmed that if purchasing a new Tesla outright, they only accept cards for deposit, but the actual payment has to be a bank transfer. No dice.
As for PCP, their finance provider is CA Auto Finance and it’s unclear from their website if they accept debit / credit cards.
Ended up doing a HPA via BlackHorse (Lloyds). They do accept Debit cards, but I couldn’t find any card that would give you any cb or points for payment. Perhaps the (about to be closed?) Tesco Clubcard Pay+?
Anyway, I was using BlueChain + Plutus which was working out very nicely at 8% cashback minus 0.7% Bluechain fee, but then Bluechain hiked the fee to 2.5% and starting passing through the MCC so Plutus stopped working as well.
So I’m looking for any new way to earn CB on the monthly payments…
Is there any reason you can’t get Curve and use that? However, are you absolutely sure Black Horse doesn’t accept MC or Visa, sometimes you need to speak to someone in the payments department as not everyone is aware of which payment methods are accepted. Do you make the payments online or over the phone?
BlackHorse Does script Curve online with fronted on. Virgin cards does charge a fee however if used behind Curve.
Can HfP Tesla owners report back on their reliability experience please? I seen a lot of bad press on their reliability in recent months along with suggestions that Tesla are withholding data in an effort to make it appear less poor than it is.
At the risk of being controversial… it’s not the reliability that would hold me back
At the risk of being controversial… it’s not the reliability that would hold me back
The whole narrative around electric cars is changing and the realities are beginning to sink in. See recent company results from Mercedes, Ford, Stellantis and Tesla itself.
On top of that, drivers will soon have to pay per mile for usage like in Iceland and New Zealand. The government can’t afford or replace the loss of fuel duty without motorists picking up the tab. At the moment all taxpayers are subsidising electric car drivers. Rachel no likey.
Those are two different things no?
First one – after the initial wave of liberal enthusiasts, solar panel owners, salary sacrifice schemes, ‘charge it to company’ types and rich ‘look at my new Tesla, am different’ types, the rest find few affordable EVs. Unless EV makers produce more affordable cars, it’ll be a very slow growth from here.
Second one is a long term problem that every govt has been kicking the can down the road.
While you can get around reliability issues by choosing a Korean or Japanese brand, the elephant in the room is if and how battery will be replaced after 8-10 years.
Can HfP Tesla owners report back on their reliability experience please? I seen a lot of bad press on their reliability in recent months along with suggestions that Tesla are withholding data in an effort to make it appear less poor than it is.
Join some Tesla UK Facebook groups. We’ve been very happy with ours. One minor issue with the boot closing button not working and they sent a ranger to fix it.
If you travel long distances, the Tesla charging network is superior to others. Even though they have opened up some charging stations to others, it’s only some of them and not the busiest.
Solar panels for me have been very lucrative, I bought them just before prices went haywire and am returning about 25% per annum. Batteries are a bigger investment, currently around 10% return each year. I’ve held off on buying an EV for the problems alluded to above, I have however, had a charger fitted but only because we were renovating and the cable run required chasing into the walls. My company finally signed up to a salary sacrifice scheme two years after first promising to, had they done so straight away I would have gone ahead. Right now there is too much uncertainly, mileage rates I can claim are restricted to 9p a mile instead of 45p, what will happen to BIK in the coming years, the fact that luxury car tax will be applied next year, vehicle excise duty for EVs is going up and whatever else Mrs Reeves comes up with in October. It’s looking more like buying a second hand EV will be the better option, the Tesla extended warranty provided by Millennium whilst expensive looks fairly robust. We shall see but I won’t be making any decision until after the budget.
Those are two different things no?
First one – after the initial wave of liberal enthusiasts, solar panel owners, salary sacrifice schemes, ‘charge it to company’ types and rich ‘look at my new Tesla, am different’ types, the rest find few affordable EVs. Unless EV makers produce more affordable cars, it’ll be a very slow growth from here.
Second one is a long term problem that every govt has been kicking the can down the road.
While you can get around reliability issues by choosing a Korean or Japanese brand, the elephant in the room is if and how battery will be replaced after 8-10 years.
Yes, those are some of the issues, but there are plenty more. The Chinese have lots of attractive EVs that are much cheaper (and new concepts rather than just putting a battery inside an ICE car) so European governments are going to shove huge tariffs on them to cover their embarrassment about having bullied manufacturers into ramping up EV production and squander vast amounts of capital. Look at the share price of battery suppliers like Varta teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and all the money/subsidies the EU (and UK government) has put into the industry that’s about to turn into dust. Toyota is the only big manufacturer to have called this right.
There are other issues bubbling as well, including the weight of EVs giving rise to concerns about their impact on the road network, bridges etc. and it’s an issue for multi-storey car parks not built to withstand such weight, so insurers are refusing cover on the basis of this and the fire risk.
From a personal/consumer perspective, I can’t see an electric car on the markets that really meets our needs and/or offers acceptable value. A couple of early adopter friends have now gone back to petrol cars – issues with range, reliability, charging facilities, ridiculous insurance premiums etc. This fits in with the political winds – voters want green but don’t want to pay too much for it and can’t afford to go too fast, so there’s a lot of backtracking to be done, and not just in the UK.
Thanks @Tracey, we have no intentions of getting one as we both prefer and need 4WD SUV. O was just curious as quite a few neighbours had bought them recently which surprised me given the mounting poor reliability press. I thought it safer to ask what people here were finding in practice rather than ask them 🙂
@BJ, a lot of the bad publicity is from the right wing media who are dead set against any form of green energy. They exaggerate issues in EV cars.
I have never known anyone go back to ICE cars after using an EV.
I had an early-ish Tesla Model 3 for just under 5 years which I’ve just sold and replaced with a Polestar 2. The outgoing Tesla was still a fantastic car but I fancied a change and keen to shed the association with Elon Musk.
I couldn’t imagine going back to an ICE now. An EV is, to me, much nicer to drive. It’s fantastic waking up knowing the car has a “full tank”.
We’ve done a couple of longer drives from central Scotland to north Wales (in both cars). The Tesla Supercharger network used to be a massive advantage but the gap is smaller now. Many of the superchargers can be used by any car and other charger networks are becoming more and more common. Even on those longer journeys I’ve never felt I was waiting around because I tend to want to stop to eat anyway.
In terms of reliability our Tesla Model 3 had done 50-something thousand miles and the range had dropped fairly minimally. Seems that there’s an initial drop after the first few tens of thousands of miles which levels off thereafter. The worry of costly battery replacements on modern EVs seems to be a non-issue.
No other issues at all with our Tesla. The build quality was fine… not amazing compared to the cost, but I’ve used a new Model 3 (the new 2024 model) and they’ve improved things drastically. (They’ve also got rid of the indicator stalks which was a step too far for me!)
If I couldn’t charge at home I’d need to think carefully about it, but would definitely try to make it work. Any time I’m driving a non-EV reminds me of how much more pleasurable driving an EV is!
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