Main Dealer refuses to take credit card payment | General Discussion (2024)

Hi

Just an incident we found hard to comprehend.

My Wife and I have been looking for an SL350 c2011 for a while , we saw one advertised which caught our eye and made enquires over the phone as the dealership was some 80 miles away, 160 mile round trip.

The salesman assured us that the car had everything we hoped for, would want and more, he took a £500 deposit by credit card over the phone and made arrangements with us a week later to drive to their premises, to pay the remainder and return home with both cars as we had no px in the purchase.

We were so convinced that this was the right car to buy that we even arranged insurance before we left home so nothing would hold us up for the trip back home.

On the big day we drove to Chard, saw the car and agreed to go ahead with the purchase.

After we had gone through all the paperwork and the optional extras I put my credit card down for full and final payment when the salesman said "We don't take credit card payment".

After a long silent pause and some disbelief on our part we got up, left and drove all the way back home in bewilderment without the car we went all the way to buy.

The next day I cancelled the car insurance and lost £28 cancellation fee and had to ring the dealer to ask for my £500 deposit back.

Disgraceful comes to mind.

When I purchased my current car I was told by the dealership.

£500 max on a CC
£2000 max in cash

The remainder must be done via a bank transfer.

A few years prior I paid the lot with my debit card , looks like now they are making large purchases more financially traceable.

Kenny

This very common, almost universal- the dealer can't afford to lose the card fees, c2.5%.

I suspect, but I don't know for sure, that the credit card companies don't like it either as the responsibility for any issues then falls to them rather than the dealer

if you made arrangements to pay the reminder, did this not come up?

oh, and the dealer is under no obligation to refund your deposit...which will really make your day..

Few will take a credit card for the balance value as the fees are high for them. You only need to have the value of the purchase be over £100 and to have paid some of that to get the same cover as paying it in full off of a credit card and they don't pay huge fees that way. They should take debit card or bank transfer for the balance.

Why do you want to pay it all on a credit card?

Unless you confirmed beforehand that they would accepts a credit card for the full payment I wouldn't call it disgraceful. Pretty standard practice really.

Greenmanslk said:

I suspect, but I don't know for sure, that the credit card companies don't like it either as the responsibility for any issues then falls to them rather than the dealeri.

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Makes no difference to their responsibilities whether you pay £1 on a credit card or £5000 as long as the total value of the product is £100 or more.

Greenmanslk said:

I was wondering if the CC liability was determined by whether the payment was a deposit or full payment - I don't know...

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Either, as long as some of the total value was paid on a CC, be it as part of the deposit or final balance.

Who would sell cars for a living?

It's completely normal for any business to reject a CC for large sums as has been stated the fees can be significant.

Could you have paid via bank transfer via your banking app?

If that were the case we thought the dealer might have clarified the situation when he took the £500 deposit, it would have been courteous at least we thought.

I/we have never been refused credit card payment for car purchases of greater value than this one before.

A few years ago we found it common for the dealer to mention the 2% charge who would ask to split it half each which we thought reasonable.

Two years ago, a dealer we know well informed us that a dealership could not discriminate and refuse a credit card payment anymore, hence our surprise.

The 2% cc charge would have been only £360, as we had no px or finance complications it appeared ridiculous that the dealer would throw away an £18k sale for a few hundred quid, quite bizarre.

NB, a cc payment gives better recourse than a 3 month warranty in our experience.

slic350 said:

Disgraceful comes to mind.

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Im amazed they didn't work with you or that you didn't offer this yourself. Having worked in car sales years ago I took credit cards all the time, we just added the merchant fee on top. (say it was 3%).

Or you tell them up front and they bake that into the deal, other wise you are asking them to give you further discount.

Sent from my awesome Samsung Galaxy Note 9

We paid a £500 deposit for my wife's car at a main dealer on a credit card and the balance on a debit card on collection this was a main dealer. They told us the balance was to be paid on a debit card or bank transfer as £500 is the max, and they don't take cash for any balance either.

If the deposit paid was for holding purposes subject to the car being as described they should refund you, again the dealer in our case did the same informing us that we could have it back if we were not happy whatever the reason.

Hope you get it sorted soon.

I don’t think merchants can charge the extra fees for credit card payments anymore. Pretty sure that stopped a while back.

Why not just pay by bank transfer or use a debit card? You’ve already used you CC to pay a deposit so it’s not necessary to pay any more to gain purchase protection.

I went to a pub for a meal the other day, they didn’t take Amex - so I paid cash. No big deal

Will said:

I don’t think merchants can charge the extra fees for credit card payments anymore. Pretty sure that stopped a while back.

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they can't - which is why they don't CC like because they still have to pay the merchant fee to the card provider, eroding their margin

slic350 said:

Your meal was not £18K

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Exactly - and hence my point, 2/3% of £80 is not the same as £18k

I don’t think you got the reaction to this thread you were expecting?

£18k is a lot of money to lose 2% of, and I’m surprised you expected them not to object?

When I bought my last car I made a point of checking before collection how they wanted payment - as in bank transfer or debit card etc. Their preference was debit card - no drama.

I can only think you were hoping to get cashback via using the card or something?

If you don’t see the fees as being a problem, why not go and draw the cash out of your CC and transfer to your current account and pay the invoice for the car that way

CaptainChaos said:

The only surprise here is that the dealer didn't point out how they wanted to be paid.
Most want cleared funds before they release the car.

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I would agree. Schoolboy error.
I reckon the dealer forgot that although this is common knowledge to them, the purchaser on the other hand does not buy cars every day.