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. Cazoo’s payment rules are here. 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.

Want to earn more points from credit cards? – December 2021 update

If you are looking to apply for a new credit or charge card, here are our November 2021 recommendations based on the current sign-up bonus.

You can see our full directory of all UK cards which earn airline or hotel points here. Here are the top current deals:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Earning miles and points from small business cards

If you are a sole trader or run a small company, you may also want to check out these offers.

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and free for a year Read our full review

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and a long list of travel benefits Read our full review

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending:

Barclaycard Select Cashback Credit Card

1% cashback and no annual fee Read our full review

Category

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

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

KBuffett says:

1 May1 May 09:47

Has anyone sold a car on Facebook. I’m pondering selling a couple of cars (£15k and £26k) and hoping to achieve more than Webuyanycar.
I have some time on my hands, but not sure if the hassle factor is worthwhile.
- Benilyn says:
  
  1 May1 May 10:05
  
  You will get swarmed by dealers who will low bid (as expected they need to eat) but bit less hassle than Joe Bloggs kicking tyres. You will get swarmed by Joe Bloggs making low bids as well so get ready to ignore these people or get thick skin.
  
  But you can get business done here in the end, lot of patience.
- will says:
  
  1 May1 May 12:54
  
  eBay is easy and relatively cheap, pistonheads I think is free.
  I sold a £40k car on pistonheads pretty much right between what we buy any car and a dealer would have sold it for.
  
  Not a fan of selling cars on facebook.
  
  If you want hassle free try collecting cars.
John says:

1 May1 May 10:12

Cazoo is substantially brought to you by the lovely people behind the Daily Mail. The delightful heiress Ellie is responsible for the copy editing/ social media stuff.

Read about her beautiful life here:

https://argosandartemis.com/eleanor-harmsworth-writer-fudgey-wudgey-daphne-chihuahua/
- James says:
  
  1 May1 May 12:16
  
  Sweet Lord. Thanks for that decent into hell.
  Imagine the contempt these people will have for those that buy the filthy rag.
- Lady London says:
  
  1 May1 May 13:18
  
  I think I’m going to be sick. This is beyond saccharine. Even Waitrose doesn’t get near to this.
  
  Clearly big gap for Lord Rothermere public and private. I wish that world really existed.
- RussellH says:
  
  1 May1 May 14:31
  
  What is the connection between Ellie Harmsworth and Alex Chesterman, who founded Zoopla?
  Given that Alex has donated a significant sum to the Lib Dems and said to be behind a legal challenge to stop Brexit, I cannot see him being a great fan of the DM + the Harmsworths.
  - Rob says:
    
    1 May1 May 14:34
    
    The Mail is a big shareholder in Cazoo. DMGT’s share price has shot up in antipation of the $7bn IPO valuation.
  - RussellH says:
    
    1 May1 May 14:34
    
    … Alex Chesterman, who founded Cazoo (+ Zoopla)?
  - Magic Mike says:
    
    2 May2 May 19:43
    
    Alex clearly doesn’t read any newspapers, Daily Fail included, otherwise he would have noticed that Brexit already happened…
Lumma says:

1 May1 May 11:40

Does everyone on this site pay outright for their cars?
- Rob M says:
  
  1 May1 May 11:52
  
  It is quite common to use a personal loan which you could get as low as 2.8% APR to buy out a PCP using the right to withdraw or overpay a PCP to minimise interest costs – assuming you can get a better deal with a PCP rather than cash. It doesn’t make a lot of sense owning the car – assuming you could use that cash to get a better ROI than 2.8% for the loan.
- Tim says:
  
  1 May1 May 12:26
  
  When driving 20k miles per year, I used to buy a nearly new car at auction once per quarter and sell once a quarter privately. Did that for ten years or so. Then leased for ten years when miles less than 10k. Cost of car if owning is depreciation, interest (cost or lost) and maintenance. Partner’s lease was up for renewal in March. We declined and I bought her a 9 month old top spec Mazda3 for just above CAP trade. Bought blind and delivered by a main dealer. Used car prices could go either way this year. But I picked it up for £11,000 less than list and expect £6,000 depreciation over next three years. Beats leasing a Golf or Mazda3 by £100 per month. But depends on circumstance.
  - KBuffett says:
    
    1 May1 May 13:09
    
    How did the financials/depreciation work when you were buying and selling every quarter?
    
    I’d love to be able to game depreciation free motoring. Or get close to it and drive great cars.
- Jordan D says:
  
  1 May1 May 12:33
  
  I would have done, but Volvo had a 50% deposit and 50% at 0% finance for 3 years, so obviously went that way!
  - Louise K says:
    
    1 May1 May 14:41
    
    So did we! I also managed to bag and ex employee family discount so we are VERY happy with our deal. Just a shame they won’t let me put the whole deposit on AMEX
- will says:
  
  1 May1 May 12:59
  
  I think the biggest reason to buy a car outright is the impact the liability of repayments for a car can have on mortgage application affordability criteria if your at that time in life.
- KBuffett says:
  
  1 May1 May 13:11
  
  If you’ve got the cash, used car dealer finance tends to work out very expensive. There’s no way I’d be paying 5-9% per year, that’s crazy.
  - Tariq says:
    
    1 May1 May 17:11
    
    Used finance deals always look bad in comparison to new car deals as manufacturers put incentives into new car finance to sell cars.
- RussellH says:
  
  1 May1 May 14:39
  
  Always have done, yes. And apart from 1979, when I bought new for export, and tax free, and the following car in 1984 which was a new personal import from Belgium, always used.
  Always paid cash – no loans. Never paid over £10K after trade in either.
- GaryC says:
  
  1 May1 May 15:51
  
  I always pay cash for my cars – unless there is a particularly sweet deal that is dependent upon PCP, in which case I pay off the PCP after a couple of months so as not to screw over the dealer.
- HBommie says:
  
  1 May1 May 18:44
  
  Used to buy outright, but why have £30-£40 grand in a depreciating asset. I balanced this against lease and lease has won over the last 4 years. All new purchases.
  
  Used is a different story and depends on purchase price v depreciation and length of ownership.
- Navara says:
  
  1 May1 May 21:48
  
  Yes, normally with credit card unless it’s from motorpoint with Tesco vouchers😉
The Streets says:

1 May1 May 11:42

We bought ours at Car Giant using multiple Curve cards because of the daily limit
- Tarmohamed says:
  
  1 May1 May 22:49
  
  Bought 2 cars from them. Always had issues. Will buy again from them though.
  - Magic Mike says:
    
    2 May2 May 19:45
    
    As a counterpoint, I’ve bought two cars from CarGiant, never had issues…
Nigel W says:

1 May1 May 12:17

The irony of this article coming out today as I just bought and picked up my car (Seat) earlier this morning.

Annoyingly the garage only could accept 1K from credit card (so I paid the deposit part of my car on this), but then paid the rest with my Tesco Bank debit card so I shall be earning a nice bounty of points on that!
Bob says:

1 May1 May 13:30

A very close friend of mine bought from Cazoo and he cannot recommend enough. He was very happy with the car and the customer service. They really do care their customers.
Tom says:

1 May1 May 14:28

Due to a change in circumstances (home working!) I’m seriously considering buying myself out of the PCP on our runaround (3.5 year old A1) – for circa £12K – then selling the car, potentially via ‘Motorway’. Anyone have any experience of using them? Example price was coming out approximately £14,000 (£500 better than WBAC.com). Reviews look good online. And I can’t be bothered to sell it privately!
- Tariq says:
  
  1 May1 May 17:26
  
  No experience, but personally I wouldn’t bother settling the finance and then selling it – take it to Motorway straight away to get them to confirm their price and then they should be able to settle the outstanding finance directly and give you the remainder in cash…
  
  The risk with buyers like WBAC, etc is that they give you an inflated price on their website and then try and knock it down when you take the car in to have it assessed/purchased.
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.