Fraser

Apologies to moderators,

Just got a call from my brother who appears (having had a parent visit the site) to have written off our shared little car however, this does present me with BA Miles earning opportunities and a way to cruise over that 2 for 1 threshold!

Anyone had any luck with buying a car in the UK on Amex? One thing for example, Is it a case of individual VW dealerships all accept Amex or is it a dealership by dealership basis?

Every cloud......

PS. The brother is still alive

dnw

BMW Park Lane.

The new 1-series looks nice

Jenbel

At least until you get hold of him?

I think its on a dealer by dealer basis, because of the merchant charges issues (although that could apply to VISA only, but I think AMEX also do merchant charges).

Aerotec

I tried to buy 20k of Dads new BMW using the Amex and pre-banked £20,ooo to the card then used that at the delarship. The delare charged me the 3% commission he was going to be charged but I thought it would be a good thing.

AMex BOUNCED the transaction despite £27,000 credit on the card stating that it was against the agreement to pre-bank funds. After a long debate with the authorisation drone I ended up paying with Switch so Dad could get his car.

How pleased was I (NOT!) to find out 5 days later that £20k had come off my card to BMW! The dealer was great getting the funds back to AMEX and the BA Amex team were excellent (as they usually are) in keeping me updated and they CHAP'd the funds straight back to my bank. It was nice seeing one months statement say I had earned 30,000 BA Miles! But that came off the following month!

If you have a good credit limit then you will be ok to buy up to the limit on the card but doing try to pre-bank funds or you will get much hassle!

Gaza

We tried buying Sheena's Beetle convertible at Sloan VW in Edinburgh with Amex but they were having none of it. The maximum they would take was £1000.

BahrainLad

Funny, one's brother managed to do the same thing quite recently.....totalled his Saxo on the A1 on the way up to NCL. It's only cos he's built like the proverbial brick ....house (plays rugger for England U19) that he emerged unscathed.

In any case, there's a lovely little Lambo dealership across from South Ken tube that should fulfil the need for new vehicular transportation.

And if you get any aggro from the sales assistants, use the Force of Amex. A friend and I had been on an absolute bender and decided to pop into Maranello Motors on the A30 to oggle and clear hangovers one Sunday morning. Well, we didn't quite look our best (or smell it!) but it's amazing how the demeanour of a salesperson changes when you buy a Ferrari baseball cap with a bit of platinum.....

chippy63

Jenbel,
Oh yes, Amexx does indeed do merchant charges- big time!

fbg,
We got away with putting the deposit on my wife's last car on the BA Amex- most dealers, if they accept Amex for servicing, will let you put an amount up to the max agreed with the dealer for services/repairs. In our case, it was £3,000 as I recall.

JimmyTheJock

I seem to remember when Aston Martin delivered their very first Lagonda...to the Marquis of Tavistock I think...it was claimed to have been paid for using an AmEx!

Sounded like a marketing gimmick by all concerned way back then...and I'm sure similar things still happen...so if you have Blue Blood (or are otherwise notorious) perhaps you could swing it.

I had trouble getting the local dealer to take my Barclays Connect card when I was paying the deposit on my new Merc a couple of years ago...and it's only an 'A-Class' before anyone asks about / comments on / abuses German cars!

Fraser

well it appears the car wasn't totalled so it's just a few '000 worth of damage and since I am away for the next three weeks I am not going to be around to pay for it. Bollocks

BahrainLad, was that Maranellos in Egham? Had a rather wealthy friend at school who used to go and throw money round that place like it was nobody's business. Too bad I wasn't in his close circle of friends that got flown in BA F back to his pad in BKK

flyclub

Probably the dealership in Pentwyn beginning with a 'C' probably, if I'm not mistaken.

Interesting to hear that someone offered to cover the 3% commission charged to the dealer for using the card! However, I thought it was more than 3% for Amex (more like 5%), as VISA/MASTERCARD is around the 2.5%, is it not?

P.S: dnw - If your over 6 feet tall, and the driver is 6 feet tall (when your sitting in the back) you can forget sitting in the back of a 1 series! One of the reason's I cancelled my preorder for the '1' a few weeks ago after sitting in one.

dnw

Hmm, well I'm just under 6' and I never sit in the back

I'm off to the Rockingham track with the old man (who is over 6) to a BMW invite event to try it out next weekend so we'll see! I won't take one for the first 12 months or so anyway, theres no way I'm paying list price...

evilmarq

I just bought a car from virgincars.com - full balance went on amex (across 2 cards).

Marq

Dave_C

Must not mention the bearded one in here!

Aerotec

Neat! Did they charge any commission to let you pay by AMEX?

dnw

I hope it wasn't a new car!! When I looked into them their prices were terrible... (all spiel and no delivery, hmm sounds familiar )

OT and I am in no way affliated but if anyone wants any new UK spec car at a big discount delivered to their door by a main dealer I can recommend www.drivethedeal.com very very highly! (and if you do PM me so they will send me a bottle )