Paying for Prius with a credit card

Capital One has a 0% interest for 12month offer. I am going to use the check they sent me to purchase my new Prius.....

Dean

 

What I got was "No balance transfer fees; 0% introductory rate on balances transferred"

Check out this link

0% APR offer link

 

Call the credit card company and talk to them about it. I know my first car I paid off my loan with a balance transfer on a new credit card, just did it over the phone. My Prius purchase I used low interest checks, and the fees are usually 3% or $50max, so it only cost me $50, and I have a low rate for as long as I have a balance.

 

Just be careful with the 0% APR. You don't want any regular credit balance on that card, b/c any payments will pay toward the 0% balance transfer prior to paying of the regular balance. This means you will be charged the regular APR on your regular balance until you pay off both your balance transfer and your regular credit balance.

 

My dealer had a $2500 credit card limit...but I also paid a $500 deposit with a credit card, so I'm glad I could at least get points for $3000.

 

Also, having ANY balance > 50% of your credit card limit DROPs your credit rating a little. Of course, then having a bunch of other balances will also drop it too.

This will affect your ability to get a decent rate loan later.

Now asset-backed loan balances OTOH, look good on your credit rating.

Then of course, the credit card company can then change the terms of your 'loan' at any time AFTER the transaction, such as default rate you for being late on a $1 balance an unrelated credit card. [PBS documentary]

In the long term, it's a safer bet to stick with a real loan either from your CU, bank, Toyota where once you sign, nothing changes after.

Work less hard and peace of mind.

 

Right now I have $14,000 and the minimum monthly was in the $280s (can be 2-3% of balance), though I am paying more so that I can pay it off sooner and not later.

 

Math says for 36 months, ~$333, if you amortize it like a loan.

If you just pay the min 2% ($240 of $12K) per month, that's 50 months, or 4.16 years, but actually longer than 50 months because it's 2% of the current balance of the time.

Documentary says them 2% and 0% stuff is just another carrot.

 

I think NuShrike means he watched a documentary which said that the low 2% and 0% interest rates are just a lure to get people to take out a car loan.

 

I guess he was probably referring to the balance transfer. Also, the low interest rate on car loans lures some people to spend more on a car than they would otherwise or buy a new car when they wouldn't otherwise.

 

When I tried to charge my down payment (only to get the points for it), the dealer finance guy lied and said it was illegal, but I know now he just wanted to skip the fee for the dealership. I should have pressed it, since the $9000 points would have gotten me almost $100 in free gas cards or cash back.

 

Guess I could elaborate more clearly. The [PBS documentary] I linked previously says all credit cards once was 4% or so in min payments which gave you a decent chance to pay it off within one lifetime.

Then this one 'consultant' to a lot of credit card companies had genius idea to lower it to 2% so it looked cheaper to people to pay off, thus attracting more people to credit cards, even though it actually made credit cards even more difficult to pay off.

Then same consultant came up with genius idea to offer people 0% transfers as a lure to get them to sign up for credit cards also. Then, like the recent GM Employee Pricing, once you got customers paying interest and locked in, it's free money for the company with high chance to 'grab' more anytime through defaulting people because it's strictly legal. It's like gambling where the House has the upper-hand.

So this is when credit cards became extremely profitable, and expanded like crazy, and hence your current junk mail spam of credit card apps.

Also, there's no governmental oversight on credit cards, although 'technically' there is the CompController but it's entirely reactionary, and consumer unfriendly.

Notice how the recent consumer legislative action to 'just' have credit cards list how long it'll take to pay off something if one made the 'min' payment got entirely shut down through lobbying and such?

Anyways, of course we're smart people here and never make the min payment.

maggiedd, hey can you explain how you're saving $4K? I gotten myself out of bad CC moneypit so I'm really leary of them, but I'm always interested in ways to save money.

I'm sorry if it is a bit off topic.