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We have usually paid a deposit of over £100 in the hope that it gives you the protection for the whole purchase with the credit card not sure if this works in practice?

What tends to happen in practice is that you complain to the CC company and if they are satisfied that you have a genuine complaint, they take it up with the retailer. Ultimately the CC company can threaten to withdraw the credit facilities from the retailer and that affects business so the retailer will pay up. As a last resort the CC pay you and usually only if the company you have been dealing with has gone out of business.

It will be a hassle, but, if you are in an argument with the retailer its a hassle anyway. The CC route gives you another string to your bow and, generally, the CC company will deal with these matters more professionally than an iffy retailer will.

The best approach is often to do your homework first and deal with bona fide retailers who have a track record of good customer care, particulalry if you spending a pot full of money. Many a consumer problem arises because of how we buy.

Phil

My father in law operates a PDQ machine for his van business, it has opened up the door to a lot of customers we would have lost otherwise, however the charge is quite a chunk out of the profit (£10k = £300!) most people are either happy to pay it, or we use it as a bargaining option.

another thing we noticed is that a "business debit card" also gets charged at the credit card rate, which is a bit tight of the banks.

Thank you all for your thoughts - some of which were very informative .

To the gentleman who was under the impression that I somehow wanted to be subsidised by those who are in a position to pay by debit card or cash - far from it.  Just to reiterate - I was absolutely not unhappy that the costs were being passed on, my disatisfaction was simply that this information was not presented at the start of the process.  If I'd been in the market for a more expensive van, the percentage may well have made a difference to our ability to afford it - I'd have wasted my time looking round the van in the first place, damp testing it, faffing around underneath, negotiating the price... Only then, once the value was agreed, to have an extra x% added on to the price.

As it is, it's just slightly taken the shine of a darned good dealership experience.  All it would have taken was a sign clearly visible on entry, saying that x% would be added on to payments made by credit card.

Surfer - we did exactly as you say you do - used the CC for the deposit and will then pay the remainder by DC.  I would have thought that most people who have a CC would do exactly the same, simply for the consumer protection that it gives esp should the business fold in the meantime?

Ah I see what you mean WR, we on our adverts state that "Credit cards are accepted (subject to a 3% charge)" so people know from the outset.

To not know that was going to be added on would be very annoying!

Quote: Originally posted by saftlad on 18/5/2011

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When we bought our last new car, we turned up on the day to collect and pay the total by CC.

The salesman at that point mentioned that as we were paying with a cc there would be an additional 3% charge to cover their costs. On £35k, that's quite a bit to suddenly drop into the mix.

We pointed out that we had never been informed of this additional charge, even when we paid the deposit with the same CC. In the end, the dealer sucked it up themselves, though we never saw that salesman in the showroom again.

I really don't think it will be long before this happens. Supermarkets no longer accept cheques and with more option coming on stream to take payments more cheaply, I think that charges will be introduced on credit card payments. Already a lot of places don't accept Amex, simply because their percentage can be more than double that if visa.

Whilst I can appreciate that the cost has to be borne somewhere, unless it's made plain right from the outset then I would assume that the CC charge is included in any profit margins a dealer has in place. As someone else said, I don't get to the supermarket checkout and get given an extra bill for using my CC (yet).

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Like Surfer01 when bought our caravan we used my credit card for the deposit and paid the balance by debit card. We did the same when my husband bought his last car. It was so much easier than having to take cash or wait till the cheque cleared. We have our own business and had made enquiries about taking cards but decided against it beacuse of the costs.

I do agree though that telling you afterwards they would be adding extra for paying by card was awful