Can I Pay for a Car With a Credit Card?

Don’t use a credit card to buy a car from a private seller. You’ll pay high processing fees, learn the meaning of inconvenience, and generally regret your decision. Fortunately, there’s a better way to pay for your car.

PrivateAuto Pay empowers instant, fee-free payments of any amount. Before we get into how amazing it is, let’s look at why credit cards suck to pay for a car.

Here are the problems with credit cards as a method of private-party car payment:

1. Hassle
2. Fees
3. Time-consuming
4. Sellers fear chargebacks
5. Interest rates

Let’s look at each of these drawbacks in more details.

It’s a giant hassle to set up a credit card transaction between two strangers. You'll need to exchange sensitive information in the process, which has inconveniences and risks:

1. Information sharing: to process the credit card payment, you will have to share personal and financial information such as names, addresses, credit card numbers, etc. This opens up you both to potential identity theft or fraud if the information falls into the wrong hands.
2. Transaction setup: the seller can't just run your credit card in the same way that your local store can. They'll need to use a third-party processor such as Stripe, which is anything but a breeze. And then there are the fees (see below).

PrivateAuto Pay is the antidote to unwieldy credit card transactions. No exchange of personal info, no exchange of financial info, no exposure to risk and fraud. Once you have your PrivateAuto Pay account funded (easy), there’s no setup. After the seller signs the bill of sale (a legally binding document), you click a button to release payment. Done.

Credit card processors such as Stripe charge processing fees in the range of 3%. This adds up really fast when you’re spending $25K, $50K, or $70K on a vehicle. For example, 3% of a $55K Ford F-150 transaction is $1,650. It certainly wipes out any credit card rewards you might get from the transaction.

Unless you have an exceptionally lucrative credit card rewards program, using credit cards to buy a vehicle from a private seller doesn't make financial sense. PrivateAuto Pay provides instantaneous, fee-free payments to keep more of your money in your pocket.

Credit card payments take time to process, which means you won’t be able to get the deal done in one smooth transaction. Instead, it will stretch out over hours or even days.

The credit card transaction process involves several steps—-authorization, batching, clearing, and finally settlement of funds. Each of these steps takes time as the payment gets passed between the merchant's bank, card network, and buyer's bank. Larger transactions, such as vehicle purchases, may also require additional verification steps, further lengthening the timeline.

It's extremely inconvenient for private-party purchases. Buyers and sellers want to get the deal done in one efficient encounter.

PrivateAuto Pay allows instantaneous digital cash payments the moment both parties are ready to finalize the deal. Funds securely transfer in seconds, not hours or days. This allows the entire private sale transaction to be completed smoothly in a single meeting

Private sellers don’t like credit cards because of the risk of chargebacks. Chargebacks occur when buyers dispute a credit card charge after the fact, allowing them to claw back funds even after receiving the product or service.

For private party transactions, some unscrupulous buyers have been known to pay with a credit card, take possession of the vehicle, and then initiate a chargeback through their credit card issuer after the fact.

Credit card companies tend to side with buyers on chargebacks as a consumer protection measure. So even if the seller has documented proof of purchase and delivery, they may still lose the chargeback dispute and have the payment clawed back. Even if they win, they’ve spent hours on an issue they’d prefer to avoid.

Smart sellers steer clear of chargebacks by refusing to accept credit cards when they sell their car.

PrivateAuto Pay is instant and irreversible, which is why it is the preferred method of getting paid by private-party sellers across the US.

Don't finance a car purchase with a credit card. It's a terrible idea.

Credit card interest rates are notoriously high, with most ranging from 16% to 25% APR. This makes financing an expensive vehicle purchase on a credit card incredibly costly over time.

For example, financing a $25,000 Honda Civic at 18% APR for 5 years (60 months) would result in over $9,500 in interest charges alone. Your total repayment cost balloons to nearly $35,000—almost 40% more than the vehicle's sticker price.

Say no to credit card debt and get an auto loan instead, PrivateAuto lets you apply for an auto loan in your PrivateAuto dashboard as part of your transaction workflow. Our integrated lending partner offers competitive car loan rates and favorable repayment terms.

The process is simple: after finding your desired vehicle, you can get pre-qualified with a soft credit pull that won't impact your credit score. Once approved, the loan amount is deposited directly into your PrivateAuto Pay account.

From there, you can instantly transfer funds to the seller's account and complete the transaction. No external coordination with third-party lenders. After the purchase, you'll make monthly loan payments to our third-party lending partner.

Incumbent payment methods—credit cards, bank wires, checks, etc—are slow, risky, or inconvenient. It's time for a better way.

PrivateAuto Pay is instant, secure, and allows transfers of any amount with no transfer fees.

We’ve now made the transactional infrastructure available for users of other platforms such as Craigslist and eBay Motors. You can fast-track a transaction using DealNow, which allows you to start a deal anywhere and close the sale instantly, anytime.