Payment info needed before price negotiation?

JALLEN4 wrote:
Having sold a huge number of vehicles in my career, I can see absolutely no advantage to the salesman having credit card information before any offers have been submitted. If in fact the OP made an offer and the salesman asked for a credit card to charge a deposit too, that would be normal.

Personally, I never wanted to see a credit card and much preferred cash or check for a deposit. As long as delivery has never taken place, it is relatively simple to stop payment of a credit card deposit without ever walking back into the store.

For those who think the salesman can do something magical with a credit card, I must have never learned that trick. You cannot get a credit report just with credit card information and simply seeing one from the consumer just shows he is like the other 99% of citizens who actually have one. Any charges the dealer would make on one can easily be disputed and reversed. It would be a stupid salesman who would use a customer's card for identity theft purposes as it would be immediately tracked back to him.

There are a number of reasons for the dealer not to take a credit card for a vehicle purchase and most dealerships have severe limitations on their use. For one reason, paying for a vehicle with a credit card makes the purchase automatically subject to a 72 hour right of rescission. For another, it automatically would add around 3% to the dealer's cost for credit card fees.

There is nothing magical it's just leverage (and still a scuzzy tactic).

If they have no deposit or anything else (like a trade in in the back lot), it's real easy for you to walk out the door never to return. If they have it, they can drag the process out while pushing for a sale. A lot of people get intimidated in this sitaution and will cave to the salesman.