Maserati Wouldn’t Let Me Charge Car to My Amex
Sorry for the lack of updates that someone called me out on in the comments of another post. I’ve been busy, give me a break!
Yesterday I became the proud owner of a 2009 Maserati GranTurismo S. Now a little while back I posted about the Centurion edition Quattroporte, but unfortunately they didn’t have one for the GranTurismo S.
I tried pretty much every angle to get them to let me charge the card to my Centurion, but they just wouldn’t let me. They would not budge on the $5k limit, so I didn’t get many points. They said they were afraid of people charging it back. That would be one heck of a chargeback.
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Comments
The Maserati GranTurismo S is a beautiful car, I love the aggressive curves on the nose. I drove one the last time I was at my place in Naples, FL. Drives and Handles like a Ferrari but with some added daily driver features. Great Choice Brandon.
Car dealers can be finicky about letting people charge whole cars, some dealers will let you do it though. A friend of mine charged his Bentley Continental GTC without issue. I charged my Porsche, also with no issue but I know the owner of the dealership so that may have had a part. Worst comes to worst you can always give them a check in addition to letting them charge it, that way if you charge it back you still have the check.
I wold have told them, “If you don’t trust me, I won’t be buying the car here.” And start walking out.
That would get them to comply pretty darn quick.
Very nice! I can’t understand how you have to spend $250k to qualify for a Centurion and then only get a 5k limit. Jeez, I have a 3k on my Platinum alone!
All the same, echoing what the above posters said, nice wheels!
I had a similar experience when I bought my BMW last week. Only managed to charge 6K. Dealer told me they couldnt allow me to charge the full amount because of the charges they will incur. They gave me a discount off the car price instead.
By the way, the Maserati is really Beautiful. Enjoy!
Hi, boys 
which country You are living in ? . The country with bankruptcy banks and BNP going down? Change immediately the country of living 
Last Year I get discount for paying with Centurion and I could pay with Centurion for my car :). In this case without talking in advance with Centurion Service regarding payment for the car . And the car dealer accept the Centurion Card without checking with Centurion Service, either European or Local. But already 1999 I paid for my other car with another card - Gold Visa. In this case I spoke earlier with Visa telling them , that I planned to buy a car when abroad. The car dealer called the local Visa- service center and get approval for taking the card. Normally no one car- dealer want one to pay with credit card.
Maybe You are not “trusty” ? : I just kidding about “trusty”.
But in one case the car dealer refused to take payment with Black Card. According to him it was to much ” service charge”.In this case I decide not to buy the car.
More likely they didn’t want to pay the merchant fees on the price of the vehicle. I would have thought that a chargeback on the purchase of a motor vehicle would be quite easy to fight. Easy enough to show that the vehicle was collected and is registered in your name.
Maybe the lack of this sort of transaction is one of the reasons Amex are not doing too well at the moment. I hear that they have suspended pension contributions for some of their UK based staff for 18 months. Still in Europe Amex merchant fees are generally significantly higher than Visa and Mastercard.
Probably THE best looking car around at the moment, and has a beautiful engine, an excellent choice. Be sure to post up some images once you take delivery. And how can you afford this, surely you don’t make that much from the ads on this website?
PS What colour did you choose? Looks best in black IMO.
Admin/Brandon,
Yeap, you are right. Once I read the other comments I realized my error. Thanks for the correction!
Hi! You have problems with getting your Amex accepted for buying cars… just think about me, as long as i live in Italy, trying using my Amex for 800 euros in a shop and see it refused!!! I had to use my Mastercard.
I love Amex but it’s quite difficult using it in not high-end shops.
(sorry for my bad english)
Paolo
They’re killing people right now with account reviews, credit line decreases… centurion members are leaving in droves. I’m leaving, not worth the hassles anymore.
I have read that as of August 2009 the spending will need to be $500K anual. Does any one know if there is any truth to this?
Also, I charged 10K at the bmw dealership when I bought my car. I dont qualify for a centurian card yet as I have high debt to income as a B/O in the US. They did not seem to have a probelm running the card for the whole amount if i really wanted to, however, i think this was because the lot manager was not around and the whole sales staff seemed to be very young. Though I m sure that if they had run the whole amount of $XX,XXX.XX the lot likely would have called me in the next day and voided the transaction and fired the sales rep.
You would think that with a card as “exclusive” as the centurion card, American Express would send the dealer a cashiers check and bill you on your card. It seems to me that the only reason they wouldn’t do that is that they are unwilling to forgo their 2-4% fee (on the 5K that you could put on the card) to make a customer happy. Congrats on the car, I hope to get one myself some day.
@Axel - where did u hear this? I just got a biz cent and it was still $250k, maybe personal is that high? URL?
yes, supposedly they raised the requirements to $500,000 two days ago.
Too many people getting in on the loophole of charging office expenses to their card - and diluting the number of “real” members…
Axel:
It is confirmed that the rumors were false.
Someone even updated the wikipedia entry to reflect the false rumors - but Amex caught wind of this and corrected it.
So, it is still 250k.
Thank you for the up date, I thought because the US was printin so much money that AMEX was just keeping up with the curve. Or maybe there were people standing outside of gas stations charging gas for cash customers, lol.
Again thank you for this. Also, I spend around 400K on my platinum and plum combined, but have high debt to income as I own a business and have above average inquaries, has any one had any issues with this at cent?
Again thank you for every ones helpful nature.
Regards
If you really did spend 400k within a 12month period, and really want a Cent card - just call up and ask for one.
As long as you never paid your amex bills late, and are willing to pay them $7,500 in fees (billed in the first month, up front) they will give you one.
Maybe I’ll try it after I have payed down a few revolving accounts. I have never been late with AMEX. I’ll let you know if I get one.
Ragards ^_^
I just noticed on the linked post about the Centurion edition of the Maserati, you said you weren’t “a big fan.” What changed your mind in such a short time?
Yea I know, i remember reading that post after I bought my GTS.
To be honest, I wasn’t and am not a fan of their older styles like the Gransport. But once I test drove and got in the drivers seat of my granturismo sport i feel in love with it.
When I wrote the original post I had never been in one let alone driven one. I basically had an uninformed opinion.
It’s been 2 months since I bought mine and I couldn’t be happier with the purchase.
I know what you mean, I tried to do the same on my Lexus with my gold card a few months back… they wouldn’t let me charge over 3k on mine. Imgaine the fabulous rewards points if it was charged the full amount of the automibile, especially in your case. But, I guess once in a blue moon even the prestigue of a Centurion card can’t bend the rules.
Anyway, nice wheels… is that your actual GranTurismo S or a stock photo?