Huh. I have a ridiculous credit limit on my VISA - like, $16,000, I never use it but feel gratified that if I ever need to do a bunk to Brazil or someplace I'll have some leeway - I wonder if a car dealer would take it for a car?

My dealership let me put like $5 grand of downpayment on my Amex, which I then just paid off. The rest I made up with a check.

Yeah, my experience has been that the dealer would let us put a certain amount on the card, but not the whole thing.

Would you then get a loan to pay off the credit card immediately?

Since I only want financing on a small amount (and I can't get a car loan for less than 7500), I could pay off most of it right away.

And, to be honest, in the period before it came due, I'd probably waffle and put the money together anyway, but that's not as soon as tomorrow. But that's just my position.

But if could downpay with a credit card--well, that's just fine too. Hmm.

It wouldn't make sense to finance a car that way unless you had a super-magic credit card; I was thinking more to manage cash flow temporarily, like until you could get funds out of a CD or a mutual fund or something.

I do like thinking about charging my 4 one-way tickets to a sunny country with tax shelters and no extradition treaty, though.

When I declared bankruptcy 12 years ago, I got the lawyer's fee by doing a cash advance on the credit card that was about to be wiped out. I feel a little bad about it now, but it made me giggle then.

Of course, that lawyer didn't bother to show up at the court hearing and we had to get a volunteer from the lawyers sitting around waiting for their cases, so maybe it all worked out.

I just wish I was able to get a credit card, for plane tickets to see M. I just want a wee $2000 limit, so we don't have to freak every time we need to pay for our half of the ticket.

But both of our credit is crap, and we can only get those pre-paid ones, which I'm all like "If I HAD the money, I would just pay for the ticket!"

I know, I know; re-establishing credit, blah, blah. But still. We would pay it off, because we'd just need to use the darn thing in another 4 months. We're trying to save for tickets, but it's hard. But auto-pays we can do.

If you're after points, having the cash in the bank to immediately pay off the credit card makes sense. Planet Money had a piece recently on a dodge people looking to run up their credit points were doing -- you could order a couple thousand dollar coins directly from the treasury (for face value!) and then turn around and deposit them in your bank to pay off the credit card. (You know, the "legal tender" thing.) But because you'd legitimately spent the money, you got the credit points.

Because of the news story, the Treasury has closed up the loophole, alas.

I heard that story about the dollar coins! There was a mind-boggling description of the vault where they keep bags and bags of them. It's huuuuuge.

(I love dollar coins. I think people should use them.)

So the dollar coins were being treated as an addition to the balance in your account, instead of just being the same money in a different form?

So basically it was a loophole around cash deduction without mandatory interest with your credit card? Crafty.

I *really* want the points. Travelling business/first class last Christmas was addictive, but there's no way in hell I'm paying asking price for that shit. I'm startled by the idea anyone does. I assumed everyone's working points and frequent flier accounts, etc. I mean, I don't know any rich people who haven't translated that into FF points, I guess. Which means I don't really know rich. However "I'm going to Singapore for the weekend just to rack up points. Maybe I'll buy cheap silk and pearls when I'm there." is plenty rich from where I'm standing.