Mercedes-Benz Financial Payments w/ Credit Card

Question

So sorry if this has been asked before. I've just done an exhaustive search and the topics only seem to either cover down payments, talk about the American Express MB cards or they're so out-dated, I'm not certain the information is still accurate. I have a car lease through Mercedes-Benz Financial Services for about ~$650/month. I've been paying direct from my bank account monthly, but heard from a friend a few weeks ago that they were able to pay with their credit card for a $15 fee. They put it on an AMEX and apparently got the points and it was treated a purchase. Though I love my AMEX, I personally fly American Airlines and Oneworld and so want to earn AA miles for this transaction. This leaves me with Barclay Aviator and Citi AAdvantage as my options. I called MBFS, Barclay's and Citi - all state it will be treated as a cash advance with the associated fees and no rewards. My curiosity, though, is why they would all say it'll be handled as a cash advance, but American Express in this example handled it as a purchase that just comes through with the description "MB FIN SERV". I'm wondering if it's one of those "It should be this way", but their system is perhaps not seeing it as such? Does anyone here have any experience specifically with MBFS and paying with credit cards for this purpose? Did it work out for you? EDIT: MBFS did say the payment would be processed through Western Union.

Answer 1

travisrauh wrote:
So sorry if this has been asked before. I've just done an exhaustive search and the topics only seem to either cover down payments, talk about the American Express MB cards or they're so out-dated, I'm not certain the information is still accurate. I have a car lease through Mercedes-Benz Financial Services for about ~$650/month. I've been paying direct from my bank account monthly, but heard from a friend a few weeks ago that they were able to pay with their credit card for a $15 fee. They put it on an AMEX and apparently got the points and it was treated a purchase. Though I love my AMEX, I personally fly American Airlines and Oneworld and so want to earn AA miles for this transaction. This leaves me with Barclay Aviator and Citi AAdvantage as my options. I called MBFS, Barclay's and Citi - all state it will be treated as a cash advance with the associated fees and no rewards. My curiosity, though, is why they would all say it'll be handled as a cash advance, but American Express in this example handled it as a purchase that just comes through with the description "MB FIN SERV". I'm wondering if it's one of those "It should be this way", but their system is perhaps not seeing it as such? Does anyone here have any experience specifically with MBFS and paying with credit cards for this purpose? Did it work out for you?I seriously doubt that either Citi or Barclays is going to treat a lease payment as a cash advance.  Try it once and find out but more than likely it will go thru as a regular charge.