If your credit cards are really willing to give you an unsecured loan that another bank won't accept a car as collateral on, then someone's risk analysis is wro

If your credit cards are really willing to give you an unsecured loan that another bank won't accept a car as collateral on, then someone's risk analysis is wrong. In practice this doesn't happen because large single-item purchases should be denied, especially if they're unusual. If you generally spend $500 of your $10,000 limit on an average of 20 different items, and suddenly try to put one $5,000 item on your credit card without calling your bank ahead of time, it probably won't go through. Source: I worked at a credit card risk department at a major bank.