Purchasing a car using a debit card

book12

I will be buying a car which cost £2000 by debit card. The dealer prefers this method of payment.

Which one of the following will happen:

a) payment goes through, then a a few seconds/minutes later, a call from the bank asking if this transaction is genuine, and tell them what I purchased, some security questions, etc...

b) payment goes through, then account & card gets blocked, until the transaction is verified

c) transaction is blocked

d) other (please specifiy by you all)

I was hoping for option A. When you guys buy a car using a debit card, which of the following happend to you?

Kilty_2

None of the above unless you've got some kind of high security arrangement with your bank (ie you've been a victim of card fraud in the past)

One of two things will happen

A) It'll go through

It'll be referred (the dealer will need to call a helpline for their merchant account which will connect to your bank - you speak to them and you confirm your details, that it's your card, etc)

The last dealer I paid £3800 to by card said that he'd had a transaction of £30,000 go through without referral before :rotfl:

stclair

I agree with Kiltys post :-)

taffy056

Can I just say that you should pay a deposit of at least a £100 on a credit card, it will give you added protection under I think the credit act should anything go wrong.

vaio

yep, you'll get CCA protection if you pay some of it on a credit card, doesn't have to be £100

missile

Be careful.

I paid a dealer by debit card and his terminal showed "transaction declined"

I was surprised as I new I had sufficient funds in my Nationwide account.

Dealer took me to nearest Nationwide branch, where I explained problem to the clueless assistant.

I could not withdraw such a large sum in cash and was told only alternative was a bankers draft for the dealer which I had to pay for.

Drove away "happy" in my new car.

Not so happy when I tried to withdraw funds a few days later and found the dealer had been paid twice and my account overdrawn.

Fortunately the dealer was honest and refunded the overpayment. Nationwide were less than helpful - according to them it was all my fault!

King_Nothing

I have a chip and pin reciept from my last car purchase, not often you get a reciept with £12,500 on it, lol.

I asked my bank before hand, they said it would be fine.

Gloomendoom

I used a debit card to buy a car and it just went through like any other payment. It wasn't £30K, but it wasn't that far off.

vickssinex

I've done this a few times over the last 8 or 9 years or so for amounts of £4-5,000 without any problems. However I've always contacted my bank a few days beforehand to let them know I'm going to make a large withdrawal.

Hammyman

If I've ever had transactions blocked, they've been of the sub £200 variety.

colin79666

When I bought my first car for 7k the dealer had to phone the bank and I had to speak to them and answer the security questions.
When I traded that one in and got my current car it went through with just the PIN - not phone call required (was about 4k).

If you don't know what your security questions/answers are its best to sort that out with the bank first to save hassle at the dealership when you go to pick up your car