Maximum amounts on debit cards?

ddebski_us

Hi all

Hopefully this is a question with a quick answer (possibly a bit dumb too!):

I'm planning on buying a car tomorrow for £6.5k and I have the cash in my bank account - are there any restrictions on how much you can pay by debit card? I'm with HSBC if that helps? I think not but it would be a disaster if it were to be declined tomorrow!

Thanks

xDx

chunkychocky

When I bought a new car in 2001 (I'm still driving it now) I paid £1000 on credit card which was the maximum they allowed and a further £13000 by debit card so unless they have changed the rules you should be OK. I am with HSBC too.

jen245

My hubby used his HSBC debit card to pay £7000 for a car last year no problem

ddebski_us

Cool - sounds like I'm worrying over nothing!!

Thanks guys

xDx

Kildare

I paid for a card 2 years ago on debit card - £8,000. I called the bank the day before to inform them that I would be making this transaction and they put a note on the account so it wouldn't come up as fraud

agrinnall

I once paid the balance of over £27K for a new Porsche by debit card, like Kildare I called the bank the day before and it went through fine.

izools

I just bought a car with my HSBC debit card, too, about 10x the highest valued transaction I'd previously made to date.

Went straight through no issues. It was pretty darn quick, too, hardly enough time for his PDQ to even dial up.

I wouldn't worry

EDIT: Worst case scenario, it's declined, you call the bank, verify it was you, they unblock your card, you try again, and it goes through fine. This happened to me once but that's because I went to Burger King - they thought it was fraud as it was so far outside my normal spending habbits (was quite drunk) :beer:

MoneySaverLog

It's best to forewarn the bank of any large debit card transaction, just to be double sure everything goes through OK.

jonesMUFCforever

OP you should have no problem with your transaction but in case of any problems get hold of the bank's card services telephone number so that in the event of a declined transaction you can get it sorted out ASAP.
Most banks will have a maximum of around £30k for debit card transactions.

mclaren32

What may happen is that the transaction will be referred, what this means is that the garage will need to contact their merchant who will in tern contact your bank. They may then need to confirm some security details over the phone with you. The garage will be used to this sort of thing so dont be alarmed if it happens. Contacting the bank to force an approval wouldnt be normal and I dont think they would be able to help you directly, it has to be done through the merchant.

AFAIK the card transaction limits are set by/for the companies rather than the bank so they can vary, NSI used to be £100k for example.

Gromitt

Debit card is still the cheapest and fastest way to pay. I bought a 6K car using mine with no problems. I did ring the bank about 10 minutes before just to inform them and was told the maximum was 10K/day unless notice is given.

I thought about writing a cheque, but was told 5 - 7 days to clear, and a bank transfer would have cost £22.