Paying over £30k with a debit card

Paul_DNAP

18cc wrote: »

The only thing you can do is pay 30K for the car and 5K for something else not sure how creative you can get but for example 5K to clean it prior to collection!

There is a fine line between "creative accounting" and "criminal fraud" and I think that this particular activity would be on the wrong side of that line.


The only way to get Section 75 protection would be to haggle hard or buy a cheaper car.

18cc

Yes agreed that is a bit unbelievable - probably best to claim 5k to wash AND polish it

Terry_Towelling

aj23 wrote: »

Yeah? That wasn't my point. You don't have to make the full balance in one transaction in order to be covered by Section 75.

Correct but the item you are purchasing has to be between £100 and £30K for S75 of the CCA to cover you so, unless you can get the price down to £30K and pay some of it by credit card you will not have this valuable cover.

Paying by Visa/MasterCard (credit or debit) may provide an element of protection if certain things happen. Your card company may be able to make a 'chargeback' to the sellers acquiring bank if things go wrong but the chargeback rules are quite specific in the way they work and it is hard to think of any consumer-protection chargeback rules that might kick-in here (been 13 years since I worked in the card industry and a lot has changed).

I too wouldn't pay for a used car I hadn't seen or driven or poked around in but it is the OPs choice, they just wanted some guidance on paying by card. If the bank issues a 'Referral' response to any Authorisation request (not usual in a card-not-present situation) the deal will probably fail because the card issuer may instruct the retailer to put the cardholder on the line for verification - which will be impossible. Speaking to Santander in advance is your best bet as long as they are able to put some kind of marker on your account that will be recognised when/if any Auth. request comes through.

The retailer is also taking a big risk if they are prepared to take a telephone payment and then let someone other than the cardholder collect the car. Most retailers would ask for the cardholder to collect and bring the card with them for verification.

Paul_DNAP

And also, if this is the sort of car dealer who has you so worried you are wanting to have Section 75 protection in place then you really need to consider if it really is a good idea handing them £35k in the first place.

takman

Paul_DNAP wrote: »

And also, if this is the sort of car dealer who has you so worried you are wanting to have Section 75 protection in place then you really need to consider if it really is a good idea handing them £35k in the first place.

It's always a good idea to part pay by card if Section 75 could apply to your purchase no matter how much you trust them. I always pay by credit card for purchases between £100 & £30,000 no matter how good i think the retailer is.

But obviously this is a bad purchase because the OP hasn't even seen the car.

Terry_Towelling

Also good to remember that there is other legislation available to handle breaches of contract or selling dodgy goods regardless of the applicability of the CCA.

There is a lot of history behind the applicability (or otherwise) of S75 to credit card transactions. It was primarily designed to address contractual issues caused by unscrupulous retailers who provided their own point-of-sale finance through a 'related', but different, company and then promptly declared themselves bankrupt to avoid paying out any claims against them.

S75 said that where there was such a pre-existing arrangement between the seller, the lender and the buyer, the buyer could choose to hold the seller's 'tame' money lender liable for contractual issues where the seller couldn't pay - problem solved.

The card companies were caught in this by accident and long claimed that there was no pre-existing three-way arrangement between them, the seller and the buyer and, on the face of it, that seems a reasonable stance. Indeed, just because you think you have a S75 claim it doesn't necessarily follow that your card company will pay you out just like that.

Most of the time they will (and often they will pay you because they have managed to charge the item back to the seller's card-processing bank irrespective of S75 - which can also be done with a debit card transaction) but they may equally ask you to prove there has been a breach of contract/misrepresentation by the seller first.

Whilst you don't have to do as you're told, you might then need to sue the seller, the card company or both to prove your point and get repaid.