Opinions on paying for a car

Boa21

Pay a couple of hundred by credit card? Section 75 protection.

macman

Debit card on the day: transfer is instant, and you have some protection. No justification for bank transfer a week ahead. It doesn't take two days to clear; if sent by Faster Payments, it's instant.
Bank transfer means you have no possibility of using chargeback or S75, and, as for dealers going bust, I would expect that quite a few may never reopen after lockdown. 

mersey

Debit card,unbelievably American Express on my last car.(second hand main dealer)

Boa21

I normally put a couple of thousand on a cashback credit card, then a transfer for the rest. The dealers don't like the credit card but hey ho, it's money in their bank

Mutton_Geoff

The last car I bought I paid £38,000 on a debit card in the dealership. The bank didn’t even text or call to check it wasn’t fraudulent!

facade

Mutton_Geoff said:

The last car I bought I paid £38,000 on a debit card in the dealership. The bank didn’t even text or call to check it wasn’t fraudulent!

I've had similar. I've no idea what algorithm their fraud people use, but

Very high value, one off transactions (first time at that supplier) for easily fenceable items (cars, cameras, TVs, Laptops, phones) just go through, and then I get the entire fraud team on my case blocking my card for making a repeat order for £70 worth of niche model railway supplies.

John_

Mutton_Geoff said:

The last car I bought I paid £38,000 on a debit card in the dealership. The bank didn’t even text or call to check it wasn’t fraudulent!

I bought an RS4 back in 2007, for £54,000, and like you stuck it on a debit card and it went through with no problem. I was a bit surprised that I wasn’t called to check.

J_B

We bought two cars in 2019 (first purchases for 10 years!) one 14k, the other 8K

For both we did the following:-

Paid some on credit card - neither would accept Amex. Paid some on debit card on the day of purchase. Paid some on dealer's finance (both of which gave us benefits)

Tell them to stick their pre payment!