Query about car finance deposit

Nikkiwilliams

We are to pick up a car tomorrow from Arnold Clark which we have secured HP finance on. We owe a further £800 for the deposit which we intend to pay tomorrow. My partners father however has offered to pay this deposit via his credit card as a gift/partial repayment of some money he owes my partner, but I wasn't sure if that is allowed. Does the deposit have to come from our own debit card/bank account? Thanks 

la531983

Your issue may actually be the retailer not accepting a credit card payment for that amount, have you checked?

In practice though I doubt the retailer actually cares whose card it comes from (for example they no doubt have parents buying cars for kids all of the time), but you need to check the above first.

Brie

Another alternative is for father to do a 0% balance transfer from his card to your/partner's card but that of course means there will also be a transfer fee - possibly 5% so an extra £40 out of father's pocket.

CliveOfIndia

I doubt it'll be an issue - most car dealers won't accept the full purchase price via credit card, due to the fees they're charged by the card company.  But most will accept a small-ish deposit.  And they're unlikely to care too much about where the money comes from, as long as they get paid.  It may be different if you're talking about a Ferrari and it sparks off money-laundering concerns!

You won't be covered by Section 75 protection since it's not your credit card - that may or may not be a consideration for you.  S75 can be a useful added protection, but it's not the catch-all get-out-of-jail-free card that it's sometimes viewed as

born_again

Only thing I would say if this is a finance deposit, then the finance co will have this payment method on file, should any other payment method fail, they will default to this card.

If there is someway to transfer funds to partner for them to pay, then take that route. Rather than using their card.