Paying for a new car by bank transfer

MrsWater

I am in the process of buying a new car and the main dealer has asked for payment in full by bank transfer.  Previously I have paid by debit card - a call to the bank releases the limit on the card long enough for the garage to take payment.

The garage says it no longer takes card payment for vehicles.

I am concerned that the money is at risk as they have asked for payment to be made the day before I will be collecting.

Anything I can do to protect the money which will be in their account overnight?

user1977

Not really. I did similar recently and took a view on it given I was buying from one of the biggest dealerships around.

WellKnownSid

Few will take debit cards these days for security and compliance reasons.

They don’t need it the day before unless you’re collecting at the weekend, it’s for their convenience really.

Go and check the car over and transfer the money there and then. The salesperson can then make an internal phone call to their banking team who will verify the money is in and complete the handover.

You will probably find your banking app may limit you to £5k or so - but a quick call or a trip to your branch should fix that.

SiliconChip

Very strange, debit card was the preferred payment method for the main dealer that I recently bought my new car from, I paid the deposit with a credit card and they offered tranfer the day before as an alternative for the balance (but very clearly pushed me towards debit card, which was fine by me).

WellKnownSid

SiliconChip said:

Very strange, debit card was the preferred payment method for the main dealer that I recently bought my new car from, 

If they’re happy to wait for their money and have enough profit in the deal to not care about interchange, scheme and acquirer fees then they won’t care as much.

Lavendyr

I wouldn't pay anything until I have the vehicle in sight  and therefore in the vicinity of my possession, from a reputable dealer. Last time I purchased a car, I paid the balance by debit card. The dealer was fine with that. You can do BACS or, if needs be, CHAPS on the spot. 

WellKnownSid

Lavendyr said:

You can do BACS or, if needs be, CHAPS on the spot. 

I guess most people here will be transferring from a personal account so Faster Payments will be the default option which is in theory instant and doesn't attract a fee.

If I'm buying second hand I'll check but I've never actually inspected any new or nearly new vehicle before handing over the money but that's just me.  On the rare occasion I've pointed issues out after payment ('you do realise the number plate on the front is different to the number plate on the back') they've always been dealt with swiftly.

facade

WellKnownSid said:

  On the rare occasion I've pointed issues out after payment ('you do realise the number plate on the front is different to the number plate on the back') they've always been dealt with swiftly.

Happened to me once years ago.  The correct number was something like C557ABC and the one on the front was C577ABC.  The dealer had done the HPI check on C577ABC.

Eventually I cracked the front numberplate and when I got the new one from the V5, the new one was different to the one I took off and used to drill the holes in the new one!

Now both numbers were the same make & model car, so there was never any problem when driving.

However, when I came to trade it in the new dealer didn't want it because it had outstanding (in the bad sense!) finance, and was a write-off.

Oh what fun that was to sort out. 

Turned out it had been crashed when it was a few months old, and the owner wanted a new car out of it, so they stopped paying the finance.

The original dealer bought it back off me for the trade price in the end.

The red flags were there to see- suspiciously low mileage (it was off the road whilst the arguing happened), some wrong interior trim (explained as "It's French Sir, they use whatever is in the factory"- which is certainly true for Spanish and UK built vehicles....) and when I serviced it at home the front panel was new, so it had had a bump- would have been CAT N today.

I still think the transposed number was deliberate to offload the car at auction. Had I noticed at purchase, unless I or the dealer did another HPI on the number on the back we still wouldn't have known about the markers on the car.