Using Barclaycard CC to pay a deposit on a car purchase

nero33

Hi.

In the past when I've bought cars, it's been a local purchase, so I'm at the premises and I've used a credit card to pay £100 deposit and get my receipt. This secures the car and potentially offers me some legal protection down the road (S75 etc).

But I'm looking at a car now that I want to secure with a deposit but the garage is not local and they've sent me their trading bank account details. (Business name/Sort code/account number)

Can I still use my credit card to make this deposit  and how (if it's possible).  I don't see an option to do so on my Barclaycard app, (only on my  Barclays debit card banking app)

Thanks

CliveOfIndia

Assuming they'll accept cards, then the simplest is probably to ring them up and give them your card details over the phone.

If it's purely for the S75 protection, you don't need to pay £100 on card, any amount will do (even 1p in theory).  The item needs to cost between £100 and £30,000 to benefit from S75, but it doesn't matter how much you pay by card.

nero33

CliveOfIndia said:

Assuming they'll accept cards, then the simplest is probably to ring them up and give them your card details over the phone.

If it's purely for the S75 protection, you don't need to pay £100 on card, any amount will do (even 1p in theory).  The item needs to cost between £100 and £30,000 to benefit from S75, but it doesn't matter how much you pay by card.

Yes they accept credit cards.

£100 is the minimum they accept as a deposit, hence that sum.

It should be safe to phone it through?  It's giving out the 3 digit CVC number that worries me a bit

DullGreyGuy

nero33 said:

CliveOfIndia said:

Assuming they'll accept cards, then the simplest is probably to ring them up and give them your card details over the phone.

If it's purely for the S75 protection, you don't need to pay £100 on card, any amount will do (even 1p in theory).  The item needs to cost between £100 and £30,000 to benefit from S75, but it doesn't matter how much you pay by card.

Yes they accept credit cards.

£100 is the minimum they accept as a deposit, hence that sum.

It should be safe to phone it through?  It's giving out the 3 digit CVC number that worries me a bit

It's how billions of transactions were done before the event of the internet and still continue for anyone buying insurance over the phone etc.

Having been in call centres in the 1990s and visited them again in the 2020s they are far more controlled than they used to be; though it's unclear if you are calling a dealership or a call centre. 

Ultimately it's your call, personally wouldn't think twice about it as long as I am calling them and calling them on their publicly published number. As you've said, you have more protection with a CC if something does go wrong than what you'll have with the subsequent bank transfer thats going to be for much more than £100 I assume. 

CliveOfIndia

nero33 said:

£100 is the minimum they accept as a deposit, hence that sum.

Fair enough then - I only questioned it as the £100 thing is commonly misunderstood as the minimum you need to pay by CC to get S75 protection

nero33 said:

It should be safe to phone it through?  It's giving out the 3 digit CVC number that worries me a bit

As per the reply from DGG, there's no problem at all - just make sure you're phoning them on their genuine phone number.  It doesn't really matter if you're calling the physical dealership themselves or their head office accounts department (which may well be the case if it's a large dealership).  You do get a fair amount of protection when paying by CC, just as long as you're taking sensible precautions.  But as long as you're happy that you're speaking to the dealership or authorised representative, there's no issue with giving out your card details and CVC code.

nero33

CliveOfIndia said:

nero33 said:

£100 is the minimum they accept as a deposit, hence that sum.

Fair enough then - I only questioned it as the £100 thing is commonly misunderstood as the minimum you need to pay by CC to get S75 protection

nero33 said:

It should be safe to phone it through?  It's giving out the 3 digit CVC number that worries me a bit

As per the reply from DGG, there's no problem at all - just make sure you're phoning them on their genuine phone number.  It doesn't really matter if you're calling the physical dealership themselves or their head office accounts department (which may well be the case if it's a large dealership).  You do get a fair amount of protection when paying by CC, just as long as you're taking sensible precautions.  But as long as you're happy that you're speaking to the dealership or authorised representative, there's no issue with giving out your card details and CCV code.

It's not a dealership or call centre. Just a small trader that's signed up to be an AA approved trader/Trading Standards Approved etc that has a forecourt with about 25 vehicles currently for sale.

DullGreyGuy

CliveOfIndia said:
It doesn't really matter if you're calling the physical dealership themselves or their head office accounts department (which may well be the case if it's a large dealership).  You do get a fair amount of protection when paying by CC, just as long as you're taking sensible precautions. 

My point was that if you are calling a big call centre they are likely to have a number of additional protections in place. The last one I went to:

• Allows no paper or pens in the call centre, agents have a dry wipe mini board that is checked as being blank at the end of the shift
• No phones, cameras, iPods, iPads etc allowed in the call centre
• Phone system automatically stops recording when the cursor is in the card entry fields; similar cuts out for someone else listening in (eg a team manager doing QA checks)

In a store, dealership, restaurant booking etc its unlikely they have that level of protection but its also unlikely they are dealing with that volume of card numbers. In principle in my telesales days you'd be given 100 cards a shift so were you looking for alternative revenue streams it you could harvest a reasonable number in a modest time hence the much more prudent security -v- the guy in accounts who may get 2-3 cards a shift tops and some aspects will be irrelevant as there probably isn't call recording in the first place. 


The protections from the card itself are unimpacted by what's happened at the other end. 

nero33

Just an update.  Due to them not being able to return our call a couple of times to take the deposit, they held the car for for a few days until we could view it without a deposit. And we bought it