Vertu Mini - paying final balance

Kaysee1

I’ve paid a small deposit on credit card for a mini car, but dealer wants me to transfer the balance via bank transfer 2 days before collection. They reckon they don’t have the facility for taking debit card!  I’ve never done this before when buying cars and have always paid by debit card on the day and having  given the car a final check over. I feel as though once the money is transferred they will be less inclined to put things right on collection. Maybe things have changed but would be grateful of other peoples views.

sheslookinhot

Have you driven and inspected the car? Do this before any money changes hands. You do not want to be taking a car from dealer with issues to be corrected at a later, agreed date.

Bank transfer on the day. Dig your heels in.

born_again

Kaysee1 said:

I’ve paid a small deposit on credit card for a mini car, but dealer wants me to transfer the balance via bank transfer 2 days before collection. They reckon they don’t have the facility for taking debit card!  I’ve never done this before when buying cars and have always paid by debit card on the day and having  given the car a final check over. I feel as though once the money is transferred they will be less inclined to put things right on collection. Maybe things have changed but would be grateful of other peoples views.

This  is common for big groups. As they have separate finance departments for car purchases. So will take a day for them to pick up payments & authorise release of car.
Save them a lot of money, as card payments incur a surcharge. As well as for many cars, banks can & will block card payments, as they are over the daily card limit. So require calls to banks by customer to get limit raised, which is time limited, & also means no further spend on card for that day.

Frozen_up_north

My last car purchase (Nov 2024) also involved bank transfer. Like the OP I am not comfortable paying by bank transfer to a car dealer… what happens if they declare bankruptcy, are you legally the owner of the car?

The sensible option (in my opinion) is firstly to check the company at Companies House to see if their accounts look solid, then part pay by credit card (£100+) for Section 75 protection.

GrumpyDil

Frozen_up_north said:

My last car purchase (Nov 2024) also involved bank transfer. Like the OP I am not comfortable paying by bank transfer to a car dealer… what happens if they declare bankruptcy, are you legally the owner of the car?

The sensible option (in my opinion) is firstly to check the company at Companies House to see if their accounts look solid, then part pay by credit card (£100+) for Section 75 protection.

OP said they paid a small deposit by credit card already and the amount can be any amount. The £100 commonly quoted refers to the overall value of the item being purchased which has to be between £100 and £30,000

TheSpectator

It's pretty normal these days for bank transfer - the merchant fees on a few £1000 debit card payment are not insignificant.

Anyways you have S75 protection as previously said.

DrEskimo

I too would be wary of doing it that many days in advanced and would push to do the transfer on the day of purchase.

Just be aware of the transfer limit for your bank though. When I bought my car in September, I didn't realise they wouldn't take debit card either so had to transfer directly, but had a daily limit that exceeded the cost of the car. Thankfully had a family member on hand that had the funds available to send the remaining balance, and then I simply transferred the money back to them the next day, but it wasn't straight forward...

Goudy

DrEskimo said:

Just be aware of the transfer limit for your bank though. When I bought my car in September, I didn't realise they wouldn't take debit card either so had to transfer directly, but had a daily limit that exceeded the cost of the car. Thankfully had a family member on hand that had the funds available to send the remaining balance, and then I simply transferred the money back to them the next day, but it wasn't straight forward...

Yes, this.

My banks mobile app has a lower daily transfer limit than my online account (yet when I make a large online bank transfer it uses the app to confirm it's me???)
Also have a different limit with telephone banking.

This might be part of the reason they want it so far in advance, in case you have to make a few transactions over a couple of days.

sheramber

Check the car over 2 days ahead of collection, before transferring the payment after you have checked it.

born_again

DrEskimo said:

I too would be wary of doing it that many days in advanced and would push to do the transfer on the day of purchase.

Just be aware of the transfer limit for your bank though. When I bought my car in September, I didn't realise they wouldn't take debit card either so had to transfer directly, but had a daily limit that exceeded the cost of the car. Thankfully had a family member on hand that had the funds available to send the remaining balance, and then I simply transferred the money back to them the next day, but it wasn't straight forward...

Might be OK if picking up during the week. But a weekend, you can bet the finance team will not be working & no one at branch will have access to account to check payment has gone through.

Also a good chance that a Mini will be over £30K so would be no S75 cover. So would be far better taking out Mini finance to get S75A cover, in the event of major issues.