Buying a car outright at a dealer - payment method?

[MitchT]

I'm looking for a new (to me) car at the moment. Will most likely be an Approved Used BMW from a main dealer. I'll be paying outright - probably around £25k. What's the drill for actually making the payment?

According to my bank's website it will let me pay up to £25k on my debit card, but I'm worried it might it block the transaction on the day due to the amount of money.

I could do a faster payment from my banking app but, again, it might be blocked due to the amount. Also, if it hasn't gone through by the time the dealer closes, will I have to go home without the car?

I could get a banker's draft but, according to information online, these can take up to six days to clear, so possibly not going to be acceptable in the showroom on collection day.

What are others' experiences in this scenario?

Edited by MitchT on Monday 2nd January 11:37

[edthefed]

Speak to your bank in advance of the day

Advise them that you are buying a car, on date / time and paying by debit card and the amount

Ask them to make a note of your call.

Done this numerous times never had a problem

[InitialDave]

Even when I've bought outright using bank transfer or my debit card, I still put an initial nominal amount (few hundred to a grand or so) on a credit card, just so I have access to the consumer rights stuff if I need it.

[soad]

I tend to do a bank transfer, but it’s for smaller amounts (under £5k).

[Deep Thought]

MitchT said:

I'm looking for a new (to me) car at the moment. Will most likely be an Approved Used BMW from a main dealer. I'll be paying outright - probably around £25k. What's the drill for actually making the payment?

According to my bank's website it will let me pay up to £25k on my debit card, but I'm worried it might it block the transaction on the day due to the amount of money.

I could do a faster payment from my banking app but, again, it might be blocked due to the amount. Also, if it hasn't gone through by the time the dealer closes, will I have to go home without the car?

I could get a banker's draft but, according to information online, these can take up to six days to clear, so possibly not going to be acceptable in the showroom on collection day.

What are others' experiences in this scenario?

Edited by MitchT on Monday 2nd January 11:37

I bought an M2 from a dealer just before Christmas. Cash purchase. Just short of £32K.

Paid a deposit on the day with the debit card then moved the rest over the day before handover. Only contraint was Nationwide bank only allow £10K to be moved at a time, so had to do it in several chunks. The salesman then rang their accounts department who confirmed the amount had cleared.

All the paperwork - invoices, etc were sent via email and electronically signed, so it made the handover day much nicer and removed any worry about the transaction not going through. Just had to go in and pick the keys up really.

[MitchT]

Thanks all - some helpful stuff there.

[soad]

MitchT said:

Thanks all - some helpful stuff there.

Most mobile banking apps will ask to verify that it’s you making the payment. Never had them blocked lately.

[Edible Roadkill]

Used my bank card on a £50k car at Audi a few years back, no issues. Generally they don’t want cash over a certain value.

[Deep Thought]

Edible Roadkill said:

Used my bank card on a £50k car at Audi a few years back, no issues. Generally they don’t want cash over a certain value.

Correct. I think its about £8K or so and then they get jumpy.

But i think the O/P is just talking about how to move the money, rather than actual "cash".

[RammyMP]

The last car I bought was from an Audi dealer, they wouldn’t take a card payment of over £3k (from memory). I paid the deposit on a credit card (£500) then made 2 bank transfers, one was £10k and the next was the remainder which was less than £10k as that was my banks daily limit.

[mac96]

Probably depends on which bank you use and your normal payment patterns.
I bought a new car a few weeks ago, cost about £35,000. I rang HSBC the day before to tell them I would be making this payment on my debit card; they told me to call from the garage at point of payment as any suspension of maximum payment limits would only last 30 minutes!

In the event, I made the payment and it went through without needing a call. Dealer told me that was common in his experience. May have helped that dealer was local to me- I'd hope it would have been blocked if a payment was being made to someone overseas.

[Deep Thought]

RammyMP said:

The last car I bought was from an Audi dealer, they wouldn’t take a card payment of over £3k (from memory). I paid the deposit on a credit card (£500) then made 2 bank transfers, one was £10k and the next was the remainder which was less than £10k as that was my banks daily limit.

They wont take a large credit card payment as it incurs % of transactionbased fees, and they are no longer allowed to charge you extra to use a credit card, hence why they wont go above a certain amount.

They will accept a debit card payment though, as it incurs only a tiny set fee per transaction.

[ZX10R NIN]

See if there are any deals to be done if you take out their finance (normally their are contributions & service deals in Q1) packages.

As for payment methods see above.

[Kuwahara]

Usually just pay through my banking app ,a few hoops to jump through regards security but that’s a good thing surely…

[paradigital]

As with a few above, the last three cars I’ve bought, including one from William’s BMW, were paid for by bank transfer, with the funds clearing at least 24hrs before collection.

Never had a problem, but did have to send the payments for one of them in chunks due to app limitations. I did send the payment for my Model 3 Performance in one go, but I had to go to branch for that.

[cheesejunkie]

InitialDave said:

Even when I've bought outright using bank transfer or my debit card, I still put an initial nominal amount (few hundred to a grand or so) on a credit card, just so I have access to the consumer rights stuff if I need it.

I wouldn’t like to put it to the test on a car purchase but for any purchase over 100 quid I’ll stick at least the deposit on a credit card. It doesn’t have to be the full purchase price. I’ve never had an issue on cars but have with other purchases - furniture mostly.

I remember buying a car from a dealer with a cheque once. About 10 grand but it was 20 years ago so it was worth more then. I was surprised they let me write it and drive away with the car but they did with no hassle, more recently I’ve used debit for the bulk of the payment and let the bank know. Now a bank transfer via app would be far and away my easiest and preferred option but I’d still stick 100 on the card if I could.

[limpsfield]

Why don’t people just call their bank and ask?

I know the comeback would be - if there were no stupid questions on PH there would be no threads, but on a purchase like this HSBC might be different from Halifax etc. It’s a 5 minute phone call.

Anyway, I think I am having a heart attack and fading in and out of consciousness- any ideas what I can do?

[cheesejunkie]

limpsfield said:

Why don’t people just call their bank and ask?

I know the comeback would be - if there were no stupid questions on PH there would be no threads, but on a purchase like this HSBC might be different from Halifax etc. It’s a 5 minute phone call.

Anyway, I think I am having a heart attack and fading in and out of consciousness- any ideas what I can do?

Ask a car forum.

If you’re fading back into consciousness it can’t be that serious and you’re back of the ambulance queue waiting list now.

[MitchT]

Deep Thought said:

But i think the O/P is just talking about how to move the money, rather than actual "cash".

That's right. Just mean payment in full as opposed to finance.

Kuwahara said:

Usually just pay through my banking app ,a few hoops to jump through regards security but that’s a good thing surely…

Yes, that usually works perfectly, though I did once have an excruciating hour on the phone trying to convince someone from my bank that I wasn't being coerced when I tried to transfer £1k to my crypto.com account after a message flagged up saying my account would be frozen if I didn't contact them within half an hour to confirm that the transaction was legit.

limpsfield said:

Why don’t people just call their bank and ask?

Because asking people on here what their actual experiences were is preferable to wasting half my day listening to hold music and then being waffled at by an accent so foreign that I can't make out a word of what's being said.

[FWIW]

InitialDave said:

Even when I've bought outright using bank transfer or my debit card, I still put an initial nominal amount (few hundred to a grand or so) on a credit card, just so I have access to the consumer rights stuff if I need it.

This is the answer.
Ideally a small deposit by credit card, or take some finance from the dealer even if you’re going to pay it off early.