How do I settle private seller's finance?

[Hants PHer]

I am intending to buy a car from a private seller on Saturday. He informs me that the car is on finance, and that I should settle with the finance company (using the settlement figure that they will supply) and then pay him the balance using a bank transfer.

I've never done this before, hence my questions: is the above procedure correct? How do I pay the finance company (using my debit card I presume)? How can I be sure that the liability to the finance company has been settled in full? Will it be OK to do this late on a Saturday afternoon?

Background: the transaction is below £25k, the seller lives a long way from me, I've spoken to him and have done the necessary checks via V-check.
TIA for any advice.

[Hants PHer]

Thanks for the comments folks. The finance company is BMW Financial Services, and I'm a little concerned that I'd be calling them at 4 pm on Saturday afternoon. I can't get there before then.

Every time I've called any organisation recently I've been stuck in a lengthy "your call is important to us" queue, and their website says they close at 5 pm Saturday. Anyone dealt with BMW FS recently? Are they efficient?

[Hants PHer]

village24 said:

I would not advise settling on a weekend especially if the value is what you would consider high.
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If the car was in excess of 10k I would not feel comfortable doing any of the above on a weekend. It is way too risky as they could easily extend the finance the day you leave etc

Just to bring this little thread to a close, the seller and I rearranged the sale to a weekday. I checked out the car; everything was fine with it. I transferred the money to him by bank transfer and he then showed me the 'final settlement amount' email from the finance company (which was a little over £20k), called them and settled the total amount with a bank transfer. He passed me the phone and the nice young lady at the finance company confirmed to me that it was now paid off in full. All very straightforward.