Used car dealer question

Cleisthenes

Cleisthenes

Cleisthenes

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Joined
29 Jul 2013
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A colleague of mine recently put a deposit down on a car via debit card.

He's due to be collecting it on the 16th, however the dealer has said that due to issues in the past they don't have a card payment device so it would need to be via BACS. This immediately raised alarm bells for me, surely this is pretty unusual for these types of dealers?

The car is going to be £6k or so for context and the garage is registered with the FCA for finance and is all VAT registered etc.

What are your thoughts oh wise OcUK?
 
My Dad was recently told this at a Ford dealership on a car he was interested in (no deposit paid, just browsing), which immediately raised suspicion. Anyone know the reasoning behind it?
 
Cleisthenes said:
due to issues in the past they don't have a card payment device so it would need to be via BACS.
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How did he pay the deposit by debit card if they don't have a card payment device?

When i bought my car in 2016 i paid a deposit by credit card + the small handling fee, and then BT the rest whilst i was sat in the office.
 
Probably just don't want to take the full payment via card because of fees. I bought our last car with a £1,000 card payment and the rest via BACS.
 
Its up to you how you pay, not the dealer. Clearly they can take card payments as the deposit was taken that way.
 
would demanding partial payment via a credit (as opposed to debit) card not be best too, for the additional cover that gives ?
 
Dealers don't like debit card transactions now as the card fees for debit card transactions changed to % based where in the past they were a fixed fee usually around 10-30p depending on transaction volume etc. (Credit card transactions have always been % based)

Pay the deposit via credit card and the whole purchased it protected upto 30k with a minimum £100 deposit.
 
It'll be due to the fees on the amount, it's not like they've flat out refused to do card payments as they've taken the deposit via card.
 
Fusion said:
My Dad was recently told this at a Ford dealership on a car he was interested in (no deposit paid, just browsing), which immediately raised suspicion. Anyone know the reasoning behind it?
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We had the same experience at Knights BMW when we nearly bought a 3 Series, paid the deposit by debit card but they requested the balance to be paid by BACS. (Decided against in the end and got the deposit refunded after way too much chasing!)

Stratstone BMW were more than happy to accept full payment for my partners 1 Series by debit card with no quibble.

I can understand a small trader not wanting to cough up fees but Knights BMW? A supposedly premium brand dealership and part iirc of the rather huge Lookers group? just seems not to be Cricket to my mind.
 
Just bought a car from a well regarded independent dealer, their preferred method was deposit via credit card, and then Bank Transfer (Faster payments) for the balance (using the car reg as a payment reference).
 
Scania said:
We had the same experience at Knights BMW when we nearly bought a 3 Series, paid the deposit by debit card but they requested the balance to be paid by BACS. (Decided against in the end and got the deposit refunded after way too much chasing!)

Stratstone BMW were more than happy to accept full payment for my partners 1 Series by debit card with no quibble.

I can understand a small trader not wanting to cough up fees but Knights BMW? A supposedly premium brand dealership and part iirc of the rather huge Lookers group? just seems not to be Cricket to my mind.
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With debit card or BACS both amount would come directly out of your bank account, why would you choose not to use BACS? A credit card would give you added protection but I don't see why you would insist on using a debit card.
 
Mujja said:
With debit card or BACS both amount would come directly out of your bank account, why would you choose not to use BACS? A credit card would give you added protection but I don't see why you would insist on using a debit card.
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I’m just commenting on the fact BACS was requested rather than debit card by the dealer - we were happy to pay by whatever means to be honest - the reason we pulled out of the deal was nothing to do with method of payment.
 
Stratstone has very recently taken deposits on credit card and balance clearance on Debit Card for two large purchases.

Mujja said:
Why would you choose not to use BACS?
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Because i can place my debit card in the card reader enter 4 numbers and be done with the transaction, depending on the amount transferred via BACS i may hit the limit therefore CHAPS has something like a £25 fee.
 
200sols said:
Its up to you how you pay, not the dealer. Clearly they can take card payments as the deposit was taken that way.
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No it's not, if they refuse to accept debit card payments for the full amount that's their choice and you have the option of pay using a method they take or walking away.
 
I'm not sure why it would raise alarm bells - paying with debit card gives no additional protection to paying via BACS or any other sort of bank transfer.

As long as I incurred no fees, I'd be happy with either.
 
I paid via BACS for my purchase three weeks ago - so OK, large main dealership, but still.
They just asked I complete that transfer 48hrs prior to collection so they can confirm the money was there.
All nice and easy and I never feared they were going to run away with my money.
 
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