UK payment

Mc Love

Whats the best way to pay for a car in the UK?

Sterling bank transfer?
EFT through Transfer mate?
Cash?

Although I wouldnt be happy bringing cash with me as I could get stopped and it taken off me.

corktina

you wont get cash taken off you so long as you carry proof of where it came from....

bazz26

Really depends on how much you are paying. I think UK dealers cannot accept large amounts in cash because of UK money laundering laws. Alot of folks use something like currency.ie but I would imagine the easiest and safest way would be to do an electronic exchange between your bank and theirs.

Mc Love

Someone told me to bring a draft and some cash incase there are any issues with the car on the day so I could haggle the price down.

Does anyone know if you can hand over the draft and drive away or does it need time to clear?

kdevitt

Sterling draft is easiest imo - customs can take anymore than £1500 off you if you have it in cash, or the car itself if you arrive at the ferry port and can't prove where the cash came from. Take a small amount of cash to use as your bargaining amount, if theres any.

You can supply the draft number and issuing bank to the seller, and they can phone ahead to verify it before you even leave Ireland.

Mc Love

kdevitt wrote: »

Sterling draft is easiest imo - customs can take anymore than £1500 off you if you have it in cash, or the car itself if you arrive at the ferry port and can't prove where the cash came from. Take a small amount of cash to use as your bargaining amount, if theres any.

You can supply the draft number and issuing bank to the seller, and they can phone ahead to verify it before you even leave Ireland.

Sound Thanks kdevitt

I.S.T.

Mc Love wrote: »

Whats the best way to pay for a car in the UK?

Sterling bank transfer?
EFT through Transfer mate?
Cash?

Although I wouldnt be happy bringing cash with me as I could get stopped and it taken off me.

Depends on who you are buying from. Is it a dealer or a private sale? A dealer won't accept a bank draft. Drafts can be forged and take weeks to show up as a forgery on the system. My brother bought a car on credit card in the UK before. If you are buying from a dealer this might be the best option. You could deposit the amount on your credit card. Best thing to do is to call the person you plan to buy from and ask their payment options.

Mc Love

Yes a dealer. But once they check with the bank it should be okay. Will ring them later and ask though.

CarMuppet

I bought a car last year from a Dealership in the UK and used a credit card with no problems.... in fact it was the dealerships idea.... Simply credit your credit card with the cash you have set aside for the car... ring your credit card company to tell them what you're up to.... swipe and drive......

BTW, insist that the dealership does not charge you 'cross border charges' or 'bank charges' for using CC or you won't buy the card etc... worked fine for me.

Best of luck with your purchase....
CM

L1011

CarMuppet wrote: »

BTW, insist that the dealership does not charge you 'cross border charges' or 'bank charges' for using CC or you won't buy the card etc... worked fine for me.

They'll just take same out of your bargaining margin on the car - the dealer is losing up to 2.5% of the value in merchant fees so they'll recoup it some way or other.

kdevitt

IrishSpeedTraps wrote: »

Depends on who you are buying from. Is it a dealer or a private sale? A dealer won't accept a bank draft. Drafts can be forged and take weeks to show up as a forgery on the system. My brother bought a car on credit card in the UK before. If you are buying from a dealer this might be the best option. You could deposit the amount on your credit card. Best thing to do is to call the person you plan to buy from and ask their payment options.

Have never had an issue with a dealer accepting a draft, on the contrary I had an issue with the credit card after taking similar advice - ended up being charged 2.5% commission.

cnocbui

Bank draft has worked fine for me. I even had it made out to the sellers finance company.

The seller and I went into a bank in the Uk and they were able to verify to the seller that it was genuine. We posted the draft off to the finance company together, and we both went our ways happy.

teelinboy

You could always do a Swift transaction which is a form of EFT that does not cost much and will transfer the money in 24-48 hrs. I used this method when I bought a car from a dealer in Sheffield a few years ago.

All you need are the dealers bank details - the who process is very traceable. Ask your bank about it.

jackofalltrades

I'm helping a family member buy a car in the UK at the moment.

I've come across a few dealers that will only accept a Debit card to clear the balance. Asking to pay by Bankers draft usually leads to a "No, we've been burnt too many times" or "It'll take 3-5 Days to clear".

Don't fancy carry loads of cash over or paying the commission rates for Debit/Credit cards.

Atlantic Dawn

kdevitt wrote: »

Sterling draft is easiest imo - customs can take anymore than £1500 off you if you have it in cash, or the car itself if you arrive at the ferry port and can't prove where the cash came from.

You can have upto €10,000 in cash without having to declare it, but you must make a customs declaration if you have over €10,000.

I.S.T.

kdevitt wrote: »

Have never had an issue with a dealer accepting a draft, on the contrary I had an issue with the credit card after taking similar advice - ended up being charged 2.5% commission.

Well they are taking a big risk. The following is advice for people selling items on Buy and Sell:

Bank Draft Scams

In this scam the person interested in buying your item will say that they live abroad and would like you to ship the item to them. For this they will send you a bank draft for the cost of your item and the shipping costs. They will ask you to lodge this into your bank account and then pay the money for the shipping to their 'Shipping Agent' via a money transfer service like Western Union or Moneygram.

The bank draft will clear straight away and the funds will be in your account and it will only be a while later that the bank will find out it is a fraudulent draft and remove the funds. You would be unable to recover any money that has been sent via Western Union.

http://www.buyandsell.ie/legal/security

kdevitt

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

You can have upto €10,000 in cash without having to declare it, but you must make a customs declaration if you have over €10,000.

I'm not going to say you're wrong - but I'm going to take the word of the customs officials at Holyhead who tried to take my brothers new car off him and left us standing in the port and who told me the £1500 figure first hand .

Mc Love

kdevitt wrote: »

I'm not going to say you're wrong - but I'm going to take the word of the customs officials at Holyhead who tried to take my brothers new car off him and left us standing in the port and who told me the £1500 figure first hand .

Not a nice situation to be in I would imagine!?

kdevitt

Mc Love wrote: »

Not a nice situation to be in I would imagine!?

Not really to be honest! Had to unload everything from the car while we were at it so they could let a drugs dog hop around inside, baring in mind that my brother had to catch a flight to Paris for business once we returned home we couldn't afford to miss the ferry. They eventually let us go and we made it with a minute or two to spare.

He had no withdrawal slip for the cash, and only had a receipt for the car saying cash paid. I made sure to have everything in order when I got my next car!

Mc Love

kdevitt wrote: »

Sterling draft is easiest imo - customs can take anymore than £1500 off you if you have it in cash, or the car itself if you arrive at the ferry port and can't prove where the cash came from. Take a small amount of cash to use as your bargaining amount, if theres any.

You can supply the draft number and issuing bank to the seller, and they can phone ahead to verify it before you even leave Ireland.

Yep they confirmed there that they will accept bank draft.

They wont accept personal cheques, though who uses cheques these days?

si_guru

Use your Maestro/Switch card???