Buying with a debit card

veganrun

I'm looking to buy a car and the price is 8000 and the dealer has said they prefer debit cards for transactions of that amount which is fine by me. I called the bank and they said Visa have a 2500 limit on debit transactions so if I tried to make that payment, it would be refused saying an authorisation code was needed and the dealer would then have to phone Visa, who would then have to phone me to check my identity and then the funds would be released.

Although the girl on the phone said the dealers may already be set up to deal with that. It sounds awfully long winded and feels like it's going to cause some sort of hiccup to occur, like my phone number of something not matching or me not remembering some 3D secure password or address mismatch.

I'm with Bank of Ireland but the girl said it's Visa who impose the limitation. She also suggested I could add the dealer as a payee to my account and just do a straight bank transfer instead.

Anyone else run into this issue with Visa debit when buying a car and how did you get around it?

SEPT 23 1989

Would a simple bank draft not be the solution?

veganrun

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

Would a simple bank draft not be the solution?

Might have to be. Just wondering had anyone else hit this issue.

bazz26

This restriction is not exclusive to Visa Debit cards. Most of them put a ceiling on the amount you spend on a debit/laser card as it's a security feature in the event of attempted fraud or your car/account is compromised.

If the dealer wants to be paid by debit card then fine but let him do the legwork to facilitate it at his end otherwise pay by bank draft (dealer can verify the draft number with your issuing bank prior to you arriving) or credit card (dealer probably will not want this as the credit card company will charge them a fee or they don't have credit card facilities setup).

If you are paying by credit card then you are better off just transferring funds to your credit card prior to making the transaction, you probably need to notify your credit card company in advance too given it's a large enough transaction.

super_furry

Bought my fiance's engagement ring on Visa Debit and had to have that phonecall but it was straight-forward, done in a minute and for me, good to know that my account was secure.

dr.fuzzenstein

BIC and IBAN maybe?

veganrun

super_furry wrote: »

Bought my fiance's engagement ring on Visa Debit and had to have that phonecall but it was straight-forward, done in a minute and for me, good to know that my account was secure.

Good to know. Do you remember what they asked you to prove your identity?

super_furry

Think it was the standard security questions - mother's maiden name, address, etc.

Gumbo

Don't forget that the dealer will pay a % charge on the visa transaction too. I can't understand why he would want this as it will reduce his profit further. A few years back we were collecting a car from Joe Duffy BMW and we needed a draft for 3k to close the balance owed.

We couldn't get to a bank that day and we could take the car with a card transaction but we would also have to pay the dealers % visa charge as he was happy for us to wait till the money to get a draft. We ended up waiting.