How to pay for car in UK

mengele

Just wondering is it possible to go into a UK dealer buy a car and drive it away straight away. I'm interested in importing as the specs are better. If I fly over is it possible to just go in buy it and drive it away straight away. If the money is in my sub account what's the quickest way to get it to them?

ciarsd

mengele wrote: »

Just wondering is it possible to go into a UK dealer buy a car and drive it away straight away. I'm interested in importing as the specs are better. If I fly over is it possible to just go in buy it and drive it away straight away. If the money is in my sub account what's the quickest way to get it to them?

The vast majority will only accept card payment or a bank transfer for larger sums. It'll have to clear into their account before they'll release the car keys and docs. Quickest for me has been my account -> TransferMate account -> TransferMate transaction to recipient (Car Dealers account). It cleared next business day once sorted by 1pm deadline the day previous.

mengele

Do people normally make 2 trips so, 1 trip to view and 2nd trip to collect? Or do some people not view at all and just take a chance? Car in question would be a 2016 with hopefully less than 30000 miles

ciarsd

mengele wrote: »

Do people normally make 2 trips so, 1 trip to view and 2nd trip to collect? Or do some people not view at all and just take a chance? Car in question would be a 2016 with hopefully less than 30000 miles

Greatly depends on the car/garage for me. I'd only ever consider it, if the dealership was willing to refund if the car was not as described / depicted in a video for example.

MightyMunster

I used debit cards, depending on your bank they can have a limit. Think Aib was 5000 euro per card, so you can use multiple cards if you have them.
This clears immediately so you can drive away as soon as you've paid.

Other people I know that went over basically paid for the car the day before.

whomitconcerns

Don't forget tax and insurance.

CiniO

IMO the easiest way to go there, view the car and buy it straight away if you like it is to pay cash.

Alternetive being transferwise or currencyfair or similar.

Elessar

I will be doing the same this summer OP. Better spec car and I will be saving about ~€8k on irish dealer prices.

Transfermate or CurrencyFair offer quick conversions. I have a question though - can you transfer money to a transfermate/currencyfair account and release same day? I would be happier to fly over, view the car and only when happy transfer the money to their account. I have heard of this working if the transfer is done early morning from TM it will be in the dealers account a few hours later. Can anyone confirm?

MightyMunster

Elessar wrote: »

I will be doing the same this summer OP. Better spec car and I will be saving about ~€8k on irish dealer prices.

Transfermate or CurrencyFair offer quick conversions. I have a question though - can you transfer money to a transfermate/currencyfair account and release same day? I would be happier to fly over, view the car and only when happy transfer the money to their account. I have heard of this working if the transfer is done early morning from TM it will be in the dealers account a few hours later. Can anyone confirm?

Pretty sure you can't do same day international transfers. Debit card is the way around this,or if you have a close friend /relative with a UK account they could transfer it for you. They also wouldn't take cash or credit card.

WestFork

I flew from Cork to Birmingham in March this year
6.30 am flight , was collected by dealer at airport-drove 15 mins to Coventry,
inspected car and when happy I paid the balance by card and cash.
Program the SatNav and Drive to Fishguard.
Back in Rosslare for 7pm and home in cork with car at 10pm.


I used TransferGo to move 75% of the purchase price a few days before I flew over - The transfer usually takes 1 day once your account is set up and all identity checks etc are done. Transfers of large amounts mean lots of checks from Transfer Go as to where the funds are coming from , bank statements, payslips etc. but once set up transfer is smooth and protected.

Bought a 2017 demo model 1.6 HDI diesel Citreon Cactus for my wife. 11k stg. 2500 miles on the clock, that nearly caused me a big problem - but I had 3,800 miles up by the time I went for VRT. (if car has less that 6000km or is less than 6mths old it is classed as a new car by revenue and they will charge you VAT and VRT!)

Make sure you gat the FULL V5C - do not let the seller tear off and send to Swansea!

Elessar

MightyMunster wrote: »

Pretty sure you can't do same day international transfers. Debit card is the way around this,or if you have a close friend /relative with a UK account they could transfer it for you. They also wouldn't take cash or credit card.

The way I understood it is you transfer into tranfermates account a few days before so it is in GBP already, then do a transfer when you at over there. Maybe I’m wrong?

Not keen on sending over the entire lot of money before even seeing the car.

EDIT: might also have been transferwise

Wildly Boaring

Another option is to pay someone like RAC to do an inspector and transfer off the back of that.

These inspections are usually v detailed.

Bought up north last year from Ford dealer so just made 2 trips.

Bought in London previously and just brought the cash with me

darragh o meara

Transfermate are probably the handiest and cheapest method but I have heard of people using a Revolut card and opting for the premium account with them. With Revolut you basically have a prepaid credit card that you can use in a dealership, you also get a better conversion rate with both the above. the downside to this is some dealers have a surcharge for card usage.

Cash, whereas used to be the best method is very hard to use over there. I tried bringing 10grand sterling with me for a car recently and had an awful job trying to get anyone to take it... Plus if you buy sterling here and decide not to go ahead with the purchase you’ll lose a lot of money converting it back to euros.

TomOnBoard

Not the cheapest, but I found a straight expedited international transfer from AIB to be the easiest. I think it took around 2 hours for £2,950 to appear in the dealer's account.