Travelling To UK With Cash To Buy Car

paul7g

Hi,

I’ve agreed a deal on a car in the UK for £34,000 with a private seller.

I’ve had a mechanic that I know in the UK look over the car and all seems to be fine.

I don’t like the idea of transferring the funds via bank transfer without seeing the car, and the seller doesn’t want a bank draft.

If I buy the car, I also don’t want to have to wait in the UK for 2-3 days waiting for the wire transfer to land with the seller, along with hoping they don’t disappear when the funds land, so I was thinking the best thing to do is to withdraw cash from my bank.

Has anyone travelled through the airport with this much cash before? Do I need to declare it before going through security? I will have a receipt from the bank and can log into my banking to show them the withdrawal, but is it a long process to declare, and would I need to go to the airport a lot earlier?

Or, do I just go through the airport as normal, and if they see it on the scanner, just show them the receipt and live bank login etc?

Any advice on this would be appreciated - thank you.

whomitconcerns

Some advice. Don't bring 34k with you in cash for many reasons.

And yes you need to declare it if you did fly with it and yes you would get questions.

Use transfer wise or one of those firms to send the money. They are fast and definitely safer or more secure.

JVince

Buying cash as opposed to using a fast transfer company like wise, will cost you about 3% - so that's €1000+ down the drain.

The seller will have to pay cash lodgement fee of about 0.5% too

Then the security risk for both of you.

Imo a very stupid idea when there are so many secure options out there.

I hope you have also checked the various costs of importing the car here - including vat, vrt and nox.

beachhead

You are allowed export a maximum of e10,000 cash from the state.Above that you have to declare it to Customs.Better to declare it that have security scan find it and ask questions(if they bothered to).Advise you to have 6 mths bank sttements ready if declaring it.Customs(Revenue)will want to a history and not just the 34,000 landing in your account.

easygoing39

Back in November 2019 I flew to Stanstead with £11,000 Sterling in cash.No one at the bag scan in security said a word to me.

drunkmonkey

I'm assuming you have the vat, duty and VRT worked out and you're still saving money? Some cars can be bought vat free and are exempt from duty which can make a 2022 car cheaper than a 2020.

Revolut worked the same day for me and exchange fees were a lot lower than the banks.

JVince

I would be triple checking the duty, vat, vrt and nox fees.

On a £35k UK reg car, it could (likely) be over €30,000

User1998

UK bank transfers don’t take 2/3 days. More like 2/3 minutes.

witnessmenow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121795900#Comment_121795900

Make sure to sign up to revolut premium, otherwise they charge 1% for exchanging anything over €1000 in a month, so in the ops case, and additional €400.

Technically premium costs €96 for the year (or €9 monthly, but for a year contract), so the saving would be closer to €300, but if you read their terms and conditions, you can cancel it for any reason within 14 days and they will refund you. So in theory you could sign up, exchange the money to sterling and then cancel it within the 14 days and it wont cost anything.

Also make sure to do the actual exchange of euro to sterling on a weekday as they charge and additional fee at weekends. (the bank transfer to the seller can happen at weekends)

hoodie6029

Would paying with bitcoin not be handier in this scenario?

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121796439#Comment_121796439

Thats a ridiculous post. Not everyone wants to drive a Nissan Micra

Sono

A Nissan Micra 😂😂😂

Buffman

There are a million reasons not to do this OP and zero advantages to doing it that way. Are you planning on withdrawing £34k Sterling from an Irish bank? Even if you do manage to get one to order you in that much Sterling cash, prepare to pay substantial % fees for the service and exchange.

Revoult or similar would be the best value on exchange rates/commission and in my experience have very quick transfers.

You'll have to declare that amount of cash on both sides.

https://www.revenue.ie/en/customs/individuals/travelling-with-sending-cash/index.aspx

https://www.gov.uk/bringing-cash-into-uk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121795899#Comment_121795899

You got lucky, it could as easily of ended up with the cash being seized on either side.

"Incorrect or incomplete declarations for cash

A customs officer may search for, seize and detain cash being carried or sent, into or out of the European Union. Customs may detain your cash if:

• it has not been declared or has been incorrectly declared
• or
• the declaration is incomplete.

Failure to make a declaration, or making an incorrect or incomplete declaration, is an offence. Failure to comply may result in criminal prosecution and a fine."

"Penalties

If you do not declare cash that you should have, all the cash you are carrying can be seized by a Border Force officer. You may have to pay a penalty of up to £5,000 to get it back. This can be taken from the cash before the rest is returned.

Any cash can be seized if customs authorities have reasonable grounds to suspect a crime. They can keep the cash for 48 hours - after that they need a court order."

Henry Ford III

Bank transfers are almost instant these times, and there are several fintechs who specialise in providing fast, efficient, and cost effective UK payments.

Don't risk carrying large amounts of cash.

paul7g

Thank you for all of the replies.

What’s VRT?

Joking… I think if someone asked for directions to somewhere on this forum, someone would manage to mention ‘VRT’ :-)

Very few banks operate instantly, but will look into it.

I don’t see such a worry with declaring cash, as I have nothing to hide, etc… I just don’t want to cause delays or admin.

colm_mcm

Would you not be curious/suspicious as to why someone wanted to deal in cash and not have it lodged to their account with a draft?

dickdasr1234

You're obviously a gambler - go for it!

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121798748#Comment_121798748

All UK banks are instant. They use SWIFT payments. Use Revolut or Transferwise and it will be instant. Just do it as 4 separate payments so it doesn’t get flagged.

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121798748#Comment_121798748

The Revolut, N26 or whatever is the best bet. Make sure the seller has the same platform.

You can sign up to them in 10 mins and load the account with cash.

Make the transfer in person, you'll see the money leave your account on the app, they will see it enter their account. You'll be charged conversion fees from Mastercard which are better than most banks are offering.

34k in cash is 340 £100 notes. It's about 3 inches thick and the seller is going to want to count it. Pain in the hole.

Luna84

Is PayPal an option. If both of you have an account it is an instant transfer.

I never done it myself but maybe someone who knows the matter can chime in if PayPal is a good option or bad.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121798931#Comment_121798931

What? No they don’t. Unless it’s an international payment. In the EEA it would be a SEPA transfer just like Ireland, the difference is UK banks all use instant SEPA.

In any regard OP you’re mad in the head to pay for anything like that with cash. What are you going to do like? Bring a briefcase full of sterling notes? 🤣

Bank transfer it. You have a mechanic friend in UK you said who’s been to visit the car, surely he will have no problem acting as an intermediary and transferring the payment on your behalf? That way it’s instant.

You could transfer the money to him the day or two before you leave. Just an idea.

I definitely would not use Revolut. Just Google “Revolut locked my account” and you’ll see why. I wouldn’t dream of putting €34 on my account if I didn’t want to risk it getting locked not to mention €34 THOUSAND!

My best advice would be your friend making the transfer for you.

witnessmenow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121798949#Comment_121798949

PayPal has really high fees and their exchange rate borders on criminal!

goochy

madness

goochy

paying cash that is !

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121798988#Comment_121798988

They are also known to lock accounts when they determine a payment is “suspicious”.

Revolut, PayPal etc I wouldn’t dare transfer such a sum of money to or from.

I had my own Revolut locked for a month over a €350 transfer when I sold someone a PS4 on adverts.

Both of us spoke to the chat and explained what the transfer was for (including sending proof of our adverts and WhatsApp exchange), but they got bogged down on details such as proving where the money originated from and the buyer was at that point unwilling to engage further (don’t blame them either).

It’s just not worth it tbh.

goldenhoarde

I do hope you've checked here on the VRT due when it lands in Ireland

https://www.ros.ie/evrt-enquiry/vrtenquiry.html;jsessionid_evrt-enquiry-web=39C6955EB325AB15EE238B9107B5E9AB?execution=e1s1

Lord Baron Lane 8

I have bought cars in England/Scotland over the years I would go with two other people and give them under 10000 each you will be okay then go by ferry by car would be best .

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121799008#Comment_121799008

€100’s of thousands have passed through my Revolut over the past few years with absolutely no issue at all. Never heard of anyone getting their accounts locked on Revolut before you mentioned it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121799104#Comment_121799104

as I said it can happen at the drop of a hat and it’s very random apparently.

I mean just google it and you’ll see yourself. If I’m being totally honest if it didn’t happen to me personally I would not have believed the same stories I’ve read that’s the truth.

demanding (not asking mind you) evidence of where the money came from, bank statements from other banks, even at one stage asking to see payslips. For the record it was the BUYER they wanted this from!!

Granted look this was when they still only had a digital licence in Ireland or whatever it was, when they only had LT IBAN’s.

I would just play it super safe with €34k and lodge it to a trusted friend in the UK and let them transfer. I’d never use revolut again after that anyway. Was so upsetting because I had sold the bloody PS4 cos I really needed the money, but anyway that’s besides the point.

The J Stands for Jay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121798931#Comment_121798931

I bought a car in NI using transfers from Revolut. The dealer was amazed how quick it was.