Buying a Car in the UK

[Dillon]

So ive never doen this before but i was going to go over and look at one over the weekend

My question is on payment - if i wanted to buy the car on the day and drive it home - whats the best way to make the payment - it will be around €18,000.00 so i doubt they'll let me take it on a plane in cash haha

Thanks

Dillon

[Gav318]

Same day transfer with the bank but obviously bank is closed at weekends and there is fee.

[Bennyc]

You can use ur debit card. Put the money into that account. Go over look at the car if you want to buy use ur pass card obviously they would have to be dealer and have card facilities and our bank had to be contacted for the funds to go through. It was easy enough. I also bought a car another time in the uk and brought over 7k pounds cash with me in a bag I wouldn't advise it it was a pain u would be very paranoid

[Dillon]

Thanks lads,

Just waiting on a call back from the dealer about arrnaging a viewing on sunday so will ask him about preferred payment method - i was thinking maybe a draft for the euro equivalent tot he sterling asking price?

[miller]

Double check with the dealer, as they now have to run fraud checks for money laundering. Some will accept foreign registered debit cars some wont. A credit card will be your best bet.

[dergside]

There are fairly low limits on the max transaction value with a debit card. You'd imagine that its simply down to what you have in your account but its not. Its also hard to get a clear answer (from AIB anyway) on what the limit is.

I would usually pay with a draft or EFT and make a second trip to collect, but last time, when buying the e60, I was tight for time so I used my credit card, but I used the same card to pay a holding deposit and told them I'd use the same card for payment. Having had the deposit paid successfully they were OK about accepting it for the balance. The dealer will usually want to charge a fee for this form of payment (I think ~1.5% is common) and you should let your credit card company know in advance that you may be making the payment so that it doesn't get knocked back on the day.

With the 5 I had done my homework, left Dublin early in the morning, confirmed all was as it seemed from the preparation and was leaving the dealer by about 10:00, back home in the mid-west by 7:00pm. Just to make sure I wasn't under pressure to buy a car that my head and heart mightn't have agreed on I had booked a return flight. That way I could make the right decision and the sales guy knew I didn't have to buy his car to get home.

[tonyd]

Visa debit limit is about 3.5k iirc
Also if you can wait I'd expect Sterling to drop a bit closer to the vote in the uk - and a bit more if they vote to leave the EU

[Don B]

I bought one up the north a couple of months ago from a main dealer..paid a deposit by credit card on the phone and brought a Stg draft when collecting it.

[bazz26]

Try the likes of transfermate and currencyfair. You can lodge your money with them up front and then transfer it to the dealer's account over there. Their exchange rates are more favourable than banks too. The other alternative is to get a sterling draft issued and send a photocopy of it to the dealer prior to arriving over there. They can verify it at their end.

[Bennyc]

I paid using visa debit. it was a 12 vw Jetta and I paid a deposit of something like £250 before I went over and the balance using my visa debit it's would have been around £9500 I but the money into my account and told the bank before I went over. When paying for car and while the card was processing we had to call the bank and confirm everything and everything went through. I was a bit worried while the card was processing and calling the bank but everything was fine. Bank of Ireland is my bank. The guy in the dealer knew all about what had to be done. It gave us more leverage when buying the car as we got him down a bit more.