# Buying a car with debit card



## Kerr (Mar 27, 2012)

What advice would you give for buying a car using a debit card? 

I know the dealers like selling cars on finance but what issues can I expect if I offered to buy a car for £12, 000? 

I will purchase the car right away and being the end of February with new plate cars and lots of trade ins I'm hoping the dealer will be desperate to move stock. 

It is also freezing and the car a convertible. Another factor that might help just now. 

What can I do to make sure I get a good deal?


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## Blueberry (Aug 10, 2007)

A lot of dealers have a maximum you can put on a debit card and you would be exceeding it. Could you do a bank transfer instead? The dealer would be happier then too.


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## DMH-01 (Mar 29, 2011)

As mentioned bank transfer or cash.

When I bought my E46 it was up for 13k and I offered 12k cash, also got a few bits thrown in and that was at the end of the month.


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## TJenkos (May 6, 2009)

I paid £13,000 on debit card when I bought mine and had no issues. A lot of main dealers prefer finance though so cash isn't always helping them out..


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## 4d_dc2 (Mar 28, 2008)

I bought my old evo for 7k on debit card. He wasn't too keen he kept trying to push for finance which I didn't want as I had the cash waiting.


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## Keir (Aug 31, 2010)

we bought ours via card, £7K i think it was.


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## SteveTDCi (Feb 8, 2006)

There is a limit on cash too, I would have thought the dealer would take debit card but not sure it gives you the same protection as credit card. Sometimes it's worth checking dealer finance, if it means they give you more and you pay it off straight away the interest might not be that great.


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## Avanti (Jan 17, 2006)

Kerr said:


> What advice would you give for buying a car using a debit card?
> 
> I know the dealers like selling cars on finance but what issues can I expect if I offered to buy a car for £12, 000?
> 
> ...


I bought my car with a debit card, was more than you are hoping to purchase, was simple "enter your pin number please sir" job done :thumb:


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## Ravinder (Jul 24, 2009)

Haggle with the guy and get it as low as possible! 
Especially with it being a convertible, at this time of the year. That might go in your favour. You shouldn't have any problems using your card to make a large payment. Sometime your bank may flag it up if deemed to be suspicious but chip and pin transactions go through fine without any problems as it's a safer way of making payments then online or over the phone where a pin no is not required. You could pay on a credit card if you can. Anything between £100 to £30,000 is covered under section 75 of the credit consumer act if there is a problem with goods or services that you have ordered/purchased.


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## Craighightower (Dec 20, 2012)

Dealers won't accept the credit card as it costs them between 1.5% and2% in bank charges. Using your debit card costs them 50p or something like that. Are you not covered under the sale of goods act when you buy the car? Actual cash is a nightmare for the dealer due to bank charges and security. 

On the likes of audi finance the dealer makes c£500 from each deal.


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## Davemm (Mar 9, 2009)

I paid 10k on my debit card when i bought the last car, but did have to call the bank to tell them i was doing it. 
They do keep pushing for finance though which i felt very annoying.


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## ro88o31 (Feb 25, 2013)

Just one thing to think about is dont expect to buy a 12k car on your debit card (if it allows you to pay the full balance on the debit card) and then drive to fill it up and pay on the same card as 9 times out of 10 the bank will not allow any more transactions to take place on that card even if you inform them of the impending large transaction....i work in a tesco petrol station and this happens very frequantly and althou ive never had to withhold a card for this particular reason it has left the customers in a slight problem of having no other way to pay for their fuel its even happened to a american express gold card and they have crazy limits on them!


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## robertdon777 (Nov 3, 2005)

Yeah, as long as the bank know you will be making a large purchase everything should be fine.

I did the same about 8 years back on an Impreza Turbo from a main dealer, it wouldn't go through though so had to drive to the bank and get a bankers draft (luckily free with my Barclays account)

They just said inform them next time, so when I did the same buying the Mrs car I told them about 3 days in advance and had no trouble.


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## R7KY D (Feb 16, 2010)

When we bought the wifes we walked into the showroom said what we wanted and got the deal we wanted , i think the reason we got the deal is because we walked went straight up the to salesman and said "we want that one over there and this is what we want to pay" iirc £1050 off screen price , It always did make me think I should have asked for more though :lol: also used DC to pay for that 

To a main dealer I don't think cash or DC makes any difference , If it were a dodgy Arthur daley type then yes cash is king , but good luck with any comebacks


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## Natalie (Jan 19, 2011)

Craighightower said:


> Dealers won't accept the credit card as it costs them between 1.5% and2% in bank charges. Using your debit card costs them 50p or something like that. Are you not covered under the sale of goods act when you buy the car? Actual cash is a nightmare for the dealer due to bank charges and security.
> 
> On the likes of audi finance the dealer makes c£500 from each deal.


You can pay by credit card, normally they get you to pay the fees though.


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## Avanti (Jan 17, 2006)

Natalie said:


> You can pay by credit card, normally they get you to pay the fees though.


Yep, and it was 4 or 5%, they will take CC for a deposit without fees though.


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## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

ro88o31 said:


> Just one thing to think about is dont expect to buy a 12k car on your debit card (if it allows you to pay the full balance on the debit card) and then drive to fill it up and pay on the same card as 9 times out of 10 the bank will not allow any more transactions to take place on that card even if you inform them of the impending large transaction....i work in a tesco petrol station and this happens very frequantly and althou ive never had to withhold a card for this particular reason it has left the customers in a slight problem of having no other way to pay for their fuel its even happened to a american express gold card and they have crazy limits on them!


What a nonsensical way to work; you can buy a £20k car on your card but not £50 of fuel, if the high value transaction looks dodgy block/question it, if not £50 of fuel should not be an issue.

I've had a few cards blocked while traveling with work, I just bin them and find another as they're no use, in the end the cards I carried never got blocked. The only exception was my debit card where I bought lunch in London just before my flight then tried to withdraw dollars in the USA as soon as i arrived (less than 10 hours apart) which is fair enough.


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## Avanti (Jan 17, 2006)

Bero said:


> What a nonsensical way to work; you can buy a £20k car on your card but not £50 of fuel, if the high value transaction looks dodgy block/question it, if not £50 of fuel should not be an issue.
> 
> I've had a few cards blocked while traveling with work, I just bin them and find another as they're no use, in the end the cards I carried never got blocked. The only exception was my debit card where* I bought lunch in London just before my flight then tried to withdraw dollars in the USA as soon as i arrived (less than 10 hours apart) which is fair enough*.


It's not fair enough, with my cards they have the option to inform the issuer that you intend to use the card abroad and the dates.


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## ro88o31 (Feb 25, 2013)

I know its stupid isnt it but thats the way banks work lol gotta love em.


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## SteveyG (Apr 1, 2007)

robertdon777 said:


> Yeah, as long as the bank know you will be making a large purchase everything should be fine.


You don't need to do that. I've spend double the amount the OP is talking about and the CC machine will just ask the merchant to call the number with the reference and they'll pass the phone to you for a few security questions.

Might be worth paying your deposit on a credit card though for protection.


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## Franzpan (Mar 2, 2009)

Shouldn't be a big deal and won't be any hassle. Just like using it to pay for your groceries. You might get a call from your bank before the transaction goes through just to confirm some security details.


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## Kerr (Mar 27, 2012)

I was more intetested how the garage would react. 

I know the bank won't have any issue with the money moving about. 

Just curious if the dealer will be happy to do a deal getting money right into their account and get a car of their forecourt, or would they still be more interested in selling a car on finance? 

I've heard a few people say paying directly for the car can often result in a poorer deal? Probably better worded as little discount off the car's price.


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## lofty (Jun 19, 2007)

Your right, cash is no longer king when it comes to buying cars.The dealer can sometimes make more from the finance than from the sale of the car.The best buying position to be in is to have no part/x and buy using the dealers finance.You can still of course ask for a discount for cash(especially on a vert this time of year).You never know how much profit they have in a car until you ask, they may have bought it in cheap as chips or they may have already reduced it a couple of times as its old stock.Try and compare its price to similar models up for sale, if its priced fairly then offer them £10k and see if they will meet in the middle.They can only say no.


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## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

Avanti said:


> It's not fair enough, with my cards they have the option to inform the issuer that you intend to use the card abroad and the dates.


In theory, depends on the provider I guess. One card supplier who put a block on a card said I needed to call them before I left next time, I did that the following time and they blocked it again anyway, when calling to to unblock I said I'd called to let them know I was traveling they said they have no method of recording this or using such info to prevent card being blocked. :wall:

Traveling as much as I do, to a multitude of places it's not practical using a company who needs called every time I get on a flight with destinations, transit countries and dates. They don't accept 'ongoing world wide travel', I understand my use is not typical, certainly not UK use + a week or two in a holiday hotspot each year.

Anyway I worked through some cards until I ended up with ones that never get blocked and I never need to call them, including abusing my own card in Nigeria and a multitude of other African countries without issue. :thumb:


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## putzie (Mar 19, 2012)

i have always bought my cars on direct debit cards , never had any issues at all


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## SteveyG (Apr 1, 2007)

Kerr said:


> I was more intetested how the garage would react


Shouldn't be an issue for them. I've always agreed a price before we've even spoken about payment method when buying cars.


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## PeteT (Feb 26, 2006)

I bought mine on a debit card, just over 12 grand and it went straight through, the dealer never even mentioned finance! A good tip is to pay the deposit with a credit card as you get a lot more protection if things go wrong - has to be over £250 i think.
Go at the end of the month when they are needing to meet their sales quota. Try to knock them down as much as possible on price and then ask them to throw in some extras. I got a load liner, a dog guard and a rear bumper protector when I bought my Legacy. When the main bearing in the engine went after 4 days (!) I got them to fit reverse parking sensors in return for all the hassle (and a new engine).
If you don't ask you don't get.


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## Gangstarrrrr (Jul 22, 2012)

Think about taking the finance option - you should get incentives from the dealer, likely a lower price. Then use the new consumer laws in this country to *withdraw* within 2 weeks of taking delivery. You pay a few days interest (maybe 10 quid?) but there are no penalties. You must use the word withdraw or cancel with the finance company, do not ask for a settlement amount. That is different and more penal. 

I did this and worked a treat.


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## 182_Blue (Oct 25, 2005)

ro88o31 said:


> Just one thing to think about is dont expect to buy a 12k car on your debit card (if it allows you to pay the full balance on the debit card) and then drive to fill it up and pay on the same card as 9 times out of 10 the bank will not allow any more transactions to take place on that card even if you inform them of the impending large transaction....i work in a tesco petrol station and this happens very frequantly and althou ive never had to withhold a card for this particular reason it has left the customers in a slight problem of having no other way to pay for their fuel its even happened to a american express gold card and they have crazy limits on them!


This exact thing happened to me, I had just put a 20k+ car on my card and then decided to fill up on the way home and was refused, most embarrassing !


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## gordonpuk (Mar 14, 2010)

I used a debit card, But had to call the bank from the dealers to confirm security questions.


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## R7KY D (Feb 16, 2010)

gordonpuk said:


> I used a debit card, But had to call the bank from the dealers to confirm security questions.


See this pi**ed me off a little , On the wifes car I done £8k on my debit card without any security questions , nothing

BUT ............. On 2 occasions now Santander have blocked my card due to unusual transactions ...........................I was buying my lunch for the day in Asda's at 5.30am for a total of lets say £5 , Okay yeah it might be strange that early but errrrrrrrr I've been doing it for the last several years !!!


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## SteveyG (Apr 1, 2007)

R7KY D said:


> I was buying my lunch for the day in Asda's at 5.30am for a total of lets say £5 , Okay yeah it might be strange that early but errrrrrrrr I've been doing it for the last several years !!!


It's only because it was ASDA, so they assumed someone had stolen your card. Wouldn't have happened at Waitrose. :thumb:


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## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

R7KY D said:


> See this pi**ed me off a little , On the wifes car I done £8k on my debit card without any security questions , nothing
> 
> BUT ............. On 2 occasions now Santander have blocked my card due to unusual transactions ...........................I was buying my lunch for the day in Asda's at 5.30am for a total of lets say £5 , Okay yeah it might be strange that early but errrrrrrrr I've been doing it for the last several years !!!


They maybe just wanted to check you had adequate storage and refrigeration available to ensure it's freshest for you come lunch time? :lol:


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## lofty (Jun 19, 2007)

The thing is the banks are damned if they do and damned if they don't.Santander rang me this morning as I paid my insurance online via my debit card then made a telephone payment five minutes later for something else.They also rang me a while back as someone was pretending to be me and was trying to withdraw money from my telephone bank account, obviously something didn't add up so they rang me to make sure it wasn't me, I'd much rather they had this sort of security in place rather than trying to get my money back after someone has stolen it.


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## PugIain (Jun 28, 2006)

The two cars I've bought from dealerships have been paid for on debit cards. Not massive amounts but have had no issues.


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## Blueberry (Aug 10, 2007)

I'm awaiting delivery of a brand new car. The paperwork I've been given by the main dealer says maximum payment by DC is £7k.
I always do bank transfer anyway so no problem for me.


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## Teddy (Dec 15, 2007)

As for cash...i.e. pound notes, dealers don't like it. Getting thousands of pounds in cash means it's very easy to hide some forged notes in there. There's also the security risk of having all that cash on site.


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## Turkleton (Apr 18, 2010)

My Mum bought hers with one, she'd phoned up the bank and said a large transaction was going to be happening so don't block it etc
It still got blocked, but two smaller transactions went through fine..
I bought mine on my card and my dads card no problems, although it wasn't quite as much to spend :lol:


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## DeeTailer (Aug 13, 2009)

As posted above, the dealer will get commission on selling you finance, so that will be what they will push - whether they'll actually give you a better price for taking the car on finance or payingg for it in full, that's down to the individual dealer...

When I bought my last car, I used a spreadsheet to work put the PCP charges and if I paid the maximum 50% deposit, it was actually cheaper to take it on finance than to pay the cash price (even taking the interest into account....) - so I paid a 50% deposit, took the balance on finance and paid off my mortgage with the money I had left in the bank.....

That's going to save me £5k in mortgage interest payments over the three years of the car finance!

On the subject of paying by debit card, my deposit was £15k and that just went straight through without question....
When I commented to the dealer about how strange it felt to put a large sum through on the debit card, he said that someone had come in and bought a car for them and another for their wife. The cost for the two cars was £137k! (yes really) and he just put that through on his debit card - and that just went straight through without even a security check.


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## nimms (Dec 2, 2012)

I recently bought a new car with debit card. Paid the deposit on cc then the balance with debit card when i went to collect car it was over 15k and i didn't inform the bank before hand


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## jubileebug (Jan 25, 2008)

I Put £14K on my debit card at the VW garage with no problems, and i dont usualy make big purchases with my card. I was expecting it not to go through but it did with no problems!


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## Kerr (Mar 27, 2012)

Deposit was paid today with credit card and rest settled on collection by debit card.

Not a bad deal all things considered.

A few little jobs need done prior to collection.

The car isn't for me but a little MX5 for her.

She knows nothing about cars and when I told her to replace her current Mini with something Japanese and reliable I was thinking along the lines of a Honda Jazz/Civic or maybe a Mazda 2/3 not a MX5.

When she seen the MX5 in the price range there wasn't anything going to change her mind.

After a test drive she came back impressed and more than mentioning the heated leather seats or the like, it was the steering that impressed her.

I was shocked to say the least.

She hadn't driven a RWD car before and is coming from a Mini Cooper, which is one of the best handling FWD cars and doesn't even understand what the difference really is.

Very surprised a person who has little understanding still felt it on her first drive.


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