Hello, been watching the news, XL the holiday firm gone under, house builders going under, banks in trouble/etc.
We are about to visit a main dealer today that has seveal franchises of differet makes of cars & quoted onthe stock exchange. Just read up on them & ther profits down frm 60 mill to about 12 mill & director states 'difficult times ahead'!
They have sold properties, cut staff etc, share parice down/etc.
To the point: If we traded in our son's car toay as deposit (worth about 4k) and purchased another & paid most o all of the remainder of the money for the new/used car via debit card and that car was delivered (without log bookas it goes to the dvla), or not delivered as the case may be... my question is, say if te min dealer, the whole group that runs that franchise and others went into receivership, where would we stand?
Thanks
ps - hope my question is clear!
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If you have an invoice that gives you title, then the car is yours whether it is in your possession or with the dealer. The V5 does not confer ownership.
That said, I have paid for the last 4 cars I have bought (new) by debit card on collection. On three of these occasions the transaction was referred and the bank wanted to speak to me to check my identity, which added a couple of minutes to the transaction but was not a problem. If a dealer wouldn't accept this arrangement, I'd go elsewhere.
The great thing about this is that you can inspect the car before you pay - if it's defective in your opinion, you are in a much better position than if you'd paid.
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Thats very good advice above.
I have been at dealerships collecting truckloads of cars when the dealership has gone under, and seen people there in tears that have paid over large amounts in deposits sometimes only days before and have lost all, ordinary people who can ill afford to lose large amounts.
Is it a better bet i wonder to deal with a old established family business that has been there years on end, maybe weathered previous troubled times as against the newer glass palace multi chains?
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Those who have had the biggest problems with XL and Zoom going bust are those that pay on DEBIT Cards (ie the ones that run off your current account).
For all my purchases of goods that are over about £100 I'll use my CREDIT card and then pay it off in full immediately. It gives you some more protection against things going wrong, and makes it easier to return products if they're found to be faulty or the company goes into administration/bust.
If I'm buying a car I'd certainly pay as much as I could on either finance or Credit Card (I'm OK as I'm not likely to spend more than £4k on a car, I can lob it straight onto a credit card)
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Likewise if this car is bought on HP. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on your involvement in the current travel crisis there is no equivalent scheme to the ATOL schemes in the motor trade. A very large dealer in my area is selling cars off cheaply to pay wages at the moment - we live in dire times.
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If you leave a deposit I would pay on credit card, that way you are covered. Don't hand over any part exchange or anything else until the day the deal is completed.
Just note that a lot of car dealers won't accept big sums of money being paid via credit card as I understand the credit card companies fee is a percentage of the amount paid. Hence the more you pay the more bigger the fee is that the dealer has to swallow. Debit cards on the other hand are a set fee whether you spend £1 or £10000 with it.
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The fees are a set percentage; the Credit Card one is about 1 or 2 % points higher than the debit card; I'd be happy to pay something towards that to give myself more protection (think of it as an insurance policy)
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Simon's right - I'd actually forgotten that I'd paid £400-£500 deposit by credit card in advance, and the balance on collection by debit card. Neither of the two dealers would take the balance by credit card, which is fair enough given the merchant fees.
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The fees are not a percentage on a debit card - they are flat rate per transaction why is why they do not incur extra costs. A dealer will typically add 2.5% or thereabouts fee for paying on a credit card.
Paying on debit card upon collection is by far the easiest way to pay/collect a car. Once you've paid and driven off invoice in hand the car is yours.
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Thank you all.
Just returned frm a main dealer, they accepted a depositof 250 quid but i gave them 1k ia credit card as i know this is protected. I will pay te remainder via debit card and make sure i have the invoice of sale.
my wie hs looked at the net whilst me and my son wre at the motor dealer. There appears to be some confusion re debit cardthat have the 'visa' logo as ours does and it's a connect card, meaning large amounts can be withdrawn if there is money in the account. The Visa logo on debit cards & confusion is that some finacial sites say you are coverd like a CC but others say no. Some people on internet sites have phoned their banks & they too were not too clear.
We were with the Woolwich which was taken over by Barclays & since then, it has een all down hill. The other day i went to bank a cheque from an accoun i closed, but needed to coplete a 'pay in slip' where as before i did not.
Thanks all
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Don't rely on Visa debit card protection - it's not on the same basis as on a credit card, where the protection comes under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act and makes the card issuer just as responsible as the merchant.
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Just returned frm a main dealer they accepted a depositof 250 quid but i gave them 1k ia credit card as i know this is protected.
Not totally clear but are you saying they would have accepted £250 but you gave then £1K? Why on earth would you do that?
The Visa logo on debit cards & confusion is that some finacial sites say you are coverd >> like a CC but others say no.
From news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/working_lunch/75933...m
Visa debit card
"A Visa debit card offers significantly better protection for shoppers. Their scheme is called Visa Debit Chargeback and any bank that issues a Visa debit card has to comply with the scheme.
You can claim money back if the goods you buy are damaged, or the product or services are not delivered.
There is no limit on what you can claim. But you have to claim within 120 days of the date you expected the goods to be delivered or the firm going bust."
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Simon's right - I'd actually forgotten that I'd paid £400-£500 deposit by credit card in advance and the balance on collection by debit card. Neither of the two dealers would take the balance by credit card which is fair enough given the merchant fees.
It doesn't matter that they wouldn't take a credit card for the balance - you're fully covered if *any* part of the transaction was made by credit card.
Edited by Bill Payer on 13/09/2008 at 17:28
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It doesn't matter that they wouldn't take a credit card for the balance - you're fully covered if *any* part of the transaction was made by credit card.
Correct, subject I think to a minimum of £100 regardless of whether you pay off in full when the statement comes or not.
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Correct subject I think to a minimum of £100 regardless of whether you pay off in full when the statement comes or not.
The value of the item has to be at least £100, but you can pay as little as £1 on the credit card and still be covered.
Not sure of the relevance of paying the statement off in full? It's still credit, whether you get charged extra for it or not.
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I thought there was a limit on how much you could spend each day via a debit card - isn't it about 300 per day?
I have a friend who last year went to a thai restaurant in Cardiff on a Fri, used his debit card to deduct some cash from an ATM nearby to pay and on Monday morning he went to get money out of his account and 3600 had gone. He rang the bank and they told him that he had been buying stuff in Hong Kong on the Sat & Sun.
He got the card cancelled there and then but he had a battle for several months to get his money back. The bank claimed that he had given the card and pin to someone and this went on for months until my mate found out that the ATM by this restaurant had been the subject of a cloning scam. The bank knew all along but this tried to put the blame on my friend.
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I thought there was a limit on how much you could spend each day via a debit card - isn't it about 300 per day?
Nope - there's a limit as to how much cash you can get, but you spend up to the amount you have in your account. I've bought several cars using Switch. I've had some ferocious grillings from authorisation centres though.
My daughter called her bank (HSBC) before buying her Colt (£7K balance) and the transaction went straight through without query.
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>>are those that pay on DEBIT Cards (ie the ones that run off your current account).>>
This doesn't apply to Visa debit cards, such as my Halifax debit card (it used to be a Switch card until about three years ago).
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Some dealers won't accept credit cards as they have to pay the card company commision for the transaction. I have been refused the credit card option in the past but if you can do it there is a lot of sense in doing so.
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I checked with Barclays before paying the balance for the Z3 on my Connect debit card: they said that as the money was in the current account it would go straight through - and it did.
Edited by Avant on 13/09/2008 at 18:56
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I paid the deposit for my Skoda Superb using a credit card and then used my Halifax debit visa card to pay the balance (phoned the bank beforehand). On picking up the car the payment was completed in seconds- I also got 1% back from the Halifax.
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