To pay by bank transfer the day before I collect a car?

[fuckingcovid]

The car I want is 2 hours drive away from me. It looks a legitimate small dealership but they want payment 1 working day before the car is collected by bank transfer. Even if I was happy it wasn't a scam site I would worry they could go bankrupt on the day and I lose everything.

A friend of mine was ripped off in this way, funnily enough by a so called dealer in Scotland, he paid by bank transfer , half of the amount, but this was quite a lot as a very good car, the dealer agreed that rather than a trip to Scotland it would be delivered to him by transporter for £150. There was a web site and photo of the dealership, plus a man who was the seller, also showed documents of the car by photos. Guess what? on day of delivery no car turned up, friend couldnt contact the dealer by phone, as number was out of order, as was the website and emails, basically the police said the dealership never existed, a huge elaborate scam, friend lost majority of cash and had also sold his current car in order to buy the other one. If you don't see it, pay for it and drive it away, it's not yours until you have the documents in your hands, AVOID

@lifesalongsong I mean on my debit card not direct debit. My brain is a bit fried!

@MidnightCitrus I am normally very financially savvy. It's just car buying that freaks me out. I didn't forget I had credit cards, just that the credit card has a layer of security regarding the payment, and I should have used that for the refundable (if I don't like it) deposit.

I will be going up there tomorrow to hand over my car in part ex and collect the new one, paying by debit and credit card, for added security. Sorted out my insurance and alerted the bank there will be a large payment going out.

We'll see how it goes, but I'm pretty confident it's all good.

I bought my car earlier this year and paid by bank transfer the day before. BUT I had visited the dealership and test driven the car. I paid a deposit on my credit card. I wouldn't send a ton of money by transfer for a car I'd never seen at a dealership I'd never been to. No way.

Check that you can actually pay by card. The dealership where I bought mine would only accept card payments up to £500.

Otherwise, you could set up mobile banking on your phone and do the transfer when you're there. It might take an hour or two to go through, but it should be doable.

How can you possibly know the car will be lovely and you'll want it without driving it? It could have been driven by a maniac for those 8000 miles, or been in an accident and repaired etc??

I am too much of a highly strung person to put a deposit down on a car I haven't seen.

Some dealerships won't accept credit card for car purchases because of fees. We wanted to pay for our previous car (£20k+) on a credit card to get the additional protection but weren't allowed to. They did accept it on a debit card though.

Nooooooo!! My brother got scammed exactly like this ! Please don't do it!

I'm sure there was a thread on here a few months back by someone who bought and paid for a car online before seeing the car (which was to be delivered). Like a pp said, car never materialised and all tra es of the so called company disappeared overnight. Some savvy MNetters did a little digging and found the address they used was an empty warehouse or something.

Anyway, my point is that no matter how legit the company seems, I wouldn't risk it.

Check the mileage is genuine by checking on gov.uk
www.gov.uk/check-mot-status

I would transfer the money to my credit card and pay by credit card.

You are protected by debit card also in the same way you are with credit card.

Don't do it!

kelly14
No you’re not.
It’s safer to use debit card than bank transfer ( you could try a call back on the card if goods not up to scratch) but a credit card is a further layer safer. Difference being debit card comes out of your funds/bank account, whereas credit card is on credit and safer.

I cannot believe you are all set to purchase a car you have never physically set eyes on or driven???
Low mileage is not always a good thing, that car may seldom have been driven which is not good for the engine.
How many owners and how old is the car?

Yeah, no. The last car I bought (from a small dealer) was £9k. I viewed it, test drove it, did all my due diligence, agreed a p/x price, paid a £500 deposit. They delivered new car to my house one week later, took my old car, handed over the paperwork and an invoice for the outstanding money (purchase price-£500-px value) and the dealer told me to 'do a bank transfer when you've got time'. Off he went, I sorted the bank transfer about an hour later. A deposit is all any dealer should ask for until they're about to hand the keys over to you.

@NYMM It's only 2 years old so has never had an MOT, but good idea. It's a Toyota AYGO and they are notorious for being driven by boring ladies in sensible shoes. Definitely not boy racer cars. And for having teeny tiny mileage, so I'm pretty sure it's genuine 8K mileage.

I'm collecting it tomorrow with all the checks. I'll post a picture 🤣. Hopefully not with egg on my face, but definitely not having lost £7K.

@crimsonlake 2 years old (2018) 1 owner from new. I've driven Toyota Aygos for 10 years, had one from new so I know they are traded in really quickly, under the PCE (?) scheme. So lots about with low mileage. The price is not ridiculously low to suck people in, it's a good fair price.

I won't buy it if there's something wrong with it, but I know these cars inside out. I tell the dealer where everything is! My deposit is refundable if I don't like the car, but judging from the pictures, it's a good one. I'm too wary to buy from private sellers.

@Shmithecat2 When I talked to the dealer they said the bank transfer was for people like you who had seen the car and secured it with a deposit, and we're going back the next day. It just said bank transfer the day before on their website, so that was what scared me.

My last post doesn’t make any sense please don’t make bank transfer

@bridgetreilly

Check that you can actually pay by card. The dealership where I bought mine would only accept card payments up to £500.

You don't have to pay all of it on a credit card, as i said above

@41NYMM that website doesn't show mileage, just the mot and tax date,

There was a thread here 6 or 8 months ago where the OP had done a transfer in advance and lost thousands. That was a dealer in Aberdeen, supposedly. Lots of MNers got involved and sleuthed a lot of details out for her - it was quite impressive. I don't know if she ever got her money back, she didn't update afaik. Don't part with money up front, it's way too risky.

This the thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3827025-Been-scammed?msgid=94051656#94051656

[quote RedHelenB]@41NYMM that website doesn't show mileage, just the mot and tax date,[/quote]
Not applicable for this car, because it's only two years old but the MOT website is very useful for older cars because it can show a good few years of mileage history and MOT results (advisories and work required to pass each test).

Unfortunately it bit DP on the arse because a car he bought before they published the mileage online had been clocked by one of the previous owners so when he tried to sell it, his buyer could now see that 70 000 miles had been removed from its history some years previously, taking it from having apparently done just over 100k miles to nearly 200k true miles which obviously affected it's value, albeit by not a huge amount as it was a desirable old 4x4. Annoying, but not the end of the world and something to be aware of when buying older second hand cars.

Anyway, back to OPs dilemma, I would be worried that the seller would invent reasons to reduce the trade in value of her existing car, knowing that she's already paid for the new one and has travelled a long way, so is likely to just hand over the extra to take the new car away.