Buying a new car - making payment to a dealer

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We're looking at buying a new car. Probably going to buy it outright.

In terms of actually handing over the money, is there anything we should be thinking about? Deposit on a credit card, and making the payment by bank transfer - although not sure what faster payment limits are these days? Are there generally limits on the amount you can pay on a debit card? I've not been able to find the info on my bank's website. It's from a main dealer if that makes a difference.

i paid 13k on a debit card for a new car there were no issues

Pay at least £100 on a credit card to get the payment covered in case of future problems.

I paid on a debit card.
No problems.

At the moment, your bigger problem may will be finding a new car you can have before April or May at the earliest. They are in very short supply.

We're looking at nearly new, 18 months old but still with 3.5 years warranty.

DH is with Nat West and has a £5k limit, he was asked if this was ok, it's to lessen fraud, obviously if he wanted to pay more than this he would just need to tell them ,I think that Nationwide has a £10k limit and most banks have much higher limit, possibly £25k, this is per transaction

If you Google bank payment limits hopefully you will find your bank.

I've googled, but can't find any sort of payment limit for paying by card.

I'm with Natwest too, and think i can pay up to 20,000 daily, but only to an account I've previously paid to. I think new accounts are limited to 1000 daily, if I've read correctly.

Nat West seems to have stricter limits than some other banks, DH found this when he wanted to pay a new payee £2k for something. I'm with Lloyds and seem to far laxer payment limits

Maybe set it up and pay £1k if it is a dealer, like a deposit , then the balance another day so it is then a known payee, I know they asked DH to set a £5k limit for fraud prevention but if you haven't set any limit it looks like it's £20k

I think this is by bank payment though I suspect card will be similar

I think I would maybe ring them to confirm or pop in a branch.

Do you have telephone banking? I’m with RBS (same group as NatWest) and they allow up to £100k in transfers if you have registered for voice recognition on the telephone banking service. Otherwise I was limited to £50k via the app.

Can you find some time tomorrow to call them to ask?

I bought a new car recently and the dealer wanted a bank transfer two days beforehand for the final payment (£25k), no issues, no limits as far as I could tell (not Natwest).

I asked them to send me a copy of a paying in slip in addition to the invoice and googled them plus researched their companies house records - exactly what I would do in my work life for a big amount of cash - before making payment.

If they hadn't filed on time or had had anything that raised suspicions I would have insisted on paying by card.

They probably thought I was a PITA 🤷🏻‍♀️.

We bought a car outright at the end of 2020. I paid the deposit on a credit card (£250). They wanted the balance by bank transfer but I wasn't happy to send nearly 11k until I knew it was going to the right account so I sent a tenner and asked them to confirm they had it before sending the rest. Lloyds didn't bat an eyelid.

I also bought privately last summer and sent £23k by bank transfer. Again, nothing got flagged by Lloyds and I didn't make a special point of telling them.

I think I will need to call and confirm the limits. From what I gather, the mobile app has a lower limit than online banking unless you have biometrics set up (which I do) and then the limit is the same. But it's not very clear.

Think I'm still going to need multiple payments.

Definately pay some on a credit card as that way you get S75 protection. Our new car payment had to be done in two transactions as HSBC ibank limit was £25k and it cost over that. I tested the account first by sending £10 and then split the rest into two transactions a couple of days apart.

Yes, I've paid a deposit on a credit card. I've sent a couple of quid as a test transaction, I've upped my payment limit and now I can send the remainder in two payments.