A little piece of Advice for anyone buying a car from a car dealer.

[badass]

Pay for the deposit on a credit card.

I will repeat. PAY FOR THE DEPOSIT ON A CREDIT CARD!
Under the consumer credit act, if you pay for any part of a purchase of between £100 and £30,000 on your credit card, the credit card company has joint and several liability for the entire amount.
That means that if the car does not meet the standards set by the sale of goods act, you can get the money from your credit card company. Of course, it is best to exhaust the possibility of getting it sorted with the car dealer first but you are then not risking losing everything you have paid should the dealer decide to go into liquidation.
This seems to be a popular tactic by car dealers to avoid paying money they owe.

Don't believe me? I now have a settlement offer for £9711.68 plus insurance costs from my credit card company for a car I paid the £500 deposit on my card for. I paid the rest from my debit card.

If the dealer doesn't take credit cards for payment, Perhaps you should ask yourself why

One more thing - the car's fault was that about once per week/fortnight, it wouldn't idle properly. The fault would clear within a few hours. There were 3 attempts to fix the fault unsuccessfully. I requested, then demanded a full refund. The dealer disagreed.

[TheAnimus]

Another good one is to go via a broker such as Drive The Deal.

The dealer in London was quite useless for me, not even been able to arrange a test drive in the diesel engine I was looking for.

I honestly don't know how so many of the dealers are still in business.

[finlay666]

I will repeat. PAY FOR THE DEPOSIT ON A CREDIT CARD!

I have a feeling (not 100% sure on this) you could put just 1p on the card and the rest on debit if you wished

Edit: Yep, from MSE -
The law's very specific, you get the protection for the whole thing even if you only pay for a part of it on the card, provided what you pay for costs more than £100 (and less than £30,000).

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/sho...your-purchases

Example given was spending £10 of a £100 deposit on a credit card

[badass]

I have a feeling (not 100% sure on this) you could put just 1p on the card and the rest on debit if you wished

Edit: Yep, from MSE -
The law's very specific, you get the protection for the whole thing even if you only pay for a part of it on the card, provided what you pay for costs more than £100 (and less than £30,000).

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/sho...your-purchases

Example given was spending £10 of a £100 deposit on a credit card

This may be true but it's a better idea to put a lot more on it (at least £100) as you'll likely get less resistance from the CC company that way.

[finlay666]

This may be true but it's a better idea to put a lot more on it (at least £100) as you'll likely get less resistance from the CC company that way.

I couldn't agree more, but at a push if you weren't expecting it it's good to know

[dangel]

I would always do this - had a problem with the missus' car shortly after delivery and the dealer tried to push me away from using a CC but i'm sure glad I stuck to my guns because otherwise i'd of been out of pocket.

[finlay666]

I would always do this - had a problem with the missus' car shortly after delivery and the dealer tried to push me away from using a CC but i'm sure glad I stuck to my guns because otherwise i'd of been out of pocket.

Place I got mine from about a year ago were more keen on the debit than credit, but were ok with my paying on the card, especially when it was 50/50 on the card with deposit and collection

[mitchgixer6]

So if I've read this correctly (ignoring the original point if you let me), your CC company are paying th refund for a faulty car instead of the dealership? I presume if this is the case the CC company then chase the dealership for the total?

So the end game, you get a (faulty) car for free??

[edp]

mitchgixer6 - I would assume that you have to return the car to the dealership and as you've said the credit card company would chase them for the money. I may be wrong though, would be good if you got the car too!

[badass]

So if I've read this correctly (ignoring the original point if you let me), your CC company are paying th refund for a faulty car instead of the dealership? I presume if this is the case the CC company then chase the dealership for the total?

So the end game, you get a (faulty) car for free??

If I had taken the credit card company to court and won, that would have been the case. i.e. I would have had a faulty car for free*

However the credit card company aren't stupid so they sent me a settlement offer that required me to allow them to pick up the car and that they would pay me the original price paid for the car plus costs.

The car dealer in this case did what they often do. He liquidated his company so the Credit card company have taken all of the losses. If I hadn't paid the deposit on the credit card I would have a broken car, a judgement in my favour against an entity that is bankrupt and be about £2000 out of pocket for the costs of taking the dealer to court.


* I know this because this isn't the first time I have had a legal dispute with a car dealer. The first one was for less than £5000 so I took the dealer to the county court after they ignored me for ages and teh awared was all of my costs plus interest as compensation. There was no requirement for me to hand the car back. The dealer then refused to pay the money until I haded the car back so I arranged for court appointed bailiffs to relieve him of the cash plus the extra costs. The dealer then took me to court (at a cost to himself) to get the car back and had his case struck off at my request to the county court. He then IIRC applied for a court hearing (at further cost to himself) and teh case was thrown out on the basis of issue estopped. (look up estoppel for more info)

[Spud1]

It's good advice - but remember that most dealers who do take a CC will charge you extra for using one. Why? Because it costs them more.

A debit card will cost them around 40-50p depending on their merchant account, wheras a credit card will be a % - usually around 2.5% (less if its a large company or they bill a lot through their merchant account).

So the tip about paying £1 or so on your credit card and the rest on a debit card is a good one - any reputable dealer should be happy about doing this (doesn't really cost them anything) and it won't cost you any more, so is well worthwhile!

[badass]

It's good advice - but remember that most dealers who do take a CC will charge you extra for using one. Why? Because it costs them more.

A debit card will cost them around 40-50p depending on their merchant account, wheras a credit card will be a % - usually around 2.5% (less if its a large company or they bill a lot through their merchant account).

So the tip about paying £1 or so on your credit card and the rest on a debit card is a good one - any reputable dealer should be happy about doing this (doesn't really cost them anything) and it won't cost you any more, so is well worthwhile!

IME, no dealer charges you extra provided the deposit is on the credit card and is no more than £1000.
Paying £1 on the credit card is risky as you may find that you end up fighting a long and expensive legal battle that you may eventually lose.
Why? Because paying £1 on a credit card for a £10,000 car and expecting £10,000 from the CC company is taking the mick. That makes it more likely that the CC company will fight it until it either goes to the ECJ or you lose. Either through running out of money to fight the case or because you get a judgement against you.

Remember, in the UK, Judges make the law as well as politicians. Would you really want to take the additional risk rather than pay at least 5% of the cars value on the credit card?