I am getting really confused about the process of actually paying for the car. Say we’ve got it all nailed down. The final price is set, the trade-in value for the old car is set, and now let’s say I want to pay 13000 in cash and then use the trade in value and put the rest on the loan.
How do I do this? I have the 13000 in my savings acccount. Do I:
transfer the money over to my checkings account and use the credit card attached to it?
get a cashier’s check from the savings account? In this case, don’t I now have to go back to the credit union to get the check? Can I just sign for the car and not pay for it that minute?
Something else?
I guess I’m just asking what they are going to want from me at that exact moment. I know I can’t have it all because I have to go back to the bank to get my loan stuff finalized anyway. Will they be flexible or will they insist on all the money up front? Can I sign under X terms, like “I will pay for this car within three days” or do I have to actually pay for it that second?
How it went when we bought the Mustang last summer - we got all the loan stuff finalized, got the information to go get our plates and insurance*, came back and sat down and gave the salesguy a cheque for the deposit, signed all the loan papers, got the keys and drove away.
Since you have your money in a savings account rather than a chequing account, you might have to go buy a cashier’s cheque for the $13,000 payment.
*I understand that most dealerships can handle the plates and insurance for you; in our case, our insurance agency is the one agency that won’t deal with dealerships, so we had to do it ourselves.
Upon further re-reading, it sounds like your car loan is not being handled through your dealership (ours was - the salesguy had all the paperwork for the loan on his desk). You’d probably have to bring your completed loan paperwork with you, too, if that’s the case.
Ideally, you’ll discuss just what the dealership wants, and when, with them prior to delivery. I’ve bought a couple of cars for “full amount at delivery” before–in my cases, we agreed upon a cashier’s cheque for the bottom-line amount on the day I picked up the car. That worked fine for both of us, and because each of us knew what to expect, there were no surprises for either of us.
If you have the funds on deposit in a savings account at the bank, they should be able to tell you how best to turn those funds into a cashier’s cheque–maybe a transfer to chequing, maybe something else. But if you have the funds already, I’d certainly recommend a cashier’s cheque in any event.
For an anecdote of what can happen if you do not discuss arrangements prior to picking up the car, I’ll mention the story of a friend of mine. Not knowing what else to do and having not discussed arrangements with the dealership other than, “I’ll pay in full when I pick up the car,” ended up taking a giant wad of hundred-dollar bills to the dealership when she got her new car. :eek: Apparently, the dealership was rather shocked and surprised that somebody would do that, instead of using a safer form of payment; and they weren’t entirely sure what to do with all that cash.
I paid the down payment ($5,000) via credit card the last time I bought a car. I don’t see why using your credit card is a problem; just call them and make sure they know there will be a $13k transaction today. Make sure you pay it off promptly too, of course.
Lots of dealerships aren’t going to want to take a $13k payment via credit card. They have to pay a percentage of the charge to the credit card company, and 1.2% (or whatever it is) of $13k that cuts into their profits significantly.
When I bought my last car I just gave them a personal cheque. I was a bit surprised but the Volvo dude said if it bounced, they would just come and take the car back.
Now, I was paying for the thing outright with no trade in or financing component, but I don’t actually think that would make a difference - if anything with the financing they’ll have more of your personal info.
Just bought a car last month. They told me I could pay as much as $2000 using a credit card. So I could get could get $2000 worth of “points” on my card but it wasn’t worth the extra hassle for that amount.
We’ve bought a lot of new cars over the years, and in at least one case, they let us take the car before we had the check from our credit union - I think that took 2 or 3 days. On our most recent purchase, we needed to wait for our credit union to give us proof of having paid off our trade (it had been paid off for months, they just didn’t get around to the paperwork) but they took our trade and our check and let us go with the new car. It took a week to get the title mess straightened out, but it was no biggie. Maybe we just look honest?
Ok, I’ve pretty much settled - since I’ll have to go back to the bank for the loan anyway, I’ll just go get a cashier’s cheque at that point. No reason, really, to put it on the credit card.
The same thing happened when my father bought a new car about five or six years ago; he bought the car on or about December 23 but needed a few days to withdraw the sum from his IRA. But they let him take the car home.
And when I bought a new car a couple of years ago, I asked them if I could put the whole amount on my credit card. They wouldn’t let me do that but did let me charge $3,000 of the purchase amount. For the rest, I had them write out the exact amount remaining and got a cashiers check for that much.
The regular one I think…I’m not sure about the “flappy paddle gearbox” (is that the technical term) but I am not getting the Sport, just the basic model. And I haven’t gotten it yet. Next week or less for sure.
