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Hello,
Couple of quick practicalities questions if I may, been so long since I've bought one.
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What I've always done in the past was found one I liked, agreed a price with the seller, given him the appropriate amount of cash stuffed into a brown envelope, rang my insurers to tell them about it and driven home.
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So, what do I do nowadays? It's likely to be a private sale.
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The new one will be pricier than anything I've bought before, vehicles anyways, I'm excluding bikes and a house, so a lot of money for me but not massive by most standards. Not the sort of money I'd want to have in cash anyway. So, I agree the price, log on the computer and do a bank transfer to the seller, then what? If it's outside working hours (very likely) will it go through straightaway? He's unlikely to let me drive off unless it's cleared and I won't want to transfer loads of money to a stranger and then leave without his van on the promise I can pick it up in a couple of days. My bank is NatWest if that makes any difference.
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Tax. Previously I've just driven home using whatever tax was left on the car, just changed my insurance and I'm good to go but they've buggered about with the tax system lately and it doesn't come with the car any more. How quickly do the insurers update their databases to allow me to tax it? If I drive home untaxed and then tax it a couple of days later (which pays for the whole month so effectively backdates it a couple of weeks) am I in the clear?
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Cheers
as above, but you pay for tax online using the 12 digit reference number on the New Keeper supplement of the log book before you drive away.
You can tax a vehicle without it showing on the insurance database.
How much is it? And are you not even going to go and look at it first?
My car purchase last year was a natwest transfer on a Saturday afternoon using my phone and card reader.
Significant amount, went through instantly. Tax as mentioned above. Sorted.
Bank transfers are done by faster payments these days. Transfer limit is between £10k and £25k depending on your bank. The transfer is immediate/doesn't need to clear and can't be recalled by you. This is reassuring for the seller and much safer than carrying cash. Best to do a small test transfer first to make sure you've got the sellers sort code and account number right.
once you've bought the car get the seller to go here: https://www.gov.uk/sold-bought-vehicle and follow the instructions.
Then you go here: https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax to tax the vehicle.
So, in summmary - take your mobile and your bank card reader and you'll be fine as long as there is a mobile signal 🙂
Thanks all, that sounds easier than I thought it would be.
Just been to see it today, very nice so agreed to buy it, £700 under asking price too so all good. Gve cash as the deposit, so will do the bank transfer for the balance when I go to collect on Saturday, must remember the card reader!
Taz sounds straightforward, although expensive but nothing I can do about that.
Thanks again.
I've had a couple recently where the £1 test purchase and then a bigger transfer 5 minutes later (£4,000) triggered the fraud department. Had to ring up and spent 30 minutes queuing whilst the seller paced about bored! Its definitely worth the test payment as we had a buyer send the £1 and it was only after we insisted we hadn't got it that he realised he had misstyped the bank details! So just make sure you can get hold of your bank when the purchase occurs 🙂
Its definitely worth the test payment as we had a buyer send the £1 and it was only after we insisted we hadn’t got it that he realised he had misstyped the bank details! So just make sure you can get hold of your bank when the purchase occurs 🙂
Now if only there was some commonly phone readable info on the card that could avoid idiot humans entering numbers, oh wait there is, banks are just still in 18th century 🙁
bank transfer/faster payment can be stopped and may well be for anti fraud checks. If it doesn't show straight away your bank will have stopped it, call them and you can normally get it released. Add the payee and send a small amount asap so it's on your account before hand (help a little with anti fraud checks) and also then you don't need card reader on the day and are sure the account details are correct.
For tax it won't show on the system instantly so you should be fine to drive home but technically shouldn't.
I love buying by cash. It's part of the process of buying a car. Nothing like counting out a thick wad of notes.