JDM1983

Hi all, after a bit of advice please. Bought a Clio from BCA in Enfield today, before paying did a Motorcheck and the Vehicle comes back as having outstanding finance. Phone Motorcheck, who phones the finance company and the finance is still outstanding, the dealer selling the car has a stocking loan in place against the vehicle which isn’t cleared. Motorcheck advise not to pay for the car, I get why. BCA tell me finance will be cleared within 3 days, I can either pay now, or pay in 3 days. Is this normal, should I be concerned about paying now?

Motorcheck advertise that they quickly and easily correct genuine mileage discrepancies, anyone tried that?

My trade insurance is with Unicom, and they offer trade breakdown cover through ALP. It was £160 for the year, I’ve taken it out but not used it yet so couldn’t say how good it is.

Fair one! Didn’t think such generic words would give a hit. Next time I will try harder

Sorry for a stupid newbie question, but what is DA (dealer auction), what is this, where is it held? Not sounding that attractive from the above comments, but always good to know what’s what

Welcome Max, from one newbie to another. After much thought and reading (on this forum) re warranties, I’ve signed upto the Lawgistics administered warranties today, seems a good way forward for me. James

I take it you have to apply that to every sale regardless of payment method to keep it all above board?

Yes, when you think of it like that, it’s massive. 150 sales...I could only dream

Thanks, I checked IZettle our, their % is a bit higher than Sumup. Sumup doesn’t look like you can take over the phone payments, not sure about IZettle. Im starting to think focusing on bank transfer is the way, but having something like a Sumup or IZettle in reserve might not hurt, especially as it’s only a one off 30 quid, unless you use it of course

Generally 1.75-2%, although some can be 2.5%.

Just looked into Sumup, £30 setup as you say, but 1.69%, which is actually fairly decent for these mobile based solutions. No contract, no other charges. For 30 quid, might be worth having one just in case. Although if you sell a 6k car on it, that’s £100, quite a lot of cash

Thanks for the advice all. Sounds like I’ll be ok without one, I’ll give that a try to start with. The card machine company has actually offered an app, no machine, no contract, same charges (0.3% debit, 1% credit), there is a minimum £20 transaction fee/month. Might try that if I find I need something.

No, doing it all above board and properly

Hi All, Just wondering if I could get a bit of advice on payment methods. I’m just starting out and going to be trading approx 3 cars a month from home. On one hand, I’m reluctant to get a card machine because it’s another monthly subscription. On the other hand, I dont want to put customers off by not having one. Just wondering what you guys have done in the past or think? Cheers James

Love this, so true!

Guy I know owned one, strange bloke he was

Welcome from another newbie

I looked into plumbing Dave, but apparently that trade doesn’t have “overnight millionaire” opportunities, so got go with motor trading I’m afraid (jokes)

Thanks Kelly

They don’t get the concept of depreciation or cost of sale either then...madness

Thanks TV, good advice, that’s exactly the plan. I don’t really like the day job, but that’s what pays the bills so will he keeping it up until such times as this venture proves itself. Thanks Nick! Cheers Rory! Yes, I agree, I’m very passionate about the performance segment. Thanks Mark, some good insight!

Thanks Tradex!

Hi Justina, previous examples of what I’ve sold are along the lines of Focus ST’s, Civic Type R’s, Renaultsport Clio’s, and that’s still the aim. Would love to get into higher end performance, but that’s just a dream right now Thank you EPV

Thank you AD!

Hi All, After a few weeks of lurking in the shadows, I thought it time I reveal myself (not like that!). In all seriousness though, it’s been a massive help reading this forum, so I already owe you all some thanks. So a bit about me; my name is James, 35 and based in West Sussex. I’ve previously worked part time at an independent trader, and have on-off traded privately from home for the last few years. I love everything Cars, spend all my spare time researching cars, and being a Chartered Engineer I’m fairly handy at the odd fix too. I’ve always been drawn to this industry, hence the prior dabbling, but never took the plunge to make it a proper business. I still plan to retain my day job for the short to medium term, but this time have serious aspirations to start a professional business and grow it into something. In terms of stock, I’m going to focus on performance, as this is what I know, and have had some fairly good success with in the past. I plan to stock 3 cars in the £5-10k range to start with and trade from home whilst I build up some capital to take the business to its next stage. No doubt I have a massive amount to learn, there’s a big difference between what I’ve done before and what I would like to do, so I hope you guys won’t mind the odd daft question! So that’s it for now, I look forward to hopefully becoming an active member of the forum soon. James