Credit cards. Do you,don't you

[NOACROSS 414]

We have a fair few older people who use the card machine as they don’t have internet baking. For us a card machine is essential. 

[Arthur thicken 13]

It’s difficult as you want to sell the car, you could consider an admin fee but it could be argued you should then charge this to all customers irrelevant of if they’re using a credit card or not. Another way to look at it is would you give them 50 quid off to do a deal? Probably. You could also put the price of the car up on the net when they’re there and sell it at the increased price, you’ve got choices..

[Autolink100 34]

10 hours ago, Ek cars said:

Bet you don't sack him !

LOL, No, I won't sack him, he's a good guy actually. maybe just a stern talking to. I think he's got the message now.

10 hours ago, Ek cars said:

Bet you don't sack him !

LOL, No, I won't sack him, he's a good guy actually. maybe just a stern talking to. I think he's got the message now.

[Arthur thicken 13]

17 hours ago, Earunder said:

We don't charge any fees (Selling £3k-£30k cars).  It's illegal.   I don't understand the admin fee rubbish?  Whenever I see admin fee on any invoices I feel it's a con.  Because it is.  If you can't do without the £50-£200 charges then your margins are not setup correctly or your haggling your prices too low.

On a side note:  Do you guys still get charged £120 + VAT from Zuto or CF247?

247 we’re charging £150 plus the vat so I binned them.

[Autolink100 34]

12 hours ago, Mark101 said:

Still better than losing a sale and I have looked at the article referred to herein and I don't see an issue with section 75, am I missing something.

You might be. I stopped taking Credit cards a long time ago after a fellow trader recounted a tale of woe about how he was checking his bank statement one day to find that £4000 had been debited from his account without his knowledge, After a bit of digging around he realised it was his card handler and it was a "chargeback". After speaking to said card handler he was informed that it was because a customer who bought a Vectra from him several months previously had raised a complaint about the car. He never made any complaint to my dealer friend whatsoever, just went straight to the card company and got his money back in full. The Vectra was still sitting outside his house.

I'm pretty sure the card handlers are not going to give you a heads up, they are just going to grab the money before you know the score for obvious reasons, as is their right.

Section 75 gives the punter enormous protection and puts us at enormous risk so definitely not for me.

They still get this protection when dealing with finance companies but with finance companies you are going to hear about the problem first and I don't think they have the power to dip into your account without authorisation which your card handler does

[D&M 66]

17 hours ago, s and b said:

if the deposit on the card was more than £100 then i too would be very unhappy

Just a heads up, as I've heard about this too...

As long as the car costs more than £100 (which I would hope it does!), they can claim back under section 75.

Doesn't matter if they've only paid £0.01 on their credit card - if the thing they are buying costs more than £100, they are covered.

They way it's mostly written makes it sound like the way you understand from what you've written, but that's not quite the case.

Not that I think anyone has much to worry about in regards to chargebacks. We got our card machine in November after 'missing' a couple of sales (although explained to them they could transfer funds from credit card into bank account, didn't want to do that - I smell trouble!). Not a single soul has asked to pay via card! Never used the thing, thankfully its not on a contract - just pay as you go!

[Mark101 536]

It doesn’t matter who, what, when etc - there is always a horror story behind every deal - I bet anyone, there have been more negative cases regarding cash payments (counterfeit), convenient burglary shortly after transaction etc.

Card payments have always given protection to individuals, which is why I try and pay for anything through this method.

Apart from your example, I can only find benefits to us as dealers - as rather than be solely liable, we now have joint liability.

I am also not sure whether (despite doing so) they actually can withdraw funds.  I wonder if the funds were actually still sitting in the holding account - in other words, hadn’t been deposited into a current account?

I am considering a PAYG device, just because I don’t want to lose any sale but CHAPS (or instant bank transfer) is always my preferred option - no cash risks and no card transaction fees.

each to their own I guess.

[Mark101 536]

30 minutes ago, tradex said:

There's always a 'charge back' story doing the rounds, and the common theme is a 'friend of a friend', sometimes a ferret is involved and more than usual the trader is one of those whom attract 'dramas', no offense intended.

If you look into it, things aren't that straight forward.

Chat to your card provider (for want of a better word) and it really isn't that simple for a customer to ring up and say "my alternators failed, snatch my money back", I know as I have.

I think you’re agreeing with me tradex  

Remember, only bad news makes interesting news and it is disproportionate to all the good stuff that happens every second, every minute, every hour, every day year in year out.

 

[David Ayers 171]

I did a deal with a lady a couple of years ago. She'd bought a Prius off a local dealer. It had a fault with the battery cooling fan. Apparently the supplying dealer didn't want to know. She had got her money back from the credit card company, not sure how much of the price she had paid on the card. She still had the Prius, a 54 plate low mileage example and said the card company had told her to pay them whatever she got for it. I didn't particularly want the car so went silly and got it.

[BHM 994]

[justina3 518]

1 hour ago, tradex said:

second hand story?: tick

ferret present?: cross

If, I understand that correctly you bought a Prius that had been sold by another dealer, whom had the money snatched back, without the return of the car, and then you bought the car from the lady whom had her back but kept the car?

easy for you to say

[David Ayers 171]

10 hours ago, tradex said:

second hand story?: tick

ferret present?: cross

If, I understand that correctly you bought a Prius that had been sold by another dealer, whom had the money snatched back, without the return of the car, and then you bought the car from the lady whom had her back but kept the car?

I don’t know whether the supplying dealer had his money snatched back. Just that the card company had refunded her and she had to pass on what she got for the car to them.

 

 

[Mistermuttley 19]

On 3/22/2018 at 1:57 PM, Arfur Dealy said:

If they can’t pay by transfer or cash I don’t do business with them. 

same here, i might have been lucky but no one has ever quibbled paying by card or cash.

Did wonder about the card but when you have to look after your margin that's just another thing to eat away at it.

[justlooking 48]

Told a customer today that I only accept bank transfer, despite him suggesting he could pay for the car in full by card

we agreed for him to pay deposit by bank transfer this evening and the rest when he picks up the car next week.

its 2240hrs and no sign of a bank transfer, I should have taken debit card!

[CCC 31]

Not as a dealer, but chargebacks were a nightmare for my previous business. Fortunately we only got a few a year but customers would forget they’d bought something from us online, when they got their card statement or bank statement, phone the bank and suggest it was fraud then the bank would take the money out of our account a fortnight later. The payment provider would write to us first but even sending them proof of sale was a waste of time and the money came out of our account no matter what. We gave up worrying and just asked the customer for the goods back or pay us again, which they did quite happily as they always realised what the payment was for when we called them.

Edited November 11, 2018 by CCC

[Rory RSC 596]

10 hours ago, justlooking said:

Told a customer today that I only accept bank transfer, despite him suggesting he could pay for the car in full by card

we agreed for him to pay deposit by bank transfer this evening and the rest when he picks up the car next week.

its 2240hrs and no sign of a bank transfer, I should have taken debit card!

Card deposits in person balance via transfer. Just take £250 on a card don't put obstacles in the way.

[Nick M.K. 574]

6 minutes ago, Rory RSC said:

Just take £250 on a card don't put obstacles in the way.

I take as little as £100 on a card and even that is enough to secure the deal and to get the buyer into this "have bought it!" mindset. 

Card machine is a must to get those impulse buyers that call first and think later (I am one of them by the way)

[justina3 518]

We give people the choice but offer them a full tank of fuel if they do a bank transfer on a small round around its never more than £30 and a great way to get cash in the bank the same day, no risk of silly claw backs and no fees.

The odd person still puts it on there card as its the only way they can afford it.

 

[Blenheim Car Sales 111]

I have taken 2 card payments deals over the weekend, I cant afford to loose these deals i sold both full up with no discount, I will pay the £60-£70 fees and know my deal is safe and secure, Both deals were driven away same day as there viewing

 

Its November guys      GET THEM GONE !!!!!

 

[Nick M.K. 574]

2 minutes ago, Blenheim Car Sales said:

Its November guys

It's the busiest November I remember. I can't get them IN fast enough. 

[Mark101 536]

I take credit, debit, cheque (must clear), cash, bank transfer and soon enough...finance.

I am prepared to take the risk on any of the above re: claw back.

[justlooking 48]

2 hours ago, Rory RSC said:

Card deposits in person balance via transfer. Just take £250 on a card don't put obstacles in the way.

Will be doing this from now on, expensive lesson learned...

2 hours ago, Nick M.K. said:

I take as little as £100 on a card and even that is enough to secure the deal and to get the buyer into this "have bought it!" mindset. 

Card machine is a must to get those impulse buyers that call first and think later (I am one of them by the way)

yep! thats the mindset I needed this customer to get into ASAP because...

he just called, and bailed cos no invoice for automatic gearbox change at 40k

[Craig F 0]

Interesting topic this...

I've just had my latest Merchant Provider statement through and on 12 Debit Card Transactions I completed last month for £110,000 of business my charges alone on that were £351.25.

Total Merchant service charge for the month £433.67. This is of course not including the quarterly rental charge to the Machine provider. 

For me it's no longer sustainable. I remember when not that long ago my Merchant Fees on similar levels of business were around £40-£70 a month.

I would rather ask the Client to pay by other means in the knowledge that the car I have is better prepared than any other they will go and look at, will have been still priced competitively against lesser prepared examples and give myself a £300 a month pay rise.

[NOACROSS 414]

1 hour ago, justlooking said:

Will be doing this from now on, expensive lesson learned...

yep! thats the mindset I needed this customer to get into ASAP because...

he just called, and bailed cos no invoice for automatic gearbox change at 40k

Wow. Sounds like you dodged a bullet with them as a buyer maybe mate!

[Jack Regan 116]

Never lost a sale when I've told punters don't take cards of any sorts .... 3 or 4 cash machines within a minutes walk helps .