The last car I bought I paid with debit card at collection but whilst I thought this was cleared funds, some say that the dealer does not recieve the money until a couple of days later. Anyone know for certain?

I set up and managed the card facility at a small charity I used to work for. I can confirm that the payee doesn't receive the funds immediately, it does normally take at least couple of days for the cash to credit the payee's (i.e. the dealer's) account. There are various options available for the merchant (i.e. the garage) which enable them to pay less commission but get the money later, if that makes sense. Similarly, it typically takes the same time to be debited the payer's account. When the card is passed thorugh the machine, it will be authorised for payment - that means, there were sufficient funds at the time, and the card passed the validity checks. It's perfectly possible that the cardholder could close the account the next day, so in this case the payee might receive the funds, but they will almost certainly be immediately recalled. Hence the wait.

HTH.

Once the debit card has been verifiied and authorised via the card reader, it's just about impossible to stop the transaction. In most cases, the money is transferred within hours, usually 24 hours max. If it's between accounts in the same bank, it can be immediate.

This gauarantee, and the fact that any charges are minimal or zero, is why car dealers love your debit card.

Edited by retgwte on 28/04/2012 at 15:01

An IT contractor I know required a car at short notice. He went round to his local Nissan dealership after work, pointed at a nice, new black Primera GT and said "I want that one now".

The dealer made noises about payment delays, closing up now sir, maybe sometime next week and so on.

One opening of a briefcase full of cash later, a bit of haggling after that and he was driving home in it within 20 minutes. You can keep your debit cards. Nothing produces service from a car dealer like a large quantity of folding money all in one place.......

We're picking a new Hyundai i20 up on Monday........

The new version of the i20 is in showromms on the 7th May....you'll have bought the current model for good reasons, I'm sure - presumably a good bit cheaper than the new one??

The Kappa2 is in the new 1.2...don't know about the 1.4. Better mpg and lower emissions. And hopefully free of transmission problems that have been apparent in the older 1. 2's