Importing from the UK: not comfortable carrying cash but want ability to haggle?

I am looking to Import a car from the UK in the coming months. I am looking for advice on how to handle the cash situation. I would not be comfortable carrying cash with me accross but want to be in a position to be able to haggle a good deal also. All suggestions welcome

Re: Importing from the UK

Many identical threads here on all that. Do a search.

Re: Importing from the UK

You can get a sterling draft , or use a mestro atm card

Re: Importing from the UK

shop around for the bank draft and compare prices with banks as there is a difference, I am currently doing this and am using currency.ie to transfer the money, they are giving a better exchange rate than the banks, saving me a couple of hundred euros

Re: Importing from the UK

How long did the transfer take to do?

Re: Importing from the UK

I transfered the money from Rabo yesterday morning, just got an email confirmation from Currency.ie to say that it has been lodged to the UK account.. I phoned my bank here in Ireland and compared exchange rate for a draft from them.. I saved just under 200 euros .. every little helps!

Re: Importing from the UK

Thanks for the tip Scarlet42. Def will look into this.

Re: Importing from the UK

I just got confirmation that the money has been lodged to my contact in the Belfast .. I have to say I'm really impressed at the speed and how smooth the transaction went .. I could not recommend currency.ie enough, had contact with them via email and on the phone and they couldn't do enought to make sure the transaction went smoothly.

I have no Affiliation with them

can't wait to collect my car in Belfast at the weekend now!

Re: Importing from the UK

Try the site ukforex.com, they give the best rates and have no charge under 3000 pounds sterling.

Re: Importing from the UK

Is the contact in belfast a mate or the car dealer you are paying for the car.

How would this work if you were planning to head to uk and take in a few dealers before buying fom one.

Is the transfer in hours or a few days?

Re: Importing from the UK

I bought a car from a main dealer in UK and he accepted payment using Visa. It is worth asking.

Re: Importing from the UK

visa cards give terrible exchange rates, better to try a company like xetrade or currency.ie, a quick phone call would show the cheapest solution

You could bring a bank draft for the miniumum amount you want to pay and then some cash for haggling with

sorry .. just noticed reply to me above .. Contact was a relative who has a bank account up there ..transfer took 1 day using the express transfer in Currency.ie, you could set it up with currency.ie .. transfer the money to them .. then go to the uk .. check out the cars, select the one you want .. get their bank account number and contact currecny.ie and transfer the moneh to their sellers account. .. you should contact curency.ie and see what way it usually done

Sean

Not all dealers take bank drafts as they don't trust them..just a thought..

If you are dealing with a main dealership or reputable garage then you can make an agreement to pay a refundable deposit of 3/4's of the car price as a holding deposit. If you want to buy the car then you can use cash for the difference as it's a much reduced amount to carry. You will see how well bargaining can go if you tell them you are not happy with their bottom line and want them to return your money to your account. I did this got a good reduction as they were determined to do a deal. The car was 11k stg and ended up paying 8900K stg. From a Volvo dealership with a 1 year warranty (Valid here) on 2 year old car.
I used currency.ie for transfer. They also do a same day transfer for €15. So if you had all day you could set it up buy the car before 11am and phone authorise then amount you agree to pay. They should have it by 5pm - Then drive away.

Do you have to deposit money with currency.ie or do they just hit your account for the amount to suit the exchange?

i was looking at cars in Glasgow at the weekend and was in arnold clark www.arnoldclark.com i was dealing with a helpful chap called alan templeton, his direct number was 00441419541577 he said they can deliver the cars to ireland

I found their stock quite large and he knew his stuff, just tell him you were talking it the irish lad Garrett

no connection just passing on details

You book a rate with currency then you lodge the money into their account which can stay there until your ready to pay.

Any who delivers a car charges for it in some manner or other.. they have to pay commission to the 'sales agents' also.....

importing from belfast

Hi guys,

This thread has been innactive fro a while but hoping someone might see this and give me some info. I've heard a certain time where if you own a car in the north, use it there for a certain amount of time and then bring it down south you dont have to pay to import, would this be correct? The reason i ask is, i live in belfast and my dad is thinknig of buying a car and bringing it back to dublin. If i bought the car, registered and used it up north for 6 months and then brought it south and registered it there would that mean i would avoid paying the ROI VAT? Then i could simply change the ownership of the vehicle to to my dad when it has been registered in the ROI. This way we would get the car at UK price and pay the lower Uk VAT of 17.5%?
Im not sure if my information is correct maybe someone can tell me if im onto something here or am i completely mis-informed.
Thank you