[dnlz]

Hey everyone, I know there is a dedicated Z4 forum, but this is more of a general BMW question.

A friend and I each placed an order with the same dealership. One was for an M240i, which was delivered this past weekend. The other is a custom Z4 build that should arrive before fall.

When we picked up my friend's car, he was asked to sign a bunch of paperwork related to backup financing, even though he was paying with a cashier's check. They ran his credit, asked for various forms of verification, and overall it felt uncomfortable. Personally, I try to avoid sending personal documents like passports. I already had to replace mine once after a company I sent it to was hacked.

While we were at the dealership, I looked it up and it seems like this is a BMW policy, not something specific to the dealer. It kind of makes sense since they have no way to instantly verify if a cashier's check is real. According to them, same-day ACH transfers are limited to fifty thousand dollars. They said the only alternative would be to come in about a week early to complete payment in advance.

I asked if I could use my debit card to pay the full amount, which is around eighty thousand dollars after tax. Surprisingly, they said yes. I am posting here to see if anyone else has done this or can confirm, because I am not fully confident in what the financing department is telling me.

[XK4]

It must just be your dealership. I just gave my dealer a personal check for the difference between my Z4 and my trade and they were fine with it, no hassle at all.

[RussV]

Originally Posted by dnlz

Hey everyone, I know there is a dedicated Z4 forum, but this is more of a general BMW question.

A friend and I each placed an order with the same dealership. One was for an M240i, which was delivered this past weekend. The other is a custom Z4 build that should arrive before fall.

When we picked up my friend's car, he was asked to sign a bunch of paperwork related to backup financing, even though he was paying with a cashier's check. They ran his credit, asked for various forms of verification, and overall it felt uncomfortable. Personally, I try to avoid sending personal documents like passports. I already had to replace mine once after a company I sent it to was hacked.

While we were at the dealership, I looked it up and it seems like this is a BMW policy, not something specific to the dealer. It kind of makes sense since they have no way to instantly verify if a cashier's check is real. According to them, same-day ACH transfers are limited to fifty thousand dollars. They said the only alternative would be to come in about a week early to complete payment in advance.

I asked if I could use my debit card to pay the full amount, which is around eighty thousand dollars after tax. Surprisingly, they said yes. I am posting here to see if anyone else has done this or can confirm, because I am not fully confident in what the financing department is telling me.

I had the same experience with my California dealer paying by check. Sales manager claimed the have had too many instances of fraud with people using IDs and documentation from someone else. Required me to take a photo of myself to put in their system. I bought two other vehicles from them paying by check and not financing. Felt violated.

[note46]

Similar experience in the past. I told them I'll be paying via a bank cashiers check. They required the sales person to go with me to the bank to get the check. If it was a weekend when the bank is closed, then I would have had to wait until the next business day to get the check.

I've tried to use my debit/credit card but they limited to about 8K max. I've story I heard was that about 10 years back, several X5s and 7 series were purchased with cashers check which were all legit. However the cars ended up in China/Hong Kong. Thus they (BMW) started requiring origination of funds and I guess now passports to verify citizenship? I have a cousin that works at a BMW dealer and she had a potential 3 X5 sales that were all flagged (later cancelled) by BMW corporate. In all 3 instances, the buyer was young (in college) and wanted to pay with cash/wire. All 3 the funds originated from China.

EDIT:
One way to avoid the hassle is to just finance it with BMW and just pay it off. I put down 80% of my loan and paid it off on the first payment for my i4. It helped that the interest rate was .99%

[zx10guy]

Not a BMW car, but a BMW motorcycle. I didn't think to ask if a personal check would be ok as my down payment with the rest being financed with BMW Financial. They wanted a cashier's check but the sales guy went to the owner of the dealership that ok'd my personal check because I had purchased a motorcycle from them before.

[ash_schwin]

I went through this ordeal on the last 3 cars I bought at various dealerships even though I was a cash buyer in all the instances. They still ran my full credit which was very irritating. Toyota, Mercedes, and Porsche dealers were my experience. All cars were purchased in SoCal so not sure if it is a regional thing. Either way, reiterates why I always prefer to purchase a car through private seller which is what I did with my M3 and was much more hassle free.

[RockCrusher]

Bought a number of cars -- roughly over 20 -- and have paid via cashier's check or even personal check sometimes accompanied by a fully paid off trade in. In one case I traded in a car -- my 2018 Hellcat -- and got a new 2020 Scat Pack and a check from the dealer for the excess value of the Hellcat. Nice to walk, errr make that drive away from a dealer in a new car with some extra money one's my pocket.

Anyhow paying by check has never been a problem. Oh, several times, including my last purchase, a 2024 M8, I did finance $20,000. For the M8 I did so to qualify for a $9000 credit rebate. Had to make 3 payments which meant I paid around $180 interest but I'll spend $180 to save $9000!

A few times buying a new car I was asked to fill out car loan application which I understood would be used, could be used, if there was a problem with the check.

I bought 3 Porsche cars and so far 4 BMWs and neither the Porsche dealers or BMW dealers required this.

Oh, one dealer -- could have been a Dodge dealer (I bought a 2018 Scat Pack Dec. 2017, then a 2018 Hellcat Feb. 2018, then a 2020 Scat Pack Nov 2020) -- submitted a loan application (maybe by accident) which I had not provided income or stuff like that. (It could have been the dealer just wanted to see if I would sign the application as a truth test that my check would be good.)

Some days after the purchase I got a letter notifying me the application was denied. Kind of made me mad this happened as I feared it might affect my credit score. But I never noticed any impact to my credit score.

As an aside with another car purchase -- my 2023 M2 -- some months after the purchase I was notified of a security breach at the dealer. My personal info and my checking account info had been exposed. (Along with I'm sure other people who did business with that dealer.) As as I could after getting the letter I closed my checking account and opened a new one and moved all but $2000 out of the old account only moving the $2000 out after I was sure an automatic payment was coming from the new account.)

Added: Forgot to mention that only bit of an issue I ran into buying -- most recently -- a MINI S, a MINI JCW, and the M2 out of state was at first the dealer wanted to collect sales tax. I balked at this. The dealers insisted they were required by the factory (MINI/BMW). From my discussion with the tax office in my state I balked at handing over thousands of dollars to these states which I was informed he no agreement to hand over sales tax collected. So I put my foot down dug in my heels and said paying sales tax was a deal killer.

With other car purchases here even the local dealer didn't collect sales tax. Sales tax is paid when one goes to assess the car, and pay any property tax that might be due, and then pay sales tax *before* one advances to the window where one registers the car and surrenders the factory title for a state issued title -- which is mailed.

It was only after I said the sales tax business was a deal killer I was told this is only required if the car is being financed. In all of these purchases it was *not* financed. So I bought the cars with no sales tax collected. But course sales tax was paid just a few days after I got home with the new car.

[tturedraider]

Originally Posted by dnlz

Hey everyone, I know there is a dedicated Z4 forum, but this is more of a general BMW question.

A friend and I each placed an order with the same dealership. One was for an M240i, which was delivered this past weekend. The other is a custom Z4 build that should arrive before fall.

When we picked up my friend's car, he was asked to sign a bunch of paperwork related to backup financing, even though he was paying with a cashier's check. They ran his credit, asked for various forms of verification, and overall it felt uncomfortable. Personally, I try to avoid sending personal documents like passports. I already had to replace mine once after a company I sent it to was hacked.

While we were at the dealership, I looked it up and it seems like this is a BMW policy, not something specific to the dealer. It kind of makes sense since they have no way to instantly verify if a cashier's check is real. According to them, same-day ACH transfers are limited to fifty thousand dollars. They said the only alternative would be to come in about a week early to complete payment in advance.

I asked if I could use my debit card to pay the full amount, which is around eighty thousand dollars after tax. Surprisingly, they said yes. I am posting here to see if anyone else has done this or can confirm, because I am not fully confident in what the financing department is telling me.

This is the dealership, not BMWNA. BMWNA has zero involvement with the payment policies of individual dealerships.

[tracknut]

Originally Posted by dnlz

While we were at the dealership, I looked it up and it seems like this is a BMW policy, not something specific to the dealer. It kind of makes sense since they have no way to instantly verify if a cashier's check is real. According to them, same-day ACH transfers are limited to fifty thousand dollars. They said the only alternative would be to come in about a week early to complete payment in advance.

This last December I picked up my M8 and owed $110,000 to the dealer. They said they could not take a check over $100K, but I could write two personal checks for $55K each. Any chance your finance dude just didn't think of splitting it into two transfers?

[Desking101]

It's going to be different for different dealers since they all have their own policies. For me on cashier's check deals, I only require a government ID, name, and address for registration. I run an OFAC only. I only pull credit on cash deals if it's a personal check, for obvious reasons. We can also do wire transfers although I prefer not to. Cashier's checks can be verified with the bank.

A backup contract can be useful in some cases, such as a buyer with not so great credit writing a personal check

[Pool Shark]

In my experience, it is dealer-specific. For one brand, they had me call from the bank when I went to pick-up the cashier's check and spoke with the bank teller to confirm the check number and amount. When I asked why they needed to do this, the salesman stated that they had some shady characters purchase cars with fraudulent cashier's check. And for another brand, I simply presented the cashier's check--no fuss.

[lowrydr310]

Originally Posted by zx10guy

Not a BMW car, but a BMW motorcycle. I didn't think to ask if a personal check would be ok as my down payment with the rest being financed with BMW Financial. They wanted a cashier's check but the sales guy went to the owner of the dealership that ok'd my personal check because I had purchased a motorcycle from them before.

Not a BMW motorcycle but I once bought a KTM motorcycle from a dealership 1000 miles away, drove down with my truck and wrote a personal check for the full amount then took it home. This was all agreed upon prior to my road trip, but I was expecting some games. I was really surprised this dealership was true to their word, took my personal check, no added junk fees or markup, no sales tax or registration since I was an out of state buyer (had to pay at home when I registered it of.course.)