Car Salesman



  • We're looking to get a new car. We decided on what we wanted and went to the dealership, took the test drive, decided on the options and sat down with the salesman:

    We want model x with options y and z and we'll be paying cash; please give me the lowest price you can live with.

    What's your social security number?

    Why do you need it? I said we'll be paying cash.

    I'm going to run a credit check.

    Why? I said I'm going to be paying in CASH! No loans.

    But we need to check your credit report.

    No you don't. That's just if I need financing. I don't need financing. Every time someone checks the credit rating, it's a slight ding on the FICO score. I have a good credit rating because I don't let people ding it for no reason (well, that and the fact that I pay my bills on time).

    He insisted. I asked to see the manager. The manager won't be able to help you; it's our policy to check your credit. Let the manager tell me that.

    Turns out they didn't need to check my credit report for a cash sale; all I needed was a cash deposit and a cashier's check.

    For spite, we walked out (the price was ok, but wasn't all that great).

    I hate car salesman.



  • Not really 100% his fault. As a society we put insane value on one little 3 digit number that really depending on the person in question can mean anything in any context for any reason, not to mention can be completely false and not applicable to a given situation (such as thus, where you wanted to pay cash and had no intention of financing anything.) Now employers check your credit, as if your credit score means dick as to how good you would be at a job.



  • Like most systems, credit scores only handle the middle 80%-ish of common transactions. Buying a car with cash is definitely out of its purview. As is my case, where I've never owned a credit card... the only reason I have good credit (before I took on car and mortgage payments) was because I had a good payment history on, of all things, a phone bill. But now that I've paid-off a car over 4 years and haven't missed a mortgage payment, I'm "back in the 80%" and my credit score is good. (BTW, that phone bill-based credit history was good enough to get 0% financing on the car-- I don't know if that's because the score was really that great, or because at the time they were hurting for sales and wanted to move cars any way possible.)

    Credit cards still suck ass, and I'll never get one unless I have absolutely no other choice.



  • I would have tried to give the sale to one of the other people working there to spite him.  Being ill-informed or having a lapse in logic is one thing.  Being pig-headed about it is another.



  • I bought a new car back in february.  Went in knowingexactly what I was gonna have and what I was gonna pay.  I went in at the end of the month, half an hour before they closed.  Well when you keep the sales guy there you also keep the options manager and the sales manager.  4 hours past close i finally signed the papers.  I should also not that I had some knowledge of the sales staff's personality before walking in.  I hand picked the sales guy with that knowledge... 



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Credit cards still suck ass, and I'll never get one unless I have absolutely no other choice.

     

    Personally, we have two (got a second one when it looked like our primary (Citi) might have gone under last year), and we only use them to a) save trips to the bank to get cash, b) get the rewards, c) get a little protection when buying stuff online. We have never paid a cent in interest on credit cards. If you have the discipline, they can be worthy. If.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Like most systems, credit scores only handle the middle 80%-ish of common transactions. Buying a car with cash is definitely out of its purview. As is my case, where I've never owned a credit card... the only reason I have good credit (before I took on car and mortgage payments) was because I had a good payment history on, of all things, a phone bill. But now that I've paid-off a car over 4 years and haven't missed a mortgage payment, I'm "back in the 80%" and my credit score is good. (BTW, that phone bill-based credit history was good enough to get 0% financing on the car-- I don't know if that's because the score was really that great, or because at the time they were hurting for sales and wanted to move cars any way possible.)

    Credit cards still suck ass, and I'll never get one unless I have absolutely no other choice.

    I think the only reason I have credit cards now is to preserve my credit score.  The only time we carried a balance was when we first bought our house and had a bunch of repairs to do.  The house was a slight "fixer-upper".  It was an early 1800s post-and-beam colonial that had deferred maintenance since the 1970s.



  • @frits said:

    I would have tried to give the sale to one of the other people working there to spite him.  Being ill-informed or having a lapse in logic is one thing.  Being pig-headed about it is another.

    That doesn't really work as they then fight (behind the scenes) to split the commission.

    The thing is, we don't really need a new car; we just want one. There are a couple of other models that we like too. Personally, I refuse to be dead set on one model that can only be had at the one nearby dealership that sells that model because it takes away the leverage of being able to walk out.


  • @snoofle said:

    and we only use them to a) save trips to the bank to get cash, b) get the rewards, c) get a little protection when buying stuff online.

    I get a) and c) from my existing debit card, and b) I don't care about.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Credit cards still suck ass, and I'll never get one unless I have absolutely no other choice.

    Amen, blakey.

    @blakeyrat said:

    @snoofle said:
    and we only use them to a) save trips to the bank to get cash, b) get the rewards, c) get a little protection when buying stuff online.

    I get a) and c) from my existing debit card, and b) I don't care about.

    What kind of protection do you get from your debit card for online transactions? I use a small account for those kinds of things, just in case, but I don't think I have any sort of built-in fraud protection. Or at least I've always assumed I haven't. (Maybe I should check!)



  • @blakeyrat said:

    @snoofle said:
    and we only use them to a) save trips to the bank to get cash, b) get the rewards, c) get a little protection when buying stuff online.

    I get a) and c) from my existing debit card, and [b]b) I don't care about.[/b]

     

    I guess that depends on how much stuff you buy. In our case, we charge everything (and pay it off in full every month) and we get back a little over $1000/year! In the grand scheme of things, it's only a grand, but we let it accumulate and treat it as a freebie whenever a big expense comes along.



  • @snoofle said:

    That doesn't really work as they then fight (behind the scenes) to split the commission.

    Ohh, that could be so awesome, like gladiator, "let the best salesman survive" ...

    It also have entertainment value, I would buy a car just to see this...  balding aging guy battling with young fresh salesman for the sale using office supplies as weapons.

    It could even be a sport... even better than WWE!


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @Master Chief said:

    Not really 100% his fault.

    Bullshit. The customer service aspect of it totally was his fault. He sounds like a really awful car salesman. At the minimum, he should have said something like, "It's against our standard policy, so I need to get the manager," or something similar. For crying out loud, a customer saying he's paying cash!



  • @Xyro said:

    @blakeyrat said:
    @snoofle said:
    and we only use them to a) save trips to the bank to get cash, b) get the rewards, c) get a little protection when buying stuff online.

    I get a) and c) from my existing debit card, and b) I don't care about.

    What kind of protection do you get from your debit card for online transactions? I use a small account for those kinds of things, just in case, but I don't think I have any sort of built-in fraud protection. Or at least I've always assumed I haven't. (Maybe I should check!)

    Maybe it's blakey who should check, or maybe it's an EU-vs-US difference, but over here you don't get any kind of purchase protection with debit cards, only credit cards.

    And I think snoofle needs to check on his option a); it's also the case over here that withdrawing cash using a credit card incurs a percentage charge, while withdrawing cash using a debit card is free (as long as you're using a real bank ATM and not one of those convenience store ones).

     


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @DaveK said:

    Maybe it's blakey who should check, or maybe it's an EU-vs-US difference, but over here you don't get any kind of purchase protection with debit cards, only credit cards.

    Probably a US thing. They're pretty much all Visa or Mastercard, and when you do general purchase type transactions (as opposed to ATM withdrawal or cash advance stuff, which requires the PIN to be used) you get "standard" Visa or Mastercard type of protections.



  • @snoofle said:

    What's your social security number?

    Why do you need it? I said we'll be paying cash.

    I'm going to run a credit check.

    Why? I said I'm going to be paying in CASH! No loans.

    But we need to check your credit report.

    No you don't. That's just if I need financing. I don't need financing.

    He makes more commission from originating a loan than he does by selling you a car.  The Internet has allowed everyone to ask for a rock-bottom price on every car deal.  So, instead of fighting it, car dealerships simply play along and sell you a car for close to zero profit and have transformed into loan sharks.  There's no way he's going to simply sell you a car without attempting to sell you a loan.  He would much rather keep that car on is lot for someone without cash than let you take it.

    Your best bet is to find a dealership that has too many cars on the lot.  They have a real incentive to get rid of them before they have to start paying interest on the loans they used to stock the lot.



  • Just curious, why were you in the market for a new car, instead of say a 3ish year old car (when the performance/value ratio is typically the highest)?



  •  To get protection from debit cards, you have to use the "run as credit" feature.

     Really, though, I don't see why anybody wouldn't want to use a credit card.  I've never paid a dime in fees for mine, and I've probably gotten back at least $250 from the rewards on crap I would've bought anyways.  I put my $300 utility bill on the card, and guess what?  Free rewards!

     As far as purchasing a car with cash... I've you can get <3% financing (it seems there's always at least one major automaker offering this at any given time), why the hell would you put any money down?  The opportunity cost of not having all that money available to you is going to exceed the cost of financing.



  • @ShatteredArm said:

    To get protection from debit cards, you have to use the "run as credit" feature.

    Depends on your bank. I get protection either way, at least a basic level.

    @ShatteredArm said:

    Really, though, I don't see why anybody wouldn't want to use a credit card.

    Because I don't trust myself to repay it responsibly. Also, if I don't need credit, why would I want credit? Credit is a bad thing, remember? That's why they have to offer rewards and crap to entice responsible people to keep the cards. And besides:

    @ShatteredArm said:

    I've never paid a dime in fees for mine, and I've probably gotten back at least $250 from the rewards on crap I would've bought anyways.

    And yet somehow the bank's still making money off you...


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @blakeyrat said:

    Credit is a bad thing, remember? That's why they have to offer rewards and crap to entice responsible people to keep the cards.

    Credit is bad in the same way that fire is. The rewards are the result of competition.



  • @boomzilla said:

    @blakeyrat said:
    Credit is a bad thing, remember? That's why they have to offer rewards and crap to entice responsible people to keep the cards.

    Credit is bad in the same way that fire is. The rewards are the result of competition.

    Dude, Jesus is totally gonna come over there and wreck your shit.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    @ShatteredArm said:
    To get protection from debit cards, you have to use the "run as credit" feature.

    Depends on your bank. I get protection either way, at least a basic level.

    With my credit card, if I dispute a charge, the burden of investigation is on the credit card company; they will contact the other party and figure out what is going on. With my debit card, I get some protection against fraud or identity theft, but I cannot contest charges easily.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @blakeyrat said:

    Dude, Jesus is totally gonna come over there and wreck your shit.

    Sez you.



  • I don't know why nobody's mentioned overage fees yet- especially the people who don't keep their main money supply in their debit account.

    I only ever keep about $10-$30 in the account I have linked to my debit card-- turns out that makes it really consuming to track how much is left. *shrug*



  • @boomzilla said:

    @blakeyrat said:
    Dude, Jesus is totally gonna come over there and wreck your shit.

    Sez you.

    Filed under: _, I have no idea what you're talking about...really

    Jesus?  Moneylenders?  Temple?




  • @boomzilla said:

    @Master Chief said:
    Not really 100% his fault.

    Bullshit. The customer service aspect of it totally was his fault. He sounds like a really awful car salesman. At the minimum, he should have said something like, "It's against our standard policy, so I need to get the manager," or something similar. For crying out loud, a customer saying he's paying cash!

    My point was more that he's been indoctrinated so deeply about how life and death a credit score is to a car sale that he can't think past it.



  • @DaveK said:

    @boomzilla said:

    @blakeyrat said:
    Dude, Jesus is totally gonna come over there and wreck your shit.

    Sez you.

    Filed under: _, I have no idea what you're talking about...really

    Jesus?  Moneylenders?  Temple?


    Yeah you nailed it. Jesus had a thing against credit cards, and since I'm exactly like Jesus in every way, so do I.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @blakeyrat said:

    Yeah you nailed it. Jesus had a thing against credit cards, and since I'm exactly like Jesus in every way, so do I.

    So lending money is OK, as long as you don't do it in Church?



  • @Master Chief said:

    @boomzilla said:
    @Master Chief said:
    Not really 100% his fault.

    Bullshit. The customer service aspect of it totally was his fault. He sounds like a really awful car salesman. At the minimum, he should have said something like, "It's against our standard policy, so I need to get the manager," or something similar. For crying out loud, a customer saying he's paying cash!

    My point was more that he's been indoctrinated so deeply about how life and death a credit score is to a car sale that he can't think past it.

    Reminds me of something that happened to me something many years ago. I went to a computer store, one of those small shops staffed by people having emotional ties with CPU-overclocking and video card coupling.



    I ordered a computer with 2GB RAM, which was a lot in that time. The clerk told me that 1GB was enough, even 512MB should work, so I thanked him for his advice and let him know that since I use RAM-hungry software I really wanted 2GB. But he would not let me order it, telling me again and again that even 1GB is a lot. So I asked, are you out of stock or something? But no, there was plenty of RAM available in the store, but he was convinced that I did not need 2GB... After 5-10 minutes of trying to convince him to let me order 2GB, I gave up and went to another shop.



    I've never been to that shop again and it's too bad for them because I needlessly spend a lot of money on hardware. I'm all for good advice with salespeople but when they are stubborn it pisses me off. If I want to waste money, it's my right!



  • @boomzilla said:

    @blakeyrat said:
    Yeah you nailed it. Jesus had a thing against credit cards, and since I'm exactly like Jesus in every way, so do I.

    So lending money is OK, as long as you don't do it in Church?

    The moral is: lending money is ok, but if some crazy dude in a long beard walks in and goes ape-shit destroying all your stuff, you better let him because he's probably the Messiah.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    [ . . . ]I'm exactly like Jesus in every way [ . . . ]

    Nailed to a tree and full of holes?

     



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Because I don't trust myself to repay it responsibly.
     

    Credit cards protect way better than debit card. I think the idea is when identity theft occurs the credit card issuer is willing to stick it to the merchant, while banks don't like to just deposite money into your account.  Also, either way the dispute process can take a really long time and the bank won't reimburse you until everything is settled. I have my credit card through my checking account bank and set things up to pay off the balance at the end of every month. 



  • @blakeyrat said:

    @boomzilla said:
    @blakeyrat said:
    Yeah you nailed it. Jesus had a thing against credit cards, and since I'm exactly like Jesus in every way, so do I.
    So lending money is OK, as long as you don't do it in Church?

    The moral is: lending money is ok, but if some crazy dude in a long beard walks in and goes ape-shit destroying all your stuff, you better let him because he's probably the Messiah.

    some crazy dude in a long beard, shortly before going ape-shit and destroying all your stuff

     


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @blakeyrat said:

    The moral is: lending money is ok, but if some crazy dude in a long beard walks in and goes ape-shit destroying all your stuff, you better let him because he's probably the Messiah.

    Or RMS at a .NET convention?



  • @blakeyrat said:

    And yet somehow the bank's still making money off you...

    It's called "charging the merchants credit card processing fees."  The merchants charge me the same amount regardless of whether I use cash or credit, so what do I care if the bank makes money when I use my card?  They probably deserve something in exchange for handling all this processing, right?  They're actually giving me money to use their card... So what if they make up for it by charging the merchants?  All I care about is that it's easy for me to use, and actually costs me less to buy stuff with it (provided I'm not too lazy to check a few boxes on the internet every month).



  • @thistooshallpass said:

    Reminds me of something that happened to me something many years ago. I went to a computer store, one of those small shops staffed by people having emotional ties with CPU-overclocking and video card coupling.

    I ordered a computer with 2GB RAM, which was a lot in that time. The clerk told me that 1GB was enough, even 512MB should work, so I thanked him for his advice and let him know that since I use RAM-hungry software I really wanted 2GB. But he would not let me order it, telling me again and again that even 1GB is a lot. So I asked, are you out of stock or something? But no, there was plenty of RAM available in the store, but he was convinced that I did not need 2GB... After 5-10 minutes of trying to convince him to let me order 2GB, I gave up and went to another shop.

    I've never been to that shop again and it's too bad for them because I needlessly spend a lot of money on hardware. I'm all for good advice with salespeople but when they are stubborn it pisses me off. If I want to waste money, it's my right!
     

    I'm in the market for a new music keyboard/digital piano so my daughter can practice.  Went to a music store that I've known since a child (and where we have a store credit) and discussed two keyboards.  The salesdroid was steering me toward the Yamaha, but told me that I would do okay with either option (the second was a Korg).  At a different shop, my daughter had previously test-played both options and she preferred the Korg.

    Called up the store yesterday and asked how to go about ordering the Korg.  Was told that they don't have a contract with Korg for keyboards and they can't get it for me.  Spoke to the salesdroid today.  I told him that, in our discussion the other day, he never told me he couldn't get a Korg.  He told me that, no, he never explicitly stated he couldn't get it, but he said, "I can get you a Yamaha or a Roland."  If he had said "Whatever you decide, I can get you a Yamaha, but we don't have a contract with Korg so if that's the one you choose I can't get it," I would've been informed up front.

    Rather than switching to the Yamaha, I'll be going somewhere else for the Korg.  Not sure how to handle the credit.



  • @thistooshallpass said:

    Reminds me of something that happened to me something many years ago. I went to a computer store, one of those small shops staffed by people having emotional ties with CPU-overclocking and video card coupling.



    I ordered a computer with 2GB RAM, which was a lot in that time. The clerk told me that 1GB was enough, even 512MB should work, so I thanked him for his advice and let him know that since I use RAM-hungry software I really wanted 2GB. But he would not let me order it, telling me again and again that even 1GB is a lot. So I asked, are you out of stock or something? But no, there was plenty of RAM available in the store, but he was convinced that I did not need 2GB... After 5-10 minutes of trying to convince him to let me order 2GB, I gave up and went to another shop.



    I've never been to that shop again and it's too bad for them because I needlessly spend a lot of money on hardware. I'm all for good advice with salespeople but when they are stubborn it pisses me off. If I want to waste money, it's my right!

    Not to mention spending more on a computer is not a waste of money, it's future-proofing. When I was younger, I'd buy whatever RAM or video card I could afford at the time, even if it was just enough to get my newest game to work. Once I had real disposable income, I spent $650 on an overhaul to my gaming rig. 3 years later, I haven't had to touch it, and only recently finally found a game it wouldn't run on max graphics. (which is not to say that it didn't run at all, I just had to run it in 1600 x 900 instead of 1920 x 1080.)


    Moral of the story: You get what you pay for.



  • @Master Chief said:

    Now employers check your credit, as if your credit score means dick as to how good you would be at a job.

    It does. The same people that don't pay their bills and are irresponsible with credit are the same people that call off work twice a week and seem to have catastrophic job-affecting life events happen to them constantly.

    Now, personally I think it should be illegal to use a credit score to make decisions on business transactions that do not involve providing the other party credit.

    But acredit score is a good indicator of the types of life choices a person makes.

     



  • @ShatteredArm said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    And yet somehow the bank's still making money off you...

    It's called "charging the merchants credit card processing fees."  The merchants charge me the same amount regardless of whether I use cash or credit, so what do I care if the bank makes money when I use my card?  

    Uh, what?  If the merchants have to pay the processing fees, do you think they're doing that out of their own pockets and a love of colourful rainbow unicorn puppies, or do you think they're amortizing that cost by passing it on to their customers in the form of higher prices?  And if you accept that all their expenses get paid out of the money they receive from customers, why don't you feel you're being ripped off when they charge you the same amount regardless if you actually use credit or not, instead of offering you a discount for cash?




  • @blakeyrat said:

    @snoofle said:
    and we only use them to a) save trips to the bank to get cash, b) get the rewards, c) get a little protection when buying stuff online.

    I get a) and c) from my existing debit card, and b) I don't care about.

     

     

    Perhaps some "a)", but what about protection against some sort of "hack". If a thief somehow is able to misuse my CC number and charge, say, $2000 in bogus charges, I simply call the bank and dispute the charges. Things are put "on hold" while they verify that I did not make the purchases. If the same thing happened with my debit card, they could drain the account. Yes, I would "eventually" get the money back ... MAYBE with reimbursement for overdraft fees. But what a hassle. (Several days of living with no ready-cash compared to living with a bogus credit card balance  which will get removed).

     As some have suggested, you could have a debit card tied to an account with little money in it, transferring as needed. But what a hassle.

     



  • @trwww said:

    It does. The same people that don't pay their bills and are irresponsible with credit are the same people that call off work twice a week and seem to have catastrophic job-affecting life events happen to them constantly.

    Now, personally I think it should be illegal to use a credit score to make decisions on business transactions that do not involve providing the other party credit.

    But acredit score is a good indicator of the types of life choices a person makes.

     

    A credit score does not take context into account, which makes it worthless at judging people.  If someone is slacking off and generally being a loser that's fine and dandy, but that person looks identical to the guy who got downsized and works two fast food jobs to afford his minimums as far as Experian is concerned, and also looks identical to the guy who has never used credit in his life because he didn't want to, and now can't buy a house because he has no history even though he's making $80k.

     



  • What is this "cash" you speak of...I seem to remember it from long ago....

     Seriously, I can't think fo the last time I paid cash for anything. 100% plastic. OTOH, I do not carry any debt.

     Also (and the real reason I posted, although the above is true) is that there is ZERO protection if you use a debit card [speaking from a USA perspective] regardless of is you use "run as credit" or if the card has a MasterCard or Visa logo. Some institutions offer protection, but they are not obligated to honor it.

     Much better to get a real credit card [I use one of my Amex cards 90% of the time, since it provides automatic additional warranty coverage at no charge, plus plus full (no deductable) coverage on auto rentals, etc...



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Buying a car with cash is definitely out of its purview.

    In the UK, it would be illegal. Buying ANYthing over £1000 and paying cash will likely win you at least an interview with the manager of the store. Ditto paying any amount of cash over £1000 INTO any UK bank, regardless of how long you have been a customer and so forth; and even if you withdrew the money from some other account in the same branch of the same bank. Money laundering regulations, y'see.


  • Garbage Person

    @Cad Delworth said:

    @blakeyrat said:
    Buying a car with cash is definitely out of its purview.
    In the UK, it would be illegal. Buying ANYthing over £1000 and paying cash will likely win you at least an interview with the manager of the store. Ditto paying any amount of cash over £1000 INTO any UK bank, regardless of how long you have been a customer and so forth; and even if you withdrew the money from some other account in the same branch of the same bank. Money laundering regulations, y'see.
    "Buying a car with cash" is very rarely done with actual cash. It's almost always done with a cashier's check or some other "the dealership gets paid in full immediately" cash-equivalent. Hell, if you finance through your own bank, you're still "paying in cash" as far as the dealership is concerned. Regardless, any single transaction over $10000 that's visible to a bank gets reported to the authorities - if you make a habit of it, you'll trigger an investigation. £1000 is a stupid low ceiling, and I consider this to be yet another example of how the British people are slaves to their government.



  • @Weng said:

    Regardless, any single transaction over $10000 that's visible to a bank gets reported to the authorities - if you make a habit of it, you'll trigger an investigation. 

     Not quite true [ speaking for USA[, it is only those transactions which are equivilant to or convertble to/from "anonymous cash" that must be reported. For example, I can [if I had the funds] transfer $50K from my business to my personal account, and back again, every day and there would be no notification.

     Heck, I send ovber $30K per week to agencies to handle my labor charges [salary and the like], and recived over $150K per month in payments from clients...STILL no reporting is done.

     But if I take $10K in cash (it is tecnically anything over 9999.99), bearer check, or any other instrument that is convertable to cash by the holder, instant report. Likewise for a deposit of same.



  • @Weng said:

    Regardless, any single transaction over $10000 that's visible to a bank gets reported to the authorities - if you make a habit of it, you'll trigger an investigation. 

     Not quite true [ speaking for USA[, it is only those transactions which are equivilant to or convertble to/from "anonymous cash" that must be reported. For example, I can [if I had the funds] transfer $50K from my business to my personal account, and back again, every day and there would be no notification.

     Heck, I send ovber $30K per week to agencies to handle my labor charges [salary and the like], and recived over $150K per month in payments from clients...STILL no reporting is done.

     But if I take $10K in cash (it is tecnically anything over 9999.99), bearer check, or any other instrument that is convertable to cash by the holder, instant report. Likewise for a deposit of same.



  • @Cad Delworth said:

    In the UK, it would be illegal. Buying ANYthing over £1000 and paying cash will likely win you at least an interview with the manager of the store.

    That's hardly the same thing as "illegal".  It's perfectly legal to buy anything you want for any amount of cash, but yes, you might be asked to prove you came by it legitimately.  If you did, that's hardly a problem.



  • Garbage Person

    @TheCPUWizard said:

    Not quite true
    Banking pedantry! That's a new flavor.



  • @Weng said:

    @TheCPUWizard said:

    Not quite true
    Banking pedantry! That's a new flavor.

    Tastes like chicken...


  • @DaveK said:

    It's perfectly legal to buy anything you want for any amount of cash, but yes, you might be asked to prove you came by it legitimately.  If you did, that's hardly a problem.

    In the opinion of the several bank customers I interviewed in a recent job doing market research, it was a problem. Being 'grilled' for over 15 minutes by over-zealous bank droids when they were paying money into their accounts which they had withdrawn only a few days before from the same branch of the same bank to pay their staff in cash (but then discovered their spouse had done the same), and similar tales I heard while doing interviews for a Very Well Known UK bank, was seen as a very major problem by those customers, most of whom had banked at the same branch for over 20 years. I've also heard from other friends who tried to pay cash (in this case, £1500) for a car being refused by the dealership and shown the door. You see, failing to report suspected (i.e. potential) money laundering activity carries a 5 year jail term in the UK, so most businesses will accept only banker's drafts, credit cards etc.—and not actual folding money—for such amounts.

    So yeah, it's not illegal as such, you're right. :) It's just that attempting to do so will result in you being treated like a criminal until you can prove otherwise, if indeed the business in question even gives you the chance.


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