if paying by live check, pay at delivery, or before?

[xanatos]

For those of you who made the purchase using a physical live check, either because you are paying cash or because your lender only does live checks, when do you pay?
can you give Tesla the live check at delivery time?
or do you have to give them the live check a day or two before delivery date?

Because I was reading their FAQ and they seemed to indicate funding needs to be done BEFORE delivery, but I recall reading some people being able to just hand them a check at the time of delivery, so I'm not sure which works?

 

[MorrisonHiker]

We've always paid the final balance via ACH transfer on the My Tesla webpage. Normally they let us take a look at the car and then submit payment. No need to take a checkbook.

 

[jjrandorin]

For those of you who made the purchase using a physical live check, either because you are paying cash or because your lender only does live checks, when do you pay?
can you give Tesla the live check at delivery time?
or do you have to give them the live check a day or two before delivery date?

Because I was reading their FAQ and they seemed to indicate funding needs to be done BEFORE delivery, but I recall reading some people being able to just hand them a check at the time of delivery, so I'm not sure which works?

many report paying by personal check but I can tell you I paid by cashiers check and bank draft (which is a blank bank check for a bank loan) myself, so I can tell you 100% that worked, and that they had no issue with it whatsoever.

I would hesitate to take a personal check but some say you can. Get a cashiers check from your bank for your amount, made out to Tesla (if you are paying by personal check you can obviously get a cashiers check for the same amount is the way I look at it).

 

[mswlogo]

I think the reason they accept personal check is that essentially it will be a wire transfer because the "cash" the check immediately by scanning it and it has the exact same info on the check you would enter for ACH transfer.

I think ACH Transfer is easiest. Assuming the money is in your own back account.

Regardless, I'd pay after inspection even though the Tesla web site encourages paying before.

 

[notAnExpert]

For those of you who made the purchase using a physical live check, either because you are paying cash or because your lender only does live checks, when do you pay?
can you give Tesla the live check at delivery time?
or do you have to give them the live check a day or two before delivery date?

When they home delivered our car three weeks ago here in the SF bay area, I finished inspecting the car and then wrote a personal check for the entire balance. No issues.

 

[JBare]

Home delivery, after inspection I gave them a check from the loan company along with an $8K personal check. Just run it by whoever is contacting you to make sure they know you want to check out the car/drive it prior to handing them a bunch of dough

 

[75Shappyt]

I did the personal check, easier

 

[xanatos]

Wow no way, personal check for 50-60k+?!

 

[MorrisonHiker]

I don't think I've written a check this millenium...certainly not the past decade.

 

[75Shappyt]

(MorrisonHiker) I like to do things in many different ways, writing a personal check is one, I can do wire transfers, have someone write a draft, I still do math in my head, try not always use a calculator, I can make changes, and tell time if it's not digital, I can write a letter by hand, I can spell, all the tech stuff is great, got my first Mac in 1985 and you do need to master them, credit cards I hate, try not to use them, pay cash, there is nothing wrong about doing it the old way

 

[whatthe2]

Wow no way, personal check for 50-60k+?!

I did a personal check for over $60k. I was planning on doing an ACH from my phone, and brought a check just in case it didn't work for some reason. They said they didn't care and since I had the check on me, just went ahead and did that.

 

[Trips]

I had lots of minor issues that prevented a wire or ACH. I wrote a personal check as my credit union was in a different state so no cashiers check. It took 3 or 4 days for them to cash it. ACH seems to be the easiest as long as that is what you told them you were going to do.

 

[swaltner]

Personal checks are fine because they won’t actually generate the title paperwork to transfer vehicle ownership to you until after your payment has fully cleared. You’re taking delivery of the vehicle before funds have really cleared even in the case of an ACH or casier’s check. Any form of payment other than cash or a wire transfer is not instantaneous.

If your payment doesn’t clear for whatever reason, they’ll contact you to straighten it out ASAP. If you refuse, there’s always the police to report you for grand theft auto.

 

[75Shappyt]

I think check are good to use, I gladly take them in my business

 

[frank69]

seriously, from experience, cashier's check and bring it with you. If there are big issues with the car like major flaws and paint issues, don't accept, don't pay. If you wire the money, then go there and your car is in bad shape, what can you do?

 

[patrick40363]

Paid $53k with personal check on 9-26-18 at the fremont pick-up center. I could have paid via ACH while there but check was fine.

 

[jbcarioca]

I don't think I've written a check this millenium...certainly not the past decade.

I know I must have written one this millennium, but I'm not sure. Anyway, I do not even have checks on any of my accounts in any country. I always use eitehr some form of direct debit or plastic dr or cr, but even there only physically if they haven't ApplePay or another such scheme that I have. OTOH, there are those old fashioned float searchers such as Tesla that send a paper check that I then scan to deposit.

 

[T34ME]

I'm picking my car up on Monday, 12/17. I m paying with a check from my credit union at time of delivery. My delivery adviser said, "no problem." As far as writing a personal check for ANYTHING, I don't even know where my checkbook is! Oh, BTW, I asked if I could make partial payment by credit card, delivery adviser said Tesla doesn't do that anymore.