kishkaru
Member
So personal checks are no longer accepted? I don't have a physical bank (online bank only), so there's no way for me to get a cashier's check. And wire transfers have a fixed % fee usually.
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Paying for car without forking over my online banking creds?
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So personal checks are no longer accepted? I don't have a physical bank (online bank only), so there's no way for me to get a cashier's check. And wire transfers have a fixed % fee usually.
The preferred method of payment is certainly handing over funds at delivery for the reason you stated. This isn't in option in all cases however. For example, unless I want to drive from ME to NJ (MA is not an option because I'd pay sales tax twice) I have to pay in advance before they will ship the car "Carrier Direct."
I know the risks of this. I had VIN #2701 get turned around 30 minutes from me due to "front end" damage. This was back when Fremont was shut down so they had no ETA on parts for repair or another vehicle. Getting a refund was the worst customer experience I've had. As another annoyance, they would not refund the $100 order fee. I hope the service experience as an owner is better.
You may be able to set up Tesla as a payee through your bank's online bill pay service. The bank would mail your payment to Tesla, HQ or to your local service center in advance of your vehicle being delivered.The bank might have a $ limit on the bill pay service. You could contact Tesla and find out if they will accept a personal check to pay off the balance due in advance of any vehicle delivery. The wire transfer option may be your best option. Check with your bank, in my experience the bank charges a fixed fee for sending a wire transfer inside the US. Additional fees would apply if the wire transfer is sent to an entity, bank account outside of the US.
I balked at handing over my banking login credentials to Plaid for the same reasons. During the process of clicking through the Plaid instructions and deciding it was a terrible idea, the tesla account website responded that something had gone wrong with the setup and gave me the option to pay directly via ACH transfer. I set up the ACH transfer which worked fine, but I would have preferred that option from the start.
I’ve used Plaid before (for Venmo transfers), and it did redirect me to a login page in the citi.com domain (I bank with Citibank), which I believe supports @wraithfive ’s OAuth theory.
While I feel comfortable using Plaid, I plan to pay with cashier’s check. I like the idea of showing them the check, then putting it back in my pocket until I’ve had the chance to inspect the car and feel confident that I want to drive it home.
While I feel comfortable using Plaid, I plan to pay with cashier’s check. I like the idea of showing them the check, then putting it back in my pocket until I’ve had the chance to inspect the car and feel confident that I want to drive it home.
NJEV-Don
Member
I have an online bank only and they were able to provide me with a cashiers check. I called them and I got it in 2 days. Just needed to tell them to make it out to Tesla. You can just have it ready to go before your delivery date. Just make sure you verify the exact amount owed.
kishkaru
Member
Was the cashier's check sent to you, or directly to Tesla? If it's sent to Tesla, that would defeat the purpose of holding the funds until delivery inspection. Typically, auto loan checks are sent directly to the recipient, so you never see it. But since this is a cashier's check, I don't know if you get the choice to pick.
NJEV-Don
Member
It was sent to me. Written out to Tesla in the exact amount owed. If I inspected the vehicle and it didn’t pass muster I would not turn over the check which I believe is good for 6 months. The only issue is that once you request the check the funds are no longer in your account. The check can of course be put back in your own account if needed in the case of refusing delivery and a longer wait time. I would call your specific bank and ask them these Questions to be sure. That’s how my online bank worked and luckily I didn’t have any substantive issues upon inspection of my Model Y and gave them the check.
miggz410
Member
Will be picking up my car at Fremont on Wednesday... I did not want to pay online. So I spoke to my SA, she said they no longer take personalize check. I would have get a cashiers check if I want to pay in person. Also asked me to send front and back photos of the cashiers check a day before pick up.
Some of us might be making this harder than it has to be:
Ordering a New Tesla
Payment and Fees
What are the accepted methods of payment?
Before driving off with your new Tesla, we require that the balance be paid in full, either personally or by way of guarantee from a financing institution.
Confirm your method of payment with your Tesla representative prior to Delivery Day. In some states, payment must be received before delivery and cannot be accepted at time of pick-up.
Final payment is accepted via:
Ordering a New Tesla
Payment and Fees
What are the accepted methods of payment?
Before driving off with your new Tesla, we require that the balance be paid in full, either personally or by way of guarantee from a financing institution.
Confirm your method of payment with your Tesla representative prior to Delivery Day. In some states, payment must be received before delivery and cannot be accepted at time of pick-up.
Final payment is accepted via:
- Electronic check (direct debit) in your Tesla Account
- Wire transfer
- Personal or cashier’s check at time of pick-up, with your Reservation Number (RN) and name in the memo line
We ended up paying by wire transfer. A couple of last notes on this:
My bank required a recipient address for the wire. They helpfully tried to obtain this for me by calling the local Tesla showroom and whoever picked up the phone incorrectly and unhelpfully told them that only ACH payment via Plaid was accepted. Again this stuff...fails to make a good impression. As others have, we just used the address of that same local showroom as the recipient address and the wire went through fine.
There appears to be a considerable difference between individually signing up as a Plaid user and being "referred" there by a vendor like Tesla for payment. A more trusting friend let me watch while he independently signed up for Plaid on the Plaid web site and enrolled accounts at the exact same institution I'd tried via the Tesla purchase page. In his case, indeed he was redirected into a sensible OAUTH flow involving the bank's web site, whereas in my case, a careful examination of all elements of the page that presented me with the username and password prompt showed, as best I can ascertain, that they flowed back to Plaid's servers, not the bank.
I confirmed this by submitting a bogus username and password; the Network tab of Chrome's developer console showed only Tesla's and Plaid's servers involved. This is very unfortunate! It likely accounts for some of the considerable difference of opinion between some of the people who already use Plaid vs those first "signing up" when prompted to do so via the Tesla purchase process.
Anyway, that's all I know about all that.
My bank required a recipient address for the wire. They helpfully tried to obtain this for me by calling the local Tesla showroom and whoever picked up the phone incorrectly and unhelpfully told them that only ACH payment via Plaid was accepted. Again this stuff...fails to make a good impression. As others have, we just used the address of that same local showroom as the recipient address and the wire went through fine.
There appears to be a considerable difference between individually signing up as a Plaid user and being "referred" there by a vendor like Tesla for payment. A more trusting friend let me watch while he independently signed up for Plaid on the Plaid web site and enrolled accounts at the exact same institution I'd tried via the Tesla purchase page. In his case, indeed he was redirected into a sensible OAUTH flow involving the bank's web site, whereas in my case, a careful examination of all elements of the page that presented me with the username and password prompt showed, as best I can ascertain, that they flowed back to Plaid's servers, not the bank.
I confirmed this by submitting a bogus username and password; the Network tab of Chrome's developer console showed only Tesla's and Plaid's servers involved. This is very unfortunate! It likely accounts for some of the considerable difference of opinion between some of the people who already use Plaid vs those first "signing up" when prompted to do so via the Tesla purchase process.
Anyway, that's all I know about all that.
NJEV-Don
Member
I was told I could NOT pay by personal check. Not a huge inconvenience. Not sure what dictates what they use to decide who can pay by what method. Very strange.
akballow
Member
Dude this is nothing out of the ordinary just pay. Bank fraud is so hard to do and easy to fix.
Totally disagree. Automated Clearing House (ACH) debit fraud is one of the oldest forms of electronic banking fraud. ACH fraud is the fastest growing form of electronic banking fraud. ACH fraud is also incredibly easy to commit due to online banking and credit cards. All that a fraud ring needs is your bank routing information and your account number.
It is easy to detect ACH fraud. You will see each ACH debit transaction on your bank statement or your bank may alert you that an electronic payment exceeded a preset limit. If you report the fraud promptly your bank will most likely refund your money while they investigate your fraud claim. You will be asked to sign an affidavit and mail it to the bank for their records.
Now the real fun begins; the only way to shut down ACH fraud from continuing to occur is to close the affected checking or savings account. Let that sink in; every online payment that you have linked to your checking account will have to be suspended, recreated for a new account. Even worse, any automated direct deposits you have including payroll direct deposit, SSA direct deposit, etc. will have to be shut off and then reestablished with that institution for your new account. Estimated time, several months (pre-COVID estimate.) You do not want to have this happen to your checking or savings account. Do not use personal checks for payment (your bank's routing information and your account number is on the bottom of every check.) Use your bank's online bill pay service so that any checks that are sent do not display your account information. Use a bank cashier's check or wire the money when paying for your Tesla vehicle. Wire transfer, while it may include a significant fee, is a more secure form of payment than ACH.
This is the only thing I disagree with here. Once I have new account information I can swap over all my direct deposits in a matter of hours not months. Only real issue is that is that it may already be too close to time for the deposit to make the change right then.
It's still going to be major pain in the butt and while I disagree with you about the exact methods plaid uses (in some instances at least), I don't disagree with you that taking precautions to prevent ACH fraud is absolutely necessary and that it is NOT a simple thing to fix.
Really? This is new information to me. I thought that was how checks worked. How do they know which account to debit the money from if they don't have my account and routing info? Sort of off topic but I'm genuinely curious.
akballow
Member
I disagree and say its no more dangerous then handing out your credit card information sorry. Each has the same risk. The only downside is yes you will be without money for the fraud case in a debt account vs a credit case.
Ever dealt with the SSA? By phone? During COVID? How about a pension fund or a brokerage house? These institutions have been hampered by COVID with reduced workforce and hours. Each one has their own security protocols that must be followed. It is easy to turn off a direct deposit and much more work and time to get one activated. I was a victim of ACH fraud starting in Oct '19 involving a joint family checking account. It took until Feb '20 to set everything straight including correcting a missed SSA payroll (after turning off the old SSA direct deposit.)
When you use your bank's online bill pay service, if they are mailing out a check to a payee the check that the bank prints will only have the bank's bill pay service account number on the check not your personal checking account number.
Here's another tip. Use your mobile banking app to keep your debit card locked. Only unlock your debit card when you are about to use the card. Unlike consumer credit cards where the consumer is only liable for the first $50 in credit card fraud no such protection is guaranteed for a debit card. Your bank may, out of good will, refund any lost funds but the bank is not required by law to do this.
True experience: I had been in the habit of locking my debit card ever since I had a bad experience with MoneyG~~m. A few months later I received an email from my bank, after midnight on Friday, that read "If you want to use your debit card you have to first unlock the card." Nope! I did not initiate use of my debit card. I immediately logged onto my bank account and reported the debit card number as stolen.
Under consumer protect laws you are only liable for the first $50 of credit card fraud. No such consumer protection is guaranteed for fraud involving a debit card. In the case of ACH fraud the bank will refund your money at the start of their fraud investigation, ultimately they will most likely find that your fraud claim is valid. What you won't get back is the hours of lost time on the phone, corresponding via US mail etc. to get your financial life up and running smoothly again.
This is why I only ever use my credit card for any purchases (paid off monthly) and only use my debit card for ATM withdrawals. My bank doesn't let me lock the card in the phone sadly.
Another useful tidbit, if you have an iPhone, get the new Apple Card credit card (really goldman sachs). The physical card does not have the number printed on it anywhere. You can only see the last four digits of it in the app. They give you a totally different number, that you can access in the app, to use for online purchases or any transaction where the card isn't physically used. If the online number is compromised, you can immediately deactivate it and get a brand new one in the app without losing use of the physical card and having to wait for a new one. If the card is compromised, the reverse is true. You don't lose access to the other number (though you'd still replace it in that case) for online and manually entered transactions. Every card should work this way.
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