Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Paying for car without forking over my online banking creds?

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
There is a way to do an ACH through the app which our SA told me about which I successfully executed. If you go through the Plaid process until you get to the point of choosing a bank from a list, rather than choosing a bank (even if yours is there), type manual into the search function and hit the exit button that shows up at the bottom of the page. From there you can manually enter the routing number and account number and send a regular ACH. The app accepted the payment and zeroed out our balance due when I executed this procedure. It was a lot easier than stopping at a bank and felt a lot more secure than giving out our login info to all our bank accounts.
How long back did you do this? Some on reported this week that, this option is no more there to go through a manual process and enter the bank information.
 
Fwiw Tesla Finance -- or maybe just Tesla Motors these days -- told me today the manual ACH entry was still available, and it worked. You 'Get Started' with Plaid ~eye roll~ and then instead of selecting a bank you click the X to exit, and another window pops up that gives you the manual option. Worked just fine.

Does this trick still work? I'm supposed to pick up my car in two days and wanted to practice getting the ACH prompt, but they either took away the work around or I'm doing it wrong.

Steps I took:
  1. Open Tesla iPhone app
  2. Select "Continue" on Complete your delivery tasks
  3. Swipe to "Final Payment"
  4. Select "Start"
  5. Select "Add Payment Method"
  6. Select "Add Bank Account"
  7. Select "Get started" on the Plaid pop up
  8. Enter junk, i.e. "aldjfld", on the search box
  9. Select "Exit" on the "Your bank was not found. Please try another bank or exit to manually add your account" message
  10. Select "Pay with Other Options"
  11. All I get is a message stating I can do a Wire Transfer or Certified Check
    1. Any kind of swiping anywhere isn't getting me an option to enter Routing/Bank Account No.

What did I miss?
 
Last edited:
I asked if I could pay by personal check through text and got the reply yes. I was planning on just bringing it to delivery pickup. Any gotchas? Not sure why to bother with ACH or Cashier's check if personal check is an option.
I used a cashier's check but I have heard of others that used a personal check. I mean, they can probably disable the car if the check bounces! Just confirm the final amount a day or two before delivery.
 
  • Helpful
Reactions: Noflash
I asked if I could pay by personal check through text and got the reply yes. I was planning on just bringing it to delivery pickup. Any gotchas? Not sure why to bother with ACH or Cashier's check if personal check is an option.

My last 3 Lexus's were purchased with a personal check, no questions asked. Tesla forcing use of Plaid is pretty outrageous in my opinion. If there is a gap of 2 weeks, I would be happy to get a cashier's check.

Yeah.... I'm going to go this route. I'll text the delivery person tomorrow and ask if I can pay with a personal check.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 45thParallel
So get this… I picked up my MY last weekend. I went through my CU for financing and I called them to see what the details were 3 days prior to scheduled pickup and all seemed good.

Got to the pickup appointment, they had me cycle through the app to check if payment was received and there was a green check mark so I assumed they contacted my CU and got payment. I drove off with no worries.

Fast forward a few days and I called my CU to find out why my new account wasn’t showing and they had no clue what I was referring to as they didn’t see anything from Tesla.

So I guess I got a free MY?
 
  • Funny
Reactions: night_fury
Does this trick still work? I'm supposed to pick up my car in two days and wanted to practice getting the ACH prompt, but they either took away the work around or I'm doing it wrong.

Steps I took:
  1. Open Tesla iPhone app
  2. Select "Continue" on Complete your delivery tasks
  3. Swipe to "Final Payment"
  4. Select "Start"
  5. Select "Add Payment Method"
  6. Select "Add Bank Account"
  7. Select "Get started" on the Plaid pop up
  8. Enter junk, i.e. "aldjfld", on the search box
  9. Select "Exit" on the "Your bank was not found. Please try another bank or exit to manually add your account" message
  10. Select "Pay with Other Options"
  11. All I get is a message stating I can do a Wire Transfer or Certified Check
    1. Any kind of swiping anywhere isn't getting me an option to enter Routing/Bank Account No.

What did I miss?
Good. Thank you.
 
While I absolutely applaud the caution of those in this thread, it is absolutely warranted, Plaid is an a well known player in the financial industry these days. It's used for connecting your account to all sorts of things. Venmo, Mint, Stripe, just to name a few. It allows them to pull in your account numbers and routing numbers safely and securely from any bank plaid has agreements with, which is most of the banks in the US today. They can then setup your ACH transfer reliably with less chance of failure because you mistyped a number. Having said that, I'm quite sure your SA can setup the same manually, but it will take longer and have the risk of failing to go through because the account number or routing number is mistyped. Giving those numbers to your SA is not less dangerous than having a service like Plaid pull them. The SA could just as easily take them and setup a ACH transfer to her offshore account in the Cayman's as to Tesla. Plaid at least takes that risk out because no human has to ever see your account info.
I never heard about Plaid until I joined this forum. My rule of thumbs on cybersecurity: zero trust. Don’t trust any start up company.
Why use a third party company when you can pay the car by check, ACH, wire transfer?
 
  • Like
Reactions: DanDi58
Fwiw Tesla Finance -- or maybe just Tesla Motors these days -- told me today the manual ACH entry was still available, and it worked. You 'Get Started' with Plaid ~eye roll~ and then instead of selecting a bank you click the X to exit, and another window pops up that gives you the manual option. Worked just fine.
For what it's worth, my caution is because I work in information security in the financial industry. I spent a good chunk of five years working on wire payment security.

Giving account and routing numbers to a SA is vastly less risky than giving financial institution login details to a 3rd party -- whether it's some sexy venture-funded darling like Plaid or, um, other people who might ask for your account name and password, like, say, Joey Knuckles' House Of Cards -- for several reasons.
  1. An account and routing number pick out a single account at an institution. Adding an account that's used only for transfers of this type is of extremely low cost -- often free. For example, if you're a Chase customer, they'll give you a second checking account (they call it a "Liquid" account) with no checks, just for the asking. You can use it as a holding place for money that's being transferred in or out and have full confidence that anyone who's got those account details can never touch any other funds you have there.
  2. Procedures for reversing mistaken, fraudulent, or otherwise improper ACH and wire transfers are well established, well understood, and high-confidence. If an SA uses your routing and account numbers to steal your money, it's likely they'll be caught (even if they're savvy enough to send it to a casino in the Phillippines) but it's almost certain you'll get if back whether they end up in jail or not.
  3. Giving your account name and password for an institution to a 3rd party has none of these properties. Your account name and password can be used to do almost anything to any account you have at that institution. Heck, they can even be used to change your contact details so that if fraud is flagged, you don't learn about it for days or weeks. Once you hand over that login name and password the sky's the limit. You can't limit it to an account that has a zero balance except when you expect to be buying a car; in fact, you can't even block off access to CDs, retirement accounts or other assets so that whoever or whatever has that password can't touch them. It's practically like handing them a power of attorney: they are you. And procedures for reversing mistaken, fraudulent, or improper transactions made with your account name and password? I should be a little circumspect in what I say here but I will suggest at least that if you knew how this was likely to go if you had to try it, you would not be happy about it.
  4. Seriously, read Plaid's user agreement and, if you really want something to think about, your financial institution's user agreement and in particular what it says about your obligation to keep your credentials secret and what happens to their obligations to you if you don't. And then if you're still totally pleased to go telling people your password because they got a bunch of Menlo Park venture money, do a little reading about who's likely to prevail in arbitration if you do get into a dispute about it.
And if all that leaves you fine and dandy? Go for it.

Me, if what I'm hearing here is that if I show up at the delivery with a cashier's check it's still fine, my concerns just shift to being sure I know whom to have it made out to...
I don’t trust Plaid, PayPal, vendmo, Mint,…
Even the big name like Equifax have security breach The Equifax Data Breach: What to Do

I will pay my Tesla as other cars by check or wire. Simple and easy
 
In the Motor Vehicle Purchase Agreement are listed Electronic Check, Wire Transfer or Mail in check with instructions. On the Tesla website under purchase FAQ they also mention cashier check with instructions. The Electronic Check ends up taking you to the Plaid system.
 
Burner accounts are your best friend in these cases. I use a separate credit union for nothing more than local cash deposits and Paypal/Venmo/Cash App transactions. Their portal has absolutely no access to any of my other financial institutions, but my primary credit union has transfer capabilities setup in both directions. When purchasing the Tesla, I transferred money from my primary to the burner account, gave them Plaid access to pull the money, then after funds cleared changed the password on the burner account portal to kill access. Keeps things simple without giving up the primary account credentials.
 
  • Like
Reactions: drtimhill
I did add another checking account to my capital one salary account. I then gave plaid access only to that new account in the same login. Once transactions were completed I deleted Plaid access to that account. But I hated giving access to Plaid to the the history of that account. Plaid does not disclose who they share their data with.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SunshineThree