Electrph
Member
So they still have capability to accept credit card .. for those of us that ordered later just a matter of convincing them that we were told we could
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Using a Credit Card or Paypal to pay for Tesla Solar
- Thread starter Nikola91423
- Start date
chrisbailey13
Member
aesculus
Still Trying to Figure This All Out
Just ordered Solar Glass and the the acceptance said to choose my payment method. There was no button or choice but the only "option" listed was Cash. Have to see what is available once they actually bill me.
Just another data point to offer from a friend who is not on this forum.. they ordered in June and just installed last week. They received a PayPal invoice today.
I just went through the Plaid payment experience and here is what to expect.
- From your Tesla account page there is a new button that says Add Bank Account and Make Payment
- This pops up a Plaid dialog box that says that the account information will be saved for future Tesla payments which is a bit unnerving
- Next is a selection of 8 major banks logos/icons and a field to enter any bank that isn't one of those listed
- Once you have selected your bank, you get a Username and Password dialog
- After entering those it then prompted to select a two factor authentication method (SMS, phone, email), so it must have logged into my bank and received that page and is passing along the info to me
- After getting the SMS from my bank (which includes the DO NOT SHARE warning) and entering it in to the Plaid dialog it showed my accounts with balances
- Select the account that you want to pay from and hit continue
- The dialog box then asks for the "routing account number". This was confusing that it didn't say "bank routing number" and that it didn't automatically get this from the account access that it had or through a partner bank API.
- Next it asks for the actual account number, see prior comment about account access
- Then a second confirmation of the account number
- And then it is abruptly done with no final confirmation to authorize the payment just that it will be withdrawn in 3-5 days. This was quite a shock to me when it happened, but based on that recent "Tesla owner butt-dialed $4,280 autopilot upgrade" news story seems to be the way that Tesla operates with payments.
I went through this twice. This first time an account transfer from my HYSA to my bank checking account was still in progress, but I thought I would just be setting up the account info for use later. It actually let me do 8, 9 and 10 and then in 11 it said that I had insufficient funds and error'ed out. It should have done that right after step 7. Also, none of my information was stored and I had to go through everything again after the account transfer went through.
BTW, turns out I probably could have done this with my HYSA as it was a bank option in Plaid. I didn't think that this was possible as the HYSA FAQs on ACH transfers say that it is only possible to transfer from/to my own accounts. I considered that a security feature to prevent unauthorized transfers, but now I'm not too sure.
Very nice, detailed description of the new process. I think I would be troubled by some of the same items you pointed out, particularly that Tesla now potentially has the ability to debit your bank account in the future.
I believe it is still possible to call Tesla and make a payment over the phone (debiting your bank account - I know credit cards are out except for legacy agreements,) and I think you should also be able to mail them a check. While both still give Tesla your bank account details, they don't (for sure with a check - not sure what Tesla says over the phone) grant Tesla any rights to debit the account in the future.
When the payment "failed" the first time there were instructions on how to call and pay over the phone or with a check. The phone option with routing/account info should get you moving just as quick to PTO submission, but making in a check would likely add another 7-10 days.
The Plaid service seems overly hyped IMHO. It's clunky, confusing and it doesn't allow for splitting the amount and pulling from more than one source.
I just read through this thread thinking I was one of the unlucky ones who had started the order process way too late to be able to pay via credit card. BUT - I did just manage it. FYI I ordered the panels on September 15 2020, had them installed October 15th 2020, got them inspected and approved by the city today (Oct 19). Now waiting on approval from SDGE to turn them on, which I've heard can take a few weeks.
Here's what I did to pay via credit card (nothing groundbreaking, but it worked for me)
1. called the Tesla billing number which has been posted a few times in this thread (877-973-7652)
2. waited on hold for 20 minutes
3. explained my situation to the guy that answered. I had been told by the sales team at the beginning of my ordering process (early September) that I could pay for the whole thing via credit card, but that it wasn't an option in my Tesla account/ invoice that I received today.
4. he put me on hold again to get authorization from someone, got authorization within 3 minutes
5. took my credit card information and paid the price in full right then
6. they sent me an email confirmation of the transaction
fair warning- my Tesla account has not updated with the completed payment yet.
Here's what I did to pay via credit card (nothing groundbreaking, but it worked for me)
1. called the Tesla billing number which has been posted a few times in this thread (877-973-7652)
2. waited on hold for 20 minutes
3. explained my situation to the guy that answered. I had been told by the sales team at the beginning of my ordering process (early September) that I could pay for the whole thing via credit card, but that it wasn't an option in my Tesla account/ invoice that I received today.
4. he put me on hold again to get authorization from someone, got authorization within 3 minutes
5. took my credit card information and paid the price in full right then
6. they sent me an email confirmation of the transaction
fair warning- my Tesla account has not updated with the completed payment yet.
Electrph
Member
Thanks for the info I am envious of how quickly your install went. I ordered 8/20/20 and am still stuck at ‘waiting for design team” since I pointed out mistake on Tesla design almost 4 weeks ago. 
Anyway this is a positive data point since I was also counting on being able to pay on cc
Anyway this is a positive data point since I was also counting on being able to pay on cc
Thanks for the info I am envious of how quickly your install went. I ordered 8/20/20 and am still stuck at ‘waiting for design team” since I pointed out mistake on Tesla design almost 4 weeks ago.
Anyway this is a positive data point since I was also counting on being able to pay on cc
I ordered 7/25 and went through three re-designs and they also had to redo the permits.
My sub panel upgrade was on Wednesday and the Solar + PW install was Friday.
One thing that occurred to me is that all the electrical work, which took all day, was exactly the same with 3 PWs as it would have been with 1 PW so Tesla is making a lot more money (even with the discount) by me buying 3 vs 1. I wouldn't be surprised if they prioritize the orders that have higher margin.
That’s actually not entirely true, because a single powerwall wouldn’t support whole home backup, so they would only need to put some of the loads behind the gateway with a single powerwall install.
However, that said, up until one of the more recent price changes they actually did give you a bigger discount if you bought more powerwalls. But now it just seems to be a flat $1000 discount for solar plus any number of powerwalls.
Yea, I got the $2500 bundle discount and then $500 discount for each additional powerwall. I just BARELY made it in before they're change. In fact, the second and third poweralls were added in mid August after they changed the discount but they kept me at the original pricing structure from 7/25.
I was able to make payment with my Chase reserve card today by phone. I see pending charge on my CC and also got receipt from Tesla via email. However on my tesla.com I still see pending payment due on my solar order. I guess it takes a day or so to see that updated. Is that correct? anyone who used CC to make payment, how soon was it reflected on your online account.
It doesn't go away. You will have to call Tesla billing after you see the payment posted on your cc.
Thanks for your post. I called in 10/27 and was able to pay via CC over the phone.
Now waiting for PTO from PG&E.
My account still shows Make Final Payment, but I confirmed with PA and he said to ignore it. He confirmed account is paid in full.
I paid Tuesday and still shows final payment due.. I called and they said it takes a month to update that.. so ignore..
Imolared
Member
I paid September 8th and my account still says to make payment lol.
Agree with the steps you took to pay via credit card. I paid by cc this week on 11/4. You really have to pressure them to do it, especially if you were told you would be able to early on. I played the points game on this. $35k charged to a Chase Freedom Unlimited which gets 1.5% back on all purchases. When points hit, I'll transfer to my Chase Sapphire Reserve which have a 1.5x value when redeeming, effectively giving me $787 "cash back." Nice to be able to recoup some of the cost of such an expensive project. And I hope others can take advantage of using a cc, as I could tell they are strongly trying to remove that option.
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