Warning: Tesla keeps your ACH routing info indefinitely

[mswlogo]

Had an interesting heart stop moment yesterday.

I purchased a reservation from another member in December and picked up yesterday. All in all it worked out great. He made $2500, I saved $2500 and I got top dollar on my Model X trade in from Tesla. Had I waited for my order, my Model X trade might have dropped to much to even get the car at all.

Any way. I convinced my new “brother in law” to allow me access to his account just to help the pickup to go smooth. I wanted to pay with ACH wire (I hate paper checks, also not sure if balance might get tweaked with registration, taxes and trade amount) and when my friend picked up his Y the SA stood over him at each step of using the App including accepting agreements etc.

I had also read about folks concerns about not wishing to use Plaid payment system. And the procedure of canceling out of that and using ACH. I had a plan.

Inspected the car and it was perfect and looked great. All excited.

So I get to the Pay Screen and it shows his credit card account selected and a note saying you cannot pay with credit card. I assumed if I hit Pay it would give an error and prompt for Plaid payment and I’d cancel out and pay ACH. But I wasn’t sure it would do that.

So there was also an option to Add an Account. I didn’t really want to add any bank account of mine to his account. SA is standing there waiting for me to pay up and not much help. I hit Add Account and it was Plaid. I cancel out of that and there is a button “other payment, wires ACH” ahh I got it now. But I hit that button (which kinda looked greyed out) and nothing happens. No prompt for ACH.

Now I’m back at the Pay screen with his credit card selected again. Ugh. So I was running out of options I hit Pay, expecting an error or Prompt for Plaid again.

No, I get “Thank you and congratulations” you have $0.00 balance. WTF. Did it charge his credit card $15K? No! I go to check the invoice and it said Paid by HIS BANK by ACH. Holy crap this really bad. He had no idea ACH was in his account from an earlier purchase. I had no idea it was gonna pay with that account. This App totally sucks. No prompts of which account will get used, No “are you sure”, nothing.

So members here talk about giving up there accounts to transfer reservations or to continue supercharging. You are also giving access to any bank transactions you had in that account and can use them on future purchase, no questions asked.

Keep in mind that all Tesla used is the exact same numbers you have on a personal check. Bank routing # and account #.

So I’m trying to lay low that I’m using someone else’s reservation. Tesla managed to cancel the ACH after a long sweating hour (on a Saturday). App reverted back to pay your balance.

SA said I can pay ACH through their portal. Took all of 1 minute. I asked all I need is numbers off a personal check, right? He looked at me like I had two heads. I pull out a check and punch in the numbers. But the transaction had my “brother in law” on it. Bank does not see that and that is Tesla tracking the transaction (it made sense). My name is on Invoice, registration etc.
Even if I was not buying through another account this is really bad. What if I wanted to use a different account?

In the end I never needed access to his account and it just made things worse.

 

[HankLloydRight]

(I hate paper checks, also not sure if balance might get tweaked with registration, taxes and trade amount)

I also HATE paper checks, but in this case (using someone else's reservation), I probably would have gone that route just to be sure and not mess with the online payment options, since many people (including myself) have had problems with that in the past. When I bought my first P85+, the online options were farked and I wrote a standard, personal paper check. I asked them "a personal check is OK?" and they said "We know where to find you". Ok.

But I don't get the last "tweaked" part? With ACH or paper check you can still modify the final amount at time of sale.

 

[mswlogo]

I also HATE paper checks, but in this case (using someone else's reservation), I probably would have gone that route just to be sure and not mess with the online payment options, since many people (including myself) have had problems with that in the past. When I bought my first P85+, the online options were farked and I wrote a standard, personal paper check. I asked them "a personal check is OK?" and they said "We know where to find you". Ok.

But I don't get the last "tweaked" part? With ACH or paper check you can still modify the final amount at time of sale.

Oh, I didn’t know you could modify a cashiers check at delivery?

In hindsight yeah, paper would have been better here. I assumed incorrectly that an ACH transfer, which is almost exactly the same as writing a personal check would be fine (atomic). I think with ACH they can verify the funds are there.

And if my plan had worked my ACH info would have been buried in his account and could have been used years from now. With out either of us knowing.

I was all setup to wire Tesla the money directly from my bank (which is suggested at the bottom of the MVPA). That was my plan B. Plan C was a personal check which they have taken. It was only $15k balance. ($10K of which was FSD).

 

[glide]

Had an interesting heart stop moment yesterday.

I purchased a reservation from another member in December and picked up yesterday. All in all it worked out great. He made $2500, I saved $2500 and I got top dollar on my Model X trade in from Tesla. Had I waited for my order, my Model X trade might have dropped to much to even get the car at all.

Any way. I convinced my new “brother in law” to allow me access to his account just to help the pickup to go smooth. I wanted to pay with ACH wire (I hate paper checks, also not sure if balance might get tweaked with registration, taxes and trade amount) and when my friend picked up his Y the SA stood over him at each step of using the App including accepting agreements etc.

I had also read about folks concerns about not wishing to use Plaid payment system. And the procedure of canceling out of that and using ACH. I had a plan.

Inspected the car and it was perfect and looked great. All excited.

So I get to the Pay Screen and it shows his credit card account selected and a note saying you cannot pay with credit card. I assumed if I hit Pay it would give an error and prompt for Plaid payment and I’d cancel out and pay ACH. But I wasn’t sure it would do that.

So there was also an option to Add an Account. I didn’t really want to add any bank account of mine to his account. SA is standing there waiting for me to pay up and not much help. I hit Add Account and it was Plaid. I cancel out of that and there is a button “other payment, wires ACH” ahh I got it now. But I hit that button (which kinda looked greyed out) and nothing happens. No prompt for ACH.

Now I’m back at the Pay screen with his credit card selected again. Ugh. So I was running out of options I hit Pay, expecting an error or Prompt for Plaid again.

No, I get “Thank you and congratulations” you have $0.00 balance. WTF. Did it charge his credit card $15K? No! I go to check the invoice and it said Paid by HIS BANK by ACH. Holy crap this really bad. He had no idea ACH was in his account from an earlier purchase. I had no idea it was gonna pay with that account. This App totally sucks. No prompts of which account will get used, No “are you sure”, nothing.

So members here talk about giving up there accounts to transfer reservations or to continue supercharging. You are also giving access to any bank transactions you had in that account and can use them on future purchase, no questions asked.

Keep in mind that all Tesla used is the exact same numbers you have on a personal check. Bank routing # and account #.

So I’m trying to lay low that I’m using someone else’s reservation. Tesla managed to cancel the ACH after a long sweating hour (on a Saturday). App reverted back to pay your balance.

SA said I can pay ACH through their portal. Took all of 1 minute. I asked all I need is numbers off a personal check, right? He looked at me like I had two heads. I pull out a check and punch in the numbers. But the transaction had my “brother in law” on it. Bank does not see that and that is Tesla tracking the transaction (it made sense). My name is on Invoice, registration etc.
Even if I was not buying through another account this is really bad. What if I wanted to use a different account?

In the end I never needed access to his account and it just made things worse.

The only way to pay for a Tesla is with a bank draft at time of delivery.

Do not pay ahead of picking up your vehicle, and do not give them any banking info. It always ends in disaster.

 

[HankLloydRight]

The only way to pay for a Tesla is with a bank draft at time of delivery.

I paid with a 100% personal check. Not certified. Not a bank draft.

Oh, I didn’t know you could modify a cashiers check at delivery?

I was referring to a personal check. For my P85+, I paid for the whole enchilada with a personal check. I think that might have been the single largest personal check I've written, except for maybe deposits on real estate.

 

[mswlogo]

I paid with a 100% personal check. Not certified. Not a bank draft.



I was referring to a personal check. For my P85+, I paid for the whole enchilada with a personal check. I think that might have been the single largest personal check I've written, except for maybe deposits on real estate.

I heard they would do that in the past but I
think it’s pretty rare these days. They might if you have a small balance or their system is down or something. All forms are listed in your mvpa. Today they could scan your check and process it immediately and might be able to confirm funds. The same exact info that is on a personal check is what you use for ACH wire. Bank routing number and account is all you need.

 

[BigDanSRQ]

I think the ACH info is all accessible in your Tesla app under settings/wallet. I used my checking account (pre plaid) to fund both MYP purchases last year and it is/was listed there. Just deleted it a few minutes ago.

Thought this might be related.

 

[mswlogo]

I think the ACH info is all accessible in your Tesla app under settings/wallet. I used my checking account (pre plaid) to fund both MYP purchases last year and it is/was listed there. Just deleted it a few minutes ago.

Thought this might be related.

It could be. Thanks for the tip.

I no longer have access to that account I paid for the car under. But my own account just shows my credit card. And I have paid with ACH under my account before.

One thing I also realized that even though I used Tesla’s Web “Portal” on their computer to pay via ACH it doesn’t mean they still didn’t save that same routing number and account against the account I bought the car under as it would using the App logged into that account. It’s the same thing. I’m sure the App is not contacting the bank directly for ACH. It’s some Tesla Server. Nor is the App itself retaining it, it’s all the Tesla cloud. So it doesn’t matter if you use the App or their “portal”.

But again, if you gave someone a personal check for $10.00, it contains the exact same information (routing and account) I paid for the car with. No login credentials or two factor authorization required.

I also looked at where we keep our money at the bank in Checking vs Savings. They are both the same account number. So if someone has your routing number (which is public) and your account number they have access to both. This is the case with Bank of America anyway.

 

[mswlogo]

I think the ACH info is all accessible in your Tesla app under settings/wallet. I used my checking account (pre plaid) to fund both MYP purchases last year and it is/was listed there. Just deleted it a few minutes ago.

Thought this might be related.

Follow up: I just had my "Brother in Law" that I bought my car through check what you suggested. It DID show his ACH account was there. And my ACH does not, so using using Tesla's "Portal" did bypass it.

Thanks again for the Tip.

I think it's a good idea to remove it.

 

[Tedkidd]

Bought 4 cars in the last 18 months.
ACH from my bank account the day before going down to Kisco each time (300+ miles away)
If it's driveable, I'm taking it!
Had to enter the numbers fresh each time.

Deal with punch list items at my local SC.

 

[mswlogo]

Bought 4 cars in the last 18 months.
ACH from my bank account the day before going down to Kisco each time (300+ miles away)
If it's driveable, I'm taking it!
Had to enter the numbers fresh each time.

Deal with punch list items at my local SC.

Turns out there is a way to remove them with the app.

 

[rchamp]

Tesla delivery center cannot handle two payments at the completion of purchase. Wire transfer or ACH. There was nothing that they could do. I finnally wire transfer from my brokerage account to may bank. then I was able to do one ACH to close the deal.

 

[mswlogo]

Tesla delivery center cannot handle two payments at the completion of purchase. Wire transfer or ACH. There was nothing that they could do. I finnally wire transfer from my brokerage account to may bank. then I was able to do one ACH to close the deal.

I can believe that

 

[tph4m]

I accidentally hit that Pay button thinking it would also prompt me. Instead, it drafted my remaining 50k balance a week ahead of delivery! I about had a heart attack because The deposit on my previous car hadn’t cleared yet

 

[mswlogo]

I accidentally hit that Pay button thinking it would also prompt me. Instead, it drafted my remaining 50k balance a week ahead of delivery! I about had a heart attack because The deposit on my previous car hadn’t cleared yet

Yeah, the fact it doesn’t prompt to confirm 10’s of thousands of dollars is ridiculous.