5 ms·

> What if you wanted to buy a $25,000 car in cash from a dealership? I think you’ve not done this in the past twenty years, or just heard the phrase and misund

> What if you wanted to buy a $25,000 car in cash from a dealership? I think you’ve not done this in the past twenty years, or just heard the phrase and misunderstood it. “Paying cash” at a dealership for a new car doesn’t mean literally bringing in paper currency. Generally you pay via cashiers check or wire transfer (rarely via personal check, but with a waiting period most of the time then). Saying “paying cash” at a dealership means “not financing the vehicle.” I’m not saying it’s not possible to use paper currency, I’ve done it myself. For anything of value though, you’ll generally get a less enthused recipient (as they’ll have hassles depositing it), not to mention the hassle you’ll get just to withdraw the money. As an example in the US, withdrawing over $10k in cash requires filling out paperwork. Withdrawing much larger amounts will generally involve even more scrutiny. Trying to break up the withdrawals to stay under $10k will very likely set off red flags with the bank and lead to inquiries from their compliance department at best (usually much worse).

sokoloff 7y ago
The beauty of cash is that everyone knows "it's good" (ignoring counterfeiting for the moment). There's no "stop payment" on cash. If I'm buying a car from a dealership, ACH/e-check or regular check is fine. If I'm buying a classic car or a boat from a private seller on a weekend, cash is still king. A dealership may prefer a check over cash, but a private seller who is on the fence about taking your semi-lowball offer is often somewhat motivated by seeing physical cash and imagining (even if subconsciously) having the cash and being done with the transaction. Physical cash's non-recourse is a security problem for theft, of course.
- jsjohnst 7y ago
  Try going and depositing $50k in cash at a US bank (let alone orders of magnitude more) and tell me it was a pleasurable experience. As someone who’s withdrawn and deposited multiple large amounts of cash (largest being in 7 figures range), I can say it’s a real pain.
  - turk73 7y ago
    Yeah, it's over and we lost...again. Taking cash means accepting the possibility of counterfeit bills mixed into the pile, not necessarily due to any nefarious intent by the person bearing the cash. Wow, you deposited over $1M in cash all at once? Drug dealer! Yeah, it's ridiculous because on the one had our biggest every day bill is $20 and on the other hand, $100M is a rounding error to our government.
phonebanshee 7y ago
There's no waiting period if you pay by check. (Yes, real world personal experience.) Don't forget they're happy to let it go with just a promise to pay later.
- jsjohnst 7y ago
  I’ve paid by personal check before too without a waiting period, but I also have first hand knowledge that it’s not the norm, at some dealerships anyway. Obviously every place will likely be somewhat different.

sokoloff 7y ago

The beauty of cash is that everyone knows "it's good" (ignoring counterfeiting for the moment). There's no "stop payment" on cash. If I'm buying a car from a dealership, ACH/e-check or regular check is fine. If I'm buying a classic car or a boat from a private seller on a weekend, cash is still king. A dealership may prefer a check over cash, but a private seller who is on the fence about taking your semi-lowball offer is often somewhat motivated by seeing physical cash and imagining (even if subconsciously) having the cash and being done with the transaction. Physical cash's non-recourse is a security problem for theft, of course.

jsjohnst 7y ago
Try going and depositing $50k in cash at a US bank (let alone orders of magnitude more) and tell me it was a pleasurable experience. As someone who’s withdrawn and deposited multiple large amounts of cash (largest being in 7 figures range), I can say it’s a real pain.
- turk73 7y ago
  Yeah, it's over and we lost...again. Taking cash means accepting the possibility of counterfeit bills mixed into the pile, not necessarily due to any nefarious intent by the person bearing the cash. Wow, you deposited over $1M in cash all at once? Drug dealer! Yeah, it's ridiculous because on the one had our biggest every day bill is $20 and on the other hand, $100M is a rounding error to our government.

phonebanshee 7y ago

There's no waiting period if you pay by check. (Yes, real world personal experience.) Don't forget they're happy to let it go with just a promise to pay later.

jsjohnst 7y ago
I’ve paid by personal check before too without a waiting period, but I also have first hand knowledge that it’s not the norm, at some dealerships anyway. Obviously every place will likely be somewhat different.