Merchant Accounts for Motor Trade Businesses

Motor Trade Merchant Accounts: Taking Vehicle Deposits and Payments

Taking payment for a vehicle is rarely as simple as processing one card transaction.

A single sale might include:

Reservation payment

↓

Deposit

↓

Part-exchange allowance

↓

Motor-finance proceeds

↓

Customer’s remaining balance

↓

Optional extras or adjustments

↓

Final payment confirmation

↓

Vehicle release

A dealership may collect only £500 by card on a £35,000 sale.

Alternatively, the customer may ask to pay the entire vehicle price using a debit or credit card.

The payment method, transaction value, customer location, finance arrangement and method of vehicle collection can all change the risk and processing requirements.

A suitable motor trade merchant account should therefore support more than a card machine.

It may need to accommodate:

• Showroom card payments
• Remote vehicle deposits
• Secure payment links
• High-value transactions
• Telephone payments
• Servicing and repair payments
• Online parts sales
• Multiple dealership locations
• Dealer-management-system integrations
• Finance and part-exchange reconciliation
• Reliable settlement reporting

This guide explains how motor dealers can structure vehicle payments, verify funds before releasing a vehicle and compare merchant-account arrangements based on the way the dealership actually operates.

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Quick answer: What payment facilities does a motor dealer need?

The answer depends on the type of motor business.

A dealership might need:

• Countertop or portable card terminals
• An ecommerce payment gateway
• Payment links
• A virtual terminal
• Pay by Bank
• Bank-transfer reconciliation
• Multi-site reporting
• Integration with its dealer-management or accounting software

A used-car dealer taking remote deposits has a different requirement from a garage processing £300 servicing payments.

A prestige dealership accepting £20,000 balances has a different risk profile from a multi-site dealer group where most vehicle purchases are funded through motor finance.

The right setup should reflect:

• What the business sells
• How customers buy
• Average and maximum card payments
• Whether customers are present
• How vehicles are financed
• When vehicles are collected or delivered
• How payments are matched to each sale

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Which motor trade businesses need merchant services?

The motor trade includes several different payment models.

New-car dealerships

Payment requirements can include:

• Reservation fees
• Customer deposits
• Manufacturer contributions
• Finance deposits
• Part-exchange balances
• Servicing plans
• Accessories
• Repairs

Used-car dealers

Independent dealers may collect:

• Remote reservation payments
• Showroom deposits
• Full vehicle balances
• Part-exchange adjustments
• Delivery charges
• Warranty products

Prestige and classic-vehicle dealers

These merchants may have:

• High individual transaction values
• International customers
• Remote purchases
• Vehicle sourcing payments
• Consignment arrangements
• Specialist transport requirements

Garages and repair centres

Payments tend to relate to:

• Servicing
• Repairs
• MOTs
• Parts
• Diagnostics
• Recovery
• Bodywork

The average transaction may be lower, but the business may process a high number of card-present payments.

Bodyshops

A bodyshop may receive money from:

• Consumer
• Insurer
• Accident-management company
• Fleet operator
• Another garage

The person collecting the vehicle may not always be the party responsible for the full invoice.

Motorcycle, caravan and commercial-vehicle dealers

These businesses have many of the same deposit and balance-payment questions as car dealerships, but average values, seasonality and customer types may differ.

Multi-site dealer groups

A larger group may need:

• Separate merchant IDs
• Central finance-team access
• Reporting by branch
• Group-level pricing
• Dealer-management-system integration
• Different payment channels for sales and servicing

Provider comparison should start with the actual dealership structure rather than treating every motor trade business as one category.

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The motor vehicle payment journey

A practical way to review motor-trade payments is to map the entire sale.

For example:

Customer chooses vehicle

↓

Vehicle details and price confirmed

↓

Reservation fee or deposit collected

↓

Finance application completed

↓

Part-exchange value agreed

↓

Optional products and extras added

↓

Final invoice calculated

↓

Remaining balance collected

↓

Every payment source verified

↓

Vehicle released

The payment provider may process only part of that journey.

The dealership’s own systems must still establish:

• Which customer is paying
• Which vehicle the payment relates to
• What has already been paid
• What remains outstanding
• Whether finance has completed
• Whether a part-exchange has outstanding finance
• Whether the vehicle can be released

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Example of a vehicle sale using several payment methods

Suppose the vehicle price is:

£32,000

The transaction might be funded as follows:

The £500 card transaction may be approved correctly.

That does not mean the entire sale has been paid.

Before vehicle release, the dealer needs to confirm:

• Card deposit received
• Part-exchange amount agreed
• Any existing part-exchange finance settled correctly
• Finance proceeds confirmed
• Customer balance received
• Total matches the final invoice

MAS insight: A successful card payment does not prove that the vehicle is fully funded

The card terminal only knows about the card transaction.

It does not know:

• Whether finance has completed
• Whether the part-exchange value changed
• Whether accessories were added
• Whether the customer still owes a balance

The vehicle-release decision should be based on the complete sales ledger, not one approved payment receipt.

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Reservation fee, deposit or part-payment?

Motor dealers often use these terms interchangeably.

They may not mean the same thing to the customer.

Reservation fee

A payment made to remove the vehicle from sale temporarily.

The dealership should explain:

• How long the vehicle will be reserved
• Whether the payment forms part of the purchase price
• Whether it is refundable
• What happens if the customer does not proceed
• What happens if the dealer withdraws the vehicle
• What happens if finance is declined

Deposit

A payment made towards the proposed vehicle purchase.

The sales terms should explain:

• Amount
• Purpose
• Whether it is refundable
• Circumstances in which it may be retained
• How it appears on the final invoice

Part-payment

A straightforward amount paid towards the total vehicle price.

It should reduce the outstanding balance shown on the customer’s account.

Finance deposit

The customer’s contribution towards a finance agreement.

This should be clearly distinguished from any separate reservation payment.

MAS insight: The payment description should match the customer agreement

A payment link labelled:

Car payment

is vague.

A clearer description might be:

£500 reservation payment for vehicle AB12 CDE, stock reference 10485

The payment record, customer terms and sales invoice should all describe the payment consistently.

This becomes particularly important if the customer later disputes what the money was for.

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Taking vehicle deposits by card

Card payments can work well for vehicle deposits because they allow a customer to reserve a vehicle quickly.

Deposits might be taken:

• At the dealership
• Through the website
• Through a payment link
• By telephone
• Before the customer travels to view or collect the vehicle

Before accepting deposits, the dealer should decide:

• Standard deposit amount
• Maximum card-deposit amount
• Whether the deposit is refundable
• Who can authorise a refund
• Whether payment removes the vehicle from sale
• How long the reservation lasts
• What happens if finance is unsuccessful
• How deposits are reconciled to the final invoice

The merchant account should also be approved for the way deposits are actually collected.

A dealer taking most payments through remote links should disclose that rather than applying as though every payment will take place in the showroom.

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Using payment links for remote vehicle deposits

A secure payment link allows the customer to enter their own card details through a hosted online payment page.

This can be useful when a customer:

• Reserves a vehicle remotely
• Agrees a deposit over the phone
• Is travelling to the dealership
• Buys through an online advert
• Completes paperwork before collection
• Wants to pay outside normal showroom hours

Compared with a salesperson manually entering card details into a virtual terminal, a customer-completed link may provide a clearer online payment journey and support the authentication options offered by the provider.

The link should ideally include:

• Customer name
• Amount
• Vehicle registration or stock reference
• Payment purpose
• Dealership name
• Expiry date
• Contact details
• Appropriate terms or confirmation

It should also be:

• Single-use where appropriate
• Protected against amount changes
• Reconciled to the customer record
• Cancelled when no longer required

For more information, see the MAS guide to Pay by Link for merchants.

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MAS insight: Do not send an unreferenced payment link

Imagine a dealership sends three £500 links on the same day.

The bank statement later shows three £500 settlements.

Without a clear:

• Customer reference
• Vehicle stock number
• Invoice number
• Payment-link reference

the finance team may struggle to identify which customer paid for which vehicle.

Payment convenience should not create reconciliation problems.

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Can customers pay the full vehicle balance by card?

Potentially.

But the dealership, payment provider and customer’s card issuer all need to support the transaction.

A customer having enough money in their bank account does not guarantee that a £25,000 debit-card payment will be authorised.

A large transaction may be affected by:

• Customer card limits
• Issuer fraud controls
• Merchant-account limits
• Approved maximum transaction value
• Card-present or remote channel
• Authentication
• Transaction history
• Provider risk review

The merchant should disclose realistic average and maximum card payments when applying.

For example:

Average card transaction: £750
Maximum expected card transaction: £35,000

Giving only the £750 average could leave the provider unaware of the occasional full vehicle payments the dealer expects to process.

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What should a dealer do when a large card payment declines?

A decline does not automatically mean the customer lacks funds.

The dealer should:

1. Check the amount entered.
2. Check whether the terminal or link returned a specific response.
3. Ask the customer to contact their card issuer where appropriate.
4. Avoid repeatedly submitting the same transaction without understanding the decline.
5. Consider another agreed payment method.
6. Contact the payment provider where the value is unusual for the account.

Do not attempt to force an approval by repeatedly changing the amount.

For more detail, see the MAS guide to high-value card payments.

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Should a large vehicle payment be split into several card transactions?

Genuine staged payments can be legitimate.

For example:

• £500 reservation
• £4,500 deposit after viewing
• £15,000 balance before collection

Those payments correspond to stages in the actual sale.

Artificial splitting is different.

For example:

A £20,000 payment declines, so the dealership attempts four £5,000 payments simply to avoid the transaction limit.

That may conflict with provider rules, create additional fraud alerts and fail to solve the underlying problem.

A merchant expecting large vehicle payments should obtain an account approved for those values instead of designing workarounds around a lower limit.

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Card payment or bank payment for the final balance?

Many motor dealers use a combination of payment methods.

A typical journey might be:

• Card payment for the deposit
• Motor finance for the financed amount
• Bank transfer or Pay by Bank for a large final balance
• Card terminal for accessories, servicing or smaller adjustments

Neither card nor bank payment is automatically right for every vehicle sale.

Card-payment considerations

• Convenient for customers
• Immediate approval response
• Can support showroom and remote payments
• May carry higher processing cost on large values
• Subject to issuer and merchant limits
• Can later be disputed
• Needs appropriate fraud and vehicle-release controls

Bank-payment considerations

• Often commercially suitable for larger balances
• Can be initiated directly from the customer’s bank
• Requires accurate payment references
• Needs independent confirmation of receipt
• Can be sent from the wrong account or with the wrong amount
• Should not be verified using a screenshot

The dealership should decide which methods it accepts for:

• Deposits
• Full balances
• Remote purchases
• Same-day collections
• Commercial buyers
• International customers

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Never release a vehicle because a customer shows a payment screenshot

A screenshot may be:

• Edited
• Taken from a scheduled payment
• Taken from a payment that later failed
• Taken from a different transaction
• Showing money leaving another account without proving receipt
• Showing a pending rather than completed transfer

The dealership should verify payment using its own:

• Bank account
• Payment-provider dashboard
• Dealer-management system
• Finance-provider confirmation
• Settlement or transaction report

The customer’s phone is not the dealership’s source of truth.

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When is a vehicle payment safe to release?

There is no single payment status that removes every form of risk.

For example:

• A card payment can be authorised but later disputed.
• A bank transfer can appear in the account but still raise fraud or ownership questions.
• Finance may be approved but not yet paid to the dealer.
• A part-exchange may still have outstanding finance.

A documented release process can include:

1. Confirm final invoice.
2. Confirm customer identity where required.
3. Confirm each payment source.
4. Check card transactions through the provider.
5. Check bank payments in the business bank account.
6. Confirm finance proceeds or valid release authority.
7. Confirm part-exchange settlement.
8. Resolve any difference.
9. Record who approved the release.
10. Obtain collection or delivery evidence.

MAS insight: “Approved” and “ready for vehicle release” are not necessarily the same status

The dealership’s process should reflect:

• Payment method
• Transaction value
• Customer present or remote
• Provider terms
• Fraud checks
• Finance status
• Vehicle-delivery arrangements

The business should agree its procedure internally and with relevant payment and finance providers.

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Card authorisation versus settlement

A card authorisation confirms that the issuer approved the transaction at that point.

The transaction may still need to be:

• Captured
• Cleared
• Included in a settlement
• Paid out under the merchant’s agreed timetable

Waiting for card funds to arrive in the bank does not necessarily remove the risk of a later chargeback.

Likewise, releasing every vehicle immediately after seeing an approval response may not be appropriate for every high-value or remote transaction.

The release process should therefore combine:

• Transaction status
• Provider guidance
• Fraud review
• Customer and sale evidence
• Dealership risk policy

For a detailed explanation, see Card Payment Settlement Times: T+1, T+2, Holds and Delays.

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Motor finance and customer payments

Finance proceeds are separate from card payments made by the customer.

A vehicle transaction might include:

• Customer card deposit
• Lender payment
• Part-exchange
• Customer bank transfer
• Optional products
• Outstanding-finance settlement

The dealership should not assume that:

Customer paid the deposit

means:

Finance has been completed.

Before vehicle release, confirm:

• Finance agreement completed
• Any cooling-off or lender process completed where relevant
• Required customer contribution paid
• Lender funding or release confirmation received
• Part-exchange finance handled
• Final invoice reconciled

Dealers introducing customers to third-party finance providers may require FCA consumer-credit permissions. The precise limited or full permissions depend on matters including whether the dealer owns the vehicles, the type of finance introduced and whether it deals with outstanding finance on part-exchanges. 

This article focuses on taking and reconciling payments. Dealers should obtain separate regulatory advice on their motor-finance permissions and obligations.

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Part-exchange payments and outstanding finance

A part-exchange value is not necessarily the same as the customer’s equity.

For example:

Agreed vehicle value: £12,000
Outstanding finance: £7,000
Customer equity: £5,000

The dealership’s payment process should record:

• Agreed part-exchange value
• Settlement figure
• Who pays the existing lender
• Expiry date of the settlement quotation
• Customer equity
• Amount applied to the new vehicle
• Any remaining amount owed by the customer

If the settlement figure changes before completion, the final balance may also change.

The payment request should therefore be based on the final reconciled deal rather than an earlier estimate.

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Distance and online vehicle sales

A remote vehicle purchase might follow this journey:

Online advert

↓

Telephone or video discussion

↓

Payment link for deposit

↓

Electronic documents

↓

Final balance payment

↓

Vehicle delivered

Where a consumer vehicle sale qualifies as a distance contract, the customer will generally have a 14-day cancellation period after taking physical possession of the goods. Businesses selling online must also provide specified information before the order is placed and confirm the contract afterwards. 

The precise position can depend on how the dealership normally conducts distance sales and the circumstances of the transaction.

Motor dealers should obtain appropriate legal or Trading Standards guidance covering:

• Whether the sale is a distance contract
• Cancellation rights
• Vehicle-return arrangements
• Delivery charges
• Customer use of the vehicle
• Deductions for diminished value
• Refund deadlines
• Responsibility for collection

MAS insight: The payment process should not contradict the sales process

A dealership cannot treat a remote vehicle deposit as an isolated card transaction.

The payment record should align with:

• Vehicle advert
• Sales contract
• Customer cancellation information
• Delivery arrangements
• Refund policy

A vague payment description or inconsistent refund policy can make a later customer dispute harder to defend.

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Telephone payments and virtual terminals

Some dealers take deposits or balances by telephone through a virtual terminal.

This can be useful where a customer cannot use a payment link.

However, telephone payments may create additional risks because:

• The cardholder is not physically present
• Staff manually enter the details
• The transaction may not follow the same authentication journey as an online payment
• Recording payment details incorrectly can create security problems
• Fraud evidence may be more limited

Dealerships should:

• Use an approved virtual terminal
• Avoid writing down or storing card details
• Restrict staff access
• Record the payment purpose
• Use customer and vehicle references
• Follow the provider’s security procedures
• Consider payment links for suitable transactions

A virtual terminal should not be used simply because it allows staff to bypass a control present in another payment channel.

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Vehicle-payment refunds

A vehicle sale can change after a payment has been taken.

Examples include:

• Finance declined
• Customer withdraws
• Dealer withdraws the vehicle
• Vehicle fails a final inspection
• Part-exchange value changes
• Customer overpays
• Optional extras are removed
• Deposit is returned
• Distance sale is cancelled

The dealership needs to establish:

• Whether a refund is due
• Refund amount
• Original payment method
• Who has authority to approve it
• Which invoice or payment it relates to
• How it affects the outstanding balance
• How it appears in settlement reporting

Card refunds are normally processed through the payment provider and linked back to the relevant card transaction.

The dealer should not automatically return money to an unrelated bank account simply because the customer requests it.

That could create:

• Fraud risk
• Money-laundering concerns
• Duplicate repayment
• Reconciliation problems
• Disagreement about whether the original card refund was completed

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MAS insight: Finance, part exchange and card refunds should not be calculated separately

Suppose:

Vehicle price: £30,000
Deposit paid by card: £1,000
Finance expected: £20,000
Part exchange: £6,000
Customer bank payment: £3,000

If the sale is cancelled, the dealership should not simply refund £1,000 without checking:

• Whether finance funds arrived
• Whether the part-exchange was transferred
• Whether the bank payment was received
• Whether any legitimate deductions apply
• What the final customer account shows

Refund decisions should come from the full deal reconciliation.

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Chargebacks and motor vehicle payments

A card payment can potentially be disputed after the vehicle has been collected or delivered.

The dealership should not assume that:

• A PIN was entered
• The customer signed an invoice
• The card was approved
• The customer drove away

means a dispute is impossible.

Possible dispute types include:

• Cardholder claims not to recognise the payment
• Vehicle not received
• Vehicle not as described
• Deposit refund not processed
• Duplicate payment
• Incorrect amount
• Cancellation disagreement
• Payment taken after the deal changed

Useful evidence may include:

• Vehicle advert
• Stock or registration reference
• Customer order
• Signed invoice
• Payment receipt
• Customer communications
• Deposit terms
• Refund policy
• Collection documents
• Delivery evidence
• Customer identification records where lawfully collected
• Part-exchange details
• Finance documents
• Evidence showing how the dispute was handled

Evidence should be retained in a way that allows the dealership to connect the payment to the actual sale.

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Card-present versus remote vehicle payments

These should not be treated as identical.

Showroom payment

The customer and card may be physically present.

The dealership can potentially:

• Match the payment to the customer
• Complete the transaction through a terminal
• Obtain signed collection documentation
• Release the vehicle directly

Remote payment

The customer may pay through:

• Ecommerce checkout
• Payment link
• Virtual terminal

The dealership may then deliver the vehicle or arrange collection later.

The remote process needs stronger coordination between:

• Payment authentication
• Customer identity
• Contract
• Vehicle description
• Delivery
• Cancellation rights

A provider comfortable with £10,000 showroom payments may not automatically offer identical terms for £10,000 remote card transactions.

The application should describe both channels accurately.

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Servicing, repairs and bodyshop payments

The payment requirements for servicing and repair work can be different from vehicle sales.

A garage may need:

• Countertop terminal
• Portable terminal
• Telephone payment
• Payment link
• Invoice payment
• Fleet-account billing
• Insurance-payment reconciliation

Useful payment references could include:

• Vehicle registration
• Job number
• Customer name
• Invoice number
• Repair date
• Insurance claim reference

Deposits for parts or major repairs

A garage may request payment upfront where it needs to order:

• Specialist parts
• Engines
• Gearboxes
• Body panels
• Bespoke components

The terms should explain:

• What the deposit covers
• Whether parts are specially ordered
• Whether the payment is refundable
• What happens if the repair changes
• When the balance is due

Unexpected additional work

Where additional work is identified, the garage should obtain the customer’s approval before taking an additional payment.

The payment record should match the revised quotation or invoice.

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Courtesy cars and pre-authorisation

Some motor businesses may need a facility to cover potential:

• Fuel
• Damage
• Late return
• Additional hire charges

A pre-authorisation is different from taking a completed deposit payment.

It can temporarily reserve an amount on the customer’s card before the final charge is known.

The provider must support the correct transaction type and merchant activity.

A dealership should not improvise a pre-authorisation arrangement by processing a sale and promising to refund it later unless that is genuinely the approved process.

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Online parts and accessories

Some dealerships also sell:

• Parts
• Tyres
• Accessories
• Merchandise
• Service plans

through an ecommerce website.

This can create a mixed payment profile:

• High-value vehicle sales
• Lower-value ecommerce goods
• Card-present servicing
• Remote deposits

The provider may recommend:

• Separate merchant IDs
• Separate reporting
• Different fraud settings
• Different settlement arrangements

where the channels and product types are materially different.

The dealership should still be able to reconcile all activity to the same customer and accounting records where appropriate.

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Motor trade payment integrations

The card terminal is only one part of the dealership’s technology.

Payments may need to connect with:

• Dealer-management system
• Workshop-management software
• Ecommerce website
• CRM
• Accounting software
• Stock system
• Finance platform
• Customer portal
• Booking system
• Group reporting platform

A useful integration can allow the dealership to:

• Create payment requests
• Populate the correct amount
• Add customer and vehicle references
• Update the invoice when payment succeeds
• Prevent duplicate collection
• Record refunds
• Reconcile payouts

MAS insight: Do not choose the cheapest terminal before checking the dealership system

A low card rate is not helpful if staff then need to:

• Re-enter every transaction
• Match deposits manually
• Search bank statements
• Correct duplicate payments
• Export several spreadsheets

Payment-provider cost should include the operational work created by the setup.

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Multi-site dealership payments

Dealer groups may need to decide whether each location has:

• Its own merchant account
• Its own merchant ID
• Separate settlement
• Centralised settlement
• Shared reporting
• Local refund permissions

Questions to consider include:

• Can head office view every branch?
• Can each site see only its own activity?
• Who can issue refunds?
• Can sales and service departments be separated?
• Can payments be reported by dealership, department and terminal?
• Does each bank payout contain a clear site reference?
• Can card fees be measured by branch?
• Can a customer pay at one site and collect at another?
• Can online deposits be allocated to the correct location?

A multi-site setup should prevent both financial confusion and excessive staff access.

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Reconciling motor-trade settlements

A dealership might see a payout from its payment provider containing:

• Vehicle deposits
• Servicing transactions
• Parts sales
• Refunds
• Chargebacks
• Processing fees
• Reserve deductions

The bank payout may not match one day’s gross card sales exactly.

A strong reconciliation process connects:

Customer

↓

Vehicle or workshop job

↓

Invoice

↓

Card or bank transaction

↓

Settlement batch

↓

Bank receipt

For more information, see the MAS guide to understanding card-provider transaction statements.

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Cash payments and the £10,000 high-value-dealer threshold

From 30 June 2026, a UK business trading in goods falls within the high-value-dealer definition where it makes or receives cash payments totalling £10,000 or more for one transaction or linked transactions.

HMRC specifically gives the example of linked cash instalments paid towards the cost of a car.

A business deciding to accept qualifying high-value cash payments must register with HMRC for anti-money-laundering supervision and cannot accept or make such a payment until it has submitted its registration application. 

Cash means cash

A motor dealer does not need to register as a high-value dealer merely because it accepts a large payment using:

• Credit card
• Debit card
• Cheque

The HVD rule discussed here applies to cash payments meeting the threshold. 

Linked cash transactions

Payments may be linked where several cash amounts relate to the same vehicle purchase.

For example:

• £4,000 cash deposit
• £3,000 cash payment later
• £3,000 cash on collection

The combined amount is £10,000.

Dividing a single transaction into smaller cash payments does not necessarily keep it outside the rules.

This is a regulatory subject rather than simply a payment-processing decision. Dealers accepting significant cash should obtain appropriate AML advice.

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Can a motor dealer charge extra for paying by card?

UK traders generally cannot impose a surcharge on consumers for using ordinary consumer credit or debit cards.

The rules differ for some payments, including certain commercial cards, but any charge must comply with the applicable payment-surcharge rules. 

A dealership should not add a percentage card fee to a consumer’s vehicle payment simply because processing the transaction is expensive.

Instead, review:

• Which payment methods are accepted
• Whether card values should be limited
• Whether bank payment is offered for large balances
• The dealership’s overall pricing
• Total merchant-account cost

A payment-method policy should be clear before the customer reaches the final payment stage.

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Applying for a motor trade merchant account

The provider needs to understand the actual dealership.

Useful information includes:

Business details

• Legal entity
• Trading name
• Dealership locations
• Website
• Years trading
• Directors and owners
• FCA status where finance is introduced

Business activity

• New vehicles
• Used vehicles
• Prestige or classic vehicles
• Motorcycles
• Commercial vehicles
• Repairs
• Parts
• Vehicle sourcing
• Consignment sales

Card profile

• Monthly card turnover
• Number of card transactions
• Average card transaction
• Maximum card transaction
• Showroom percentage
• Online percentage
• Payment-link percentage
• Telephone-payment percentage

Complete sales profile

The provider may also need to know total dealership turnover, even where only part is paid by card.

For example:

Annual vehicle sales: £15 million
Annual card processing: £1.2 million
Typical card use: deposits and servicing
Maximum card payment: £30,000

That gives far more context than saying:

We process £100,000 a month.

Remote and future-delivery activity

Explain:

• Whether customers buy remotely
• Whether vehicles are delivered
• Time between deposit and collection
• Refund and cancellation process
• Whether vehicles are in stock
• Whether vehicles are sourced after payment

Technical requirements

• Terminals
• Payment links
• Ecommerce
• Virtual terminal
• DMS integration
• Reporting
• Multiple locations
• User permissions
• Pay by Bank
• Multiple merchant IDs

A well-prepared high-risk merchant account application should describe the whole payment journey accurately.

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What should motor dealers compare between providers?

Do not compare only the headline card rate.

Transaction acceptance

• Is the provider comfortable with vehicle sales?
• Are full-balance card payments allowed?
• What is the approved maximum transaction?
• Are remote payments supported?
• Are payment links available?

Settlement

• T+1, T+2 or another schedule?
• Working or calendar days?
• First-payout delay?
• Weekend treatment?
• Gross or net settlement?
• Reserve or fund hold?

Technology

• Dealer-management integration?
• Accounting integration?
• Payment links?
• Ecommerce?
• Virtual terminal?
• Pay by Bank?
• Multi-site reporting?

Cost

• Debit-card pricing
• Credit-card pricing
• Commercial-card cost
• International-card cost
• Authorisation fees
• Terminal fees
• Gateway fees
• Refund fees
• Chargeback fees
• Accelerated-settlement fees

Contract

• Initial term
• Notice period
• Termination charges
• Equipment agreement
• Rate-change provisions
• Fund-holding rights

Reporting

• Vehicle or invoice references
• Settlement reports
• Branch reporting
• Refund permissions
• API access
• Accounting exports

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MAS insight: Compare the cost of the dealership’s real card mix

A provider might advertise a low debit-card rate.

But the dealership may accept a mixture of:

• Consumer debit cards
• Consumer credit cards
• Commercial cards
• International cards
• Remote card payments

The relevant comparison is:

What would our actual previous month’s transactions have cost with this provider?

—not:

What is the cheapest rate shown on the quotation?

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The motor trade payment checklist

Before reviewing providers, confirm the following.

Vehicle sales

• How are vehicles reserved?
• What is the standard deposit?
• Can customers pay the full balance by card?
• What is the largest expected card payment?
• Are sales completed remotely?
• Are vehicles delivered?

Funding

• Is finance offered?
• How are finance proceeds confirmed?
• How are part-exchanges recorded?
• Who settles outstanding finance?
• How are customer balances calculated?

Payment channels

• Showroom terminals?
• Portable terminals?
• Payment links?
• Ecommerce?
• Telephone payments?
• Pay by Bank?
• Direct bank transfer?

Vehicle release

• Who verifies payment?
• What statuses are checked?
• Is a screenshot ever accepted?
• How is finance confirmed?
• Who authorises release?
• What collection evidence is retained?

Refunds and disputes

• Are deposit terms clear?
• Who can issue refunds?
• Are refunds linked to original payments?
• Is evidence stored against the vehicle record?
• How are chargebacks managed?

Reporting

• Can deposits be matched to vehicles?
• Can branches be separated?
• Can servicing and sales be separated?
• Can settlements be reconciled to the bank?
• Does the system integrate with the dealership software?

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Find Your New Processor

Reviewing payments across your dealership?

Tell Merchant Advice Service:

• What vehicles or services you sell
• Number of dealership locations
• Monthly card turnover
• Average card transaction
• Maximum card transaction
• How deposits are taken
• How vehicle balances are collected
• Whether customers purchase remotely
• Whether motor finance is introduced
• Current settlement schedule
• Current payment provider
• Dealer-management or accounting system
• What you want to improve

MAS can help compare merchant-account and payment-gateway arrangements based on the way your dealership actually takes, verifies and reconciles payments.

Final approval, pricing, transaction limits, settlement and risk terms remain subject to the relevant payment provider.

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