Importing from the UK - definitive guide (Q&A)

Grumpypants

I'm getting caught with not selling until after. Looks like I'll have to move the policy and leave the other one uninsured.

garv123

Grumpypants wrote: »

I'm getting caught with not selling until after. Looks like I'll have to move the policy and leave the other one uninsured.

Who are you insured with? I was covered liberty to drive someone elses car with English reg,with my third party extension. the vehicle didnt have to be insured. (thats changing in 2019 tho)

Grumpypants

I'm with Aviva, rang them there, they will transfer my main insurance over to the new car so I can drive it back. And then give me 5 days cover on my existing car. But won't be able to insure it beyond that.


Thank god I'm not a millionaire with 5 or 6 cars

Mervyn Skidmore

Are the likes of Transfermate, Currencyfair, Transferwise etc all offering pretty much the same rates? Hopefully buying in the North this weekend.

rai555

They don't do transactions over weekend

Mervyn Skidmore

rai555 wrote: »

They don't do transactions over weekend

Thanks, I'd be putting a deposit down and then transferring the rest during the week.

gwalk

They Do,

I sent money from KBC here to my NatWest account using Transferwise on Saturday and it arrived within minutes

omri

Mervyn Skidmore wrote: »

Thanks, I'd be putting a deposit down and then transferring the rest during the week.

Check with your bank to see if there is transactiin limit per day for the transfers. Depending on the amount. Our bank had certain limits so we went to the branch paid €25 for the same day full amount deposit to the Transferwise’s € account and it went out to the dealer on the same day, they got it next morning (confirmed by their accounts).

I’ve never used any other company and find Transferwise the easiest. I saved at least €800 compared to bank to bank transfer with the currency exchange. The transfer cost me around €100. The only inconvenience was a trip to my bank to authorise the full transfer in one go. But it only took 5 min.

blackwave

In that situation would revolut be a better option as they have no limit on spending? You just have to top the revolut account up over a few days and do a Sterling transfer?

Mervyn Skidmore

blackwave wrote: »

In that situation would revolut be a better option as they have no limit on spending? You just have to top the revolut account up over a few days and do a Sterling transfer?

Is there a different type of revolut account? I have a revolut card with the phone app, could I pay for a car with that? There's something unnerving about putting over 10k on a phone app!

omri

blackwave wrote: »

In that situation would revolut be a better option as they have no limit on spending? You just have to top the revolut account up over a few days and do a Sterling transfer?

It had nothing to do with Transferwise, my bank had transaction limit 3x€2500 per 24hr with 4hr intervals or some stupid thing like that.


Anyway got the VRT bill today. Came up at €1000 more than the VRT calculator indicated. Will have the extras breakdown on the receipt when I go and pay. Why this cannot be paid by a bank transfer makes me scratch my head - seriously gotta go get the bank draft now. The VRT on extras turned out few hunderd € more than what I estimated - which was 10% of what the original options were priced at. That’s what dealer told me how they calculate it, so at least you get the idea of what the final bill might be. But will check it against the receipt once I have it.

Amouar

Does anyone knows what's the maximum amount that the VRT office can take in Debit cards?

rai555

gwalk wrote: »

They Do,

I sent money from KBC here to my NatWest account using Transferwise on Saturday and it arrived within minutes

I rang them and was told no transactions during the weekend. Obviously it happens 😊

gwalk

rai555 wrote: »

I rang them and was told no transactions during the weekend. Obviously it happens ��

In fairness mine was only €1,000.

they might have restrictions for larger amounts

or covering their arse in case it doesn't go through on the day.

Isambard

Amouar wrote: »

Does anyone knows what's the maximum amount that the VRT office can take in Debit cards?

I don't know but I'd imagine they take until they squeezed you dry.

Amouar

Isambard wrote: »

I don't know but I'd imagine they take until they squeezed you dry.

Why are people getting a bank draft instead of paying by Debit Card? I thought that it was due to the fact that they couldn't pay the full amount by card?

mrboswell

I've enquired with 2 Skoda dealers that have said that they are not allowed to sell to buyers in Ireland. Anyone else heard of this?

Also, is there any issue if you use a UK address of friend/ family member?

masit

mrboswell wrote: »

I've enquired with 2 Skoda dealers that have said that they are not allowed to sell to buyers in Ireland. Anyone else heard of this?

Also, is there any issue if you use a UK address of friend/ family member?

Depends on the garage. I rang a Audi garage in south west UK who said the same, they won't sell to Ireland because they had problems with cars not been taxed and speeding fines coming back to the garage.

Mervyn Skidmore

Quick insurance question, is it possible to take out a brand new insurance policy with an Irish insurance company on a UK reg car? Putting a deposit on a car tomorrow for the wife (she's currently not insured), then hoping to sort insurance while the rest of the payment clears. Then hoping she'll be able to collect and drive the car back and finish VRT etc.

IrishGrimReaper

Liberty Mutual lets you insure a UK reg car. Check the insurance price first for your wife, just input the make/model of the car in their online quote system, you don't need to use a registration number.

Mervyn Skidmore

IrishGrimReaper wrote: »

Liberty Mutual lets you insure a UK reg car. Check the insurance price first for your wife, just input the make/model of the car in their online quote system, you don't need to use a registration number.

Thanks, have done that and the price is fine (well, as expected). I presume when she has VRTed she can just inform them of the change in registration number? Is liberty mutual the same as liberty?

ravendude

Amouar wrote: »

Why are people getting a bank draft instead of paying by Debit Card? I thought that it was due to the fact that they couldn't pay the full amount by card?

The limit will be imposed by your bank on your debit card, not the payee (vrt office). They would happily take money from your card, but your bank has daily limts.

DrZeuss

Posting here a bit late but I just wanted to add my thanks to everyone on this thread, the info here helped me enormously to bring back my first (and surely not last) UK motor.

My story:
I started looking locally first but there was only 2 of the model I was looking at available here in Ireland and not the spec I wanted, so the natural next step was to check the UK.
Which then brought me to this thread for the how to's and pitfalls etc.

I decided I would try to go through the main dealers if possible as the price wasn't too different between them and the car supermarket places, plus there was the added 12 months manufacturers european warranty for ease of mind.
I narrowed it down to a couple and mailed each dealer outlining that I wasn't the typical tyre kicker in that I couldn't drive down the road to see the car and that I'd need an honest description of the car.
The first dealer that got back to me was the dealer I ended up buying from, they provided me with a personalised video of the car, covering everything including lifting the carpets, zooming in on alloys and bumper corners etc for scratches (none existed)
I ran an online finance and history check on the car and all appeared normal except the car showed owing finance. I queried this and it turned out it was part of a stock loan which the dealer got removed and cleared before I proceeded.
On that basis I dropped a deposit on it after having a chat with the dealer and also negotiating a drop on the sale price (this covered my flight/ferry and some), I also requested the entire V5 to make sure there would be no issue there.
The dealer then offered to collect me from the airport (which I was really not expecting as it was the guts of 70km drive) on arrival.
I had setup to use Transfermate, whoever mentioned this crowd in the thread, my sincerest thanks. What a lovely company to deal with and saved me around €300 (the email confirmation of transfer and the speed was fantastic)

This was all back in February so I was unlucky to land in the UK the day the snow hit, which was not much of a problem for the UK but was on arrival back to Ireland.
I chanced not taxing the car, the garage told me to blame them if I got stopped and as the garage had dealt with Irish customers before they said it was doubtful there would be an issue, and there wasn't (not advocating anyone else does it though).

Irish Ferries decided to cancel the ferry I booked so the next one was the later slow one, and as everything went so smoothly I actually could have made the earlier ferry.
But by taking the later ferry I ended up landing back in Dublin into the middle of the snow storm of the century and a drive down the N7/M7 in blizzard conditions and practicaly zero visibilty.
The only way I could tell I was still on the motorway was by driving over the cats eyes, I couldn't even make out the central barrier anymore.
All this in a rear wheel drive, trying to keep momentuum, no sudden acceleration (chin on the steering wheel driving), and only for the sat nav I wouldn't have known where I was (all signs were covered in snow).
The gas thing was, as the snow was coming down at the start I could see a lorry ahead (maybe 200m) but within seconds, nothing only white. And not even tyre tracks, it was snowing that heavy. I caught up with the lorry after what felt like an eternity and the lorry was in behind a trail of about 10 other cars, I think everyone was happy to stay put.

The following day I tried to book a VRT appointment but couldn't as the snow had shut everything down :eek: , in fact I couldn't even bring the car out for a spin due to being snowed in
I did manage to book it after and the quote had dropped a small amount, they didn't seem to take into consideration the added extras on the car from what I could see and then I could pay the VRT anytime within the 30 days from arrival.

As for insurance, I changed my insurance over to the UK car before leaving Ireland and I was provided with 30 days on the UK reg without issue (123.ie)

Overall an easy process and one I will do again with massive thanks to everyone on this thread.
I saved between 4k and 10k (going by the selling price of the same(ish) models here)

TL;DR: Bought a car in the UK, no issues, will do it again and thanks to everyone on this thread, much appreciated.

Some eye candy:
https://imgur.com/a/EPkifbu

Mc Love

wow nice wheels! Any chance you could share the dealership details? Always helpful when buying from someone that looks after their customers

The_Conductor

Mervyn Skidmore wrote: »

Quick insurance question, is it possible to take out a brand new insurance policy with an Irish insurance company on a UK reg car? Putting a deposit on a car tomorrow for the wife (she's currently not insured), then hoping to sort insurance while the rest of the payment clears. Then hoping she'll be able to collect and drive the car back and finish VRT etc.

Easiest thing to do is to transfer your own insurance onto the car once you buy it and actually want to drive it, to get it home. Once you get it here, rereg it ASAP. Its simple to transfer a pre-existing policy, its messy as hell and expensive to go with an entirely new policy if the car is still on UK plates. FBD or any of the other insurers will transfer a pre-existing policy there and then over the phone.

DrZeuss

Mc Love wrote: »

wow nice wheels! Any chance you could share the dealership details? Always helpful when buying from someone that looks after their customers

Thanks mate!

Yeah sure, if the mods see any issue with me sharing it feel free to remove it.

It was Bowker BMW in Blackburn, absolutely cannot rate them high enough.
They also do a few other brands and had a massive amount of stock when I was there and yet still made me feel like I was their number 1 customer

mrboswell

masit wrote: »

Depends on the garage. I rang a Audi garage in south west UK who said the same, they won't sell to Ireland because they had problems with cars not been taxed and speeding fines coming back to the garage.

Do you know of any issue with buying a car and using a friends UK address and then sorting it from over here?

omri

I asked about selling the imported car in this thread before. But someone mentioned to me that if I sold the imported car for more than what it cost me in total with the VRT included I then might be taxed onthe difference between what I paid and what I sold it for. Is that true? Would this apply for a trade in for more expensive car in a dealership in ireland?

IrishGrimReaper

Mervyn Skidmore wrote: »

Thanks, have done that and the price is fine (well, as expected). I presume when she has VRTed she can just inform them of the change in registration number? Is liberty mutual the same as liberty?

Yeah same company, it has to be on Irish plates within 30 days I believe, but they'll be spamming you with emails after two weeks so get it done asap. Just inform them of the Irish reg when you get it and they'll send you out a new disc with the number.

Mc Love

DrZeuss wrote: »

Thanks mate!

Yeah sure, if the mods see any issue with me sharing it feel free to remove it.

It was Bowker BMW in Blackburn, absolutely cannot rate them high enough.
They also do a few other brands and had a massive amount of stock when I was there and yet still made me feel like I was their number 1 customer

Wow that is a fair trek from the airport alright!