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

rahulbhatewara

Ok. So I've bought the car over and had sorted out all the paperwork (or so I had thought). While I got everything else, I did not check that the invoice date was for a later date. I bought the car over and only noticed it 3+ days later, now the dealer cannot raise a backdated invoice in their system. The dealer is Renault so I know they're not lying.

Not sure how the folks doing the VRT would consider my situation. Any ideas/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I plan to bring a print out of the email thread with the sales manager & try and explain.

wassie

How is the invoice date 'a later date'? Was it not prepared on the day you collected?

michellie

rahulbhatewara wrote: »

Ok. So I've bought the car over and had sorted out all the paperwork (or so I had thought). While I got everything else, I did not check that the invoice date was for a later date. I bought the car over and only noticed it 3+ days later, now the dealer cannot raise a backdated invoice in their system. The dealer is Renault so I know they're not lying.

Not sure how the folks doing the VRT would consider my situation. Any ideas/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I plan to bring a print out of the email thread with the sales manager & try and explain.

Do you have your ferry documents ?

twigsirl

Been following this thread for a long time, thanks to everyone for their notes and observations! I have now done the deed as well, went over yesterday (Thursday) morning and came back into Dublin with my 'new' car in the afternoon - a bit worried about Lorenzo but in the end, the ferry was grand and the drive down to Cork was uneventful after getting out of Dublin's heavy traffic. It was a long day, up at 4.30 to get the 6.45 Cork to Birmingham flight, got back home for about 8.30, but very glad I did it now. A few lines on my experience for all those thinking of going over for a car ... it's a bit all over the place!

I sat into the car at 10:00 in Birmingham to drive over to Holyhead and I got there for about 1.20 - I entered Holyhead on the Sat Nav whilst in the garage and thought it would bring me up the motorway and then I would cut over into Wales. However, it took me on a cross-country trip which was fine I guess, but I ran into tractors, buses, maintenance vehicles, etc. I was lucky it was a Thursday morning otherwise I could've been held up longer. If you are doing the trip in the next few weeks, there are major road works about 12-15 miles outside Bangor, so whichever way you travel, you will run into them. I was only caught for 10 minutes at them yesterday and in the end, I had 10 minutes 'to spare' based on Stena's line of being there 30 mins beforehand.

You won't see any ferry signs until you are almost into Holyhead itself. Stena depart from T5, easy enough to spot in the daytime after you go into the port but could be tricky at night? I don't know, maybe not. I had booked a Premium ticket - oh, use the code STENATIMES whilst booking your ticket for 20% off - and you get handed a premium card at the entrance to the port. Being the fool I am, I put it on the seat beside me. I drove over to T5, the queues for Premium are on the left so I queued there, but the guy kept waving everyone but me through?? I opened the window and he said these queues were for Premium, I said I had a Premium ticket and showed it to him, he said "I don't have x-ray vision, put it on the dash so we can see it!" So lesson learned there! Premium lounge is comfy, plenty of complimentary teas, coffees, etc., I dozed off for a bit, well worth the price especially with the 20% discount paying for it really. Paid for the Stena ticket using Revolut.

I paid for everything with Revolut - it was fine in the end but be aware of some things including their initial time limits/constraints. I only signed up 3 weeks ago for a Revolut account and it was primarily for the purchase of the car, went with a Standard account. Late last week, I added/linked my BOI debit card to the account and began transferring in some money, all seemed well. When I had made up my mind to purchase the car, I paid a deposit which went through and then upgraded to a Premium account with the intention of cancelling that Premium subscription within 14 days (which I did today via the app itself, no problems with that BTW). However, I then tried to add 000's to my account but I kept hitting a 24hr limit (you have transferred the max for this period) which continued for a day or two. After that, the money went through ok thankfully. I kept an eye on the Exchange rate in the app before going with a rate of .8885. Not the best of the week but I gambled on waiting til the night before I travelled and that was the rate I got *shrug* Over in the UK, when paying the garage, I had to add their account in the Payments section of the app as they couldn't process the amount via the Revolut card - I only have a virtual card, never went for the physical which could've been a bad mistake! Anyway, at 9.05 I clicked on the newly created account for the garage in my Payments section, typed in the amount that I owed, added the reference they wanted adding and clicked 'Send'. Got a message saying that was fine and the app said the payment was pending. At 9.10, I got an email saying that the transfer had been submitted and then at 9.13 I got an email to say it had been executed and the app told me the transfer was completed. My payment was for over £20k so I was worried that I didn't have the physical card as they (the garage) couldn't process that amount with my virtual card, but thankfully it all went smoothly using the Transfer method.

I also paid the UK car tax using Revolut, and had to do 6 months of it, so I will be writing to the DVLA to get some of that back, it literally is just a case of sending a letter according to this. The garage wouldn't let me leave without taxing the car. Also, they wanted proof of insurance which was difficult as the one-liner from the AA didn't really cut it. In the end, the dealer fudged whatever he was filling out with a UK postcode, he took my word that I was covered and we were done with that. No problem with the V5C logbook either, he said they were used to giving it to Irish customers by now!

Couldn't get a VRT appointment where I live, so took one for Tralee in 2 weeks time and I will try and amend that next week if possible. Hopefully it won't be too painful a hit!

Thanks again to everyone who has contributed to this thread, and continues to do so. And to anyone who is considering going over, once you have done your research and all your ducks are in a row, I say go for it!

michellie

wassie wrote: »

How is the invoice date 'a later date'? Was it not prepared on the day you collected?

Sometimes the date on the invoices are the date the original deposit was given instead of the date it was collected.

timple23

Silly question but is it possible to request a specific registration number, example 01 D 12345, provided it isn’t registered to another vehicle? (Does motorcheck tell this when they say a registration isn’t valid?)

ErinGoBrath

Has anyone had a recent vrt appeal submitted? Waiting a few weeks now and no contact from them

colm_mcm

timple23 wrote: »

Silly question but is it possible to request a specific registration number, example 01 D 12345, provided it isn’t registered to another vehicle? (Does motorcheck tell this when they say a registration isn’t valid?)

No, not possible on a used car.

michellie

timple23 wrote: »

Silly question but is it possible to request a specific registration number, example 01 D 12345, provided it isn’t registered to another vehicle? (Does motorcheck tell this when they say a registration isn’t valid?)

Reserving a registration number

For €1,000 you can apply to Revenue for a particular registration number for the current year.

To reserve a number, you must apply to the Central Vehicle Office at the address shown below.  Applications must be made on or after 1 November in the year before it is intended to first register the vehicle.

If your application is not successful, your payment of €1,000 will be refunded to you.

The number and county chosen must:

be in the normal registration number formatcorrespond with the year and half year in which the vehicle is first registered.  An application to reserve 181-D-2:may only be made for a vehicle to be first registered in 2018andcorrespond with the place where the applicant normally resides.

The registered owner must be the person in whose name the number was reserved. Reserved numbers are not transferable.

All registration numbers are available for reservation except the number ‘1’ in:

Cork (161-C-1 and 162-C-1)Dublin (161-D-1 and 162-D-1)Limerick (161-L-1 and 162-L-1)Waterford (161-W-1 and 162-W-1).

A reserved registration number can only be assigned to a vehicle when it is reached in the normal sequence. It may not be displayed on a vehicle before it has been formally assigned by Revenue.

A reserved registration number will only be assigned in the year to which it relates.

Applications for reservation of registration numbers should be sent to:

The Office of the Revenue Commissioners
Registration Section
Central Vehicle Office
Rosslare Harbour
Co. Wexford

Telephone: (01) 7383619

mgn

Surprised the never brought out personalised number plates here like the UK.

stevedog

Re Revolut, what's the best way for me to transfer just over 10k EU to dealers acc..is it add from my own card to Revolut acc then transfer? Anyone know limit I can add from my card per day??

deezell

stevedog wrote: »

Re Revolut, what's the best way for me to transfer just over 10k EU to dealers acc..is it add from my own card to Revolut acc then transfer? Anyone know limit I can add from my card per day??

If the dealer accepts payment by debit card using the ordinary card terminal, then use that. Instant payment. Other wise you transfer to his account using account name, number and sort code.
To transfer in to revolut, daily limit is set by your bank, not revolut. With AIB it's 5k on the app, 10k using AIB online transfer in euro to revolut, and if you present at your bank branch you should be able to transfer as much as you want. Revolut might invoke money laundering verification request from you if its the first time you've moved those kind of sums to your Revolut account. They may request income statements, own bank statements. If you've not used your Revolut card in UK before, use it in an ATM or chip and pin at least once before trying it with tap and pay. Some dealers might prefer VISA over MasterCard for card transactions, handy to have both cards to hand if you have them, but of no consequence if doing an App transfer.
Sometimes revolut may not work at a Card swipe terminal if you encounter one, this is most likely because this method of payment is turned off in the app. It's handy to have the app running any time you are using Revolut in a new environment, you get reports in the app straight away if there is an issue, such as wrong pin, or swipe turned off.
It worked flawlessly for me last two weeks in Japan, chip and pin, swipe, atm withdrawal, even an old fashioned imprint and sign. Everywhere from Macdonalds to Airports. Saved me a stack, got the full rate each time, and kept cash withdrawals to near the limit.

timple23

michellie wrote: »

Reserving a registration number

For €1,000 you can apply to Revenue for a particular registration number for the current year.

To reserve a number, you must apply to the Central Vehicle Office at the address shown below.  Applications must be made on or after 1 November in the year before it is intended to first register the vehicle.

If your application is not successful, your payment of €1,000 will be refunded to you.

The number and county chosen must:

be in the normal registration number formatcorrespond with the year and half year in which the vehicle is first registered.  An application to reserve 181-D-2:may only be made for a vehicle to be first registered in 2018andcorrespond with the place where the applicant normally resides.

The registered owner must be the person in whose name the number was reserved. Reserved numbers are not transferable.

All registration numbers are available for reservation except the number ‘1’ in:

Cork (161-C-1 and 162-C-1)Dublin (161-D-1 and 162-D-1)Limerick (161-L-1 and 162-L-1)Waterford (161-W-1 and 162-W-1).

A reserved registration number can only be assigned to a vehicle when it is reached in the normal sequence. It may not be displayed on a vehicle before it has been formally assigned by Revenue.

A reserved registration number will only be assigned in the year to which it relates.

Applications for reservation of registration numbers should be sent to:

The Office of the Revenue Commissioners
Registration Section
Central Vehicle Office
Rosslare Harbour
Co. Wexford

Telephone: (01) 7383619

Its for a used car, I am looking for a specific number combination eg 01 D 3310

Explosive_Cornflake

timple23 wrote: »

Its for a used car, I am looking for a specific number combination eg 01 D 3310

It's a new nokia?

squirrel6767

stevedog wrote: »

Re Revolut, what's the best way for me to transfer just over 10k EU to dealers acc..is it add from my own card to Revolut acc then transfer? Anyone know limit I can add from my card per day??

My own personal experience from last week.

• Did a transfer from BOI using an Urgent transfer transaction at a cost of €25 (needed to get it there that day and daily limits by BOI would have prevented me from getting the total amount across in time)
• Received by Revolut that same day
• Upgraded Revolut to Premium @ £7.99 to avoid exchange fees (and for what I thought would be a Turbo transfer but see below on that)
• Converted from Euros to Sterling (if you have time you can choose when to convert and get the most favorable rate)
• Got Bank account details from dealer and added as a beneficiary in Revolut
• I was due to pick up car on Friday and had someone locally give it the thumbs up so I was happy to go with it and transfer remainder of funds (I had already paid £200 deposit using regular credit card)
• Transferred remainder to dealer at 23:00 on Tue night (via Revolut bank transfer) - showed as Pending
• By Wednesday afternoon it was still showing as Pending so I got onto Revolut support - they confirmed it was pending on their side i.e. it had not been processed. They claimed that they had 1 day to process. I think my call kicked them into action as it did get processed by around 5pm on the Wednesday
• Confirmed that receiving bank got the £ at 10pm that Wed evening (dealership told me the time they received funds when I called them on Thurs)
• Flew out Thurs night and picked up car on Fri morning
• Reverted to Revolut Standard from Premium (and got my £7.99 fee back)

Key learning from this

Do not rely on Revolut to process the Bank Transfer transaction immediately even if you have Premium (took them 17 hours just to process it on their side - nothing to do with receiving bank)
When it is processed by Revolut it can still take some hours before the Bank receives (~5 hours in my case)

I don't know how others managed to do the Revolut transfer after they were in the UK and had seen the car. In my case had I not initiated the transfer a few days prior I would have been stuck over there waiting and panicking.

dp639

Tried to book a VRT inspect just now, no slots are available in any centres and I'm now on a waiting list and told to keep an eye on my mail and phone.

Is this normal and should I just expect an appointment soon?

Thanks?

krissovo

dp639 wrote: »

Tried to book a VRT inspect just now, no slots are available in any centres and I'm now on a waiting list and told to keep an eye on my mail and phone.

Is this normal and should I just expect an appointment soon?

Thanks?

At the moment it is, i waited 37 days in Cork after calling on my day of import which caused issues with insurance.

deezell

It's the new normal, until brexit/sterling boost/ budget shafting.

dp639

Lets hope for a Brexit deal or an extension otherwise who knows what sort of taxes they'll add. Plus my valid MOT won't be accepted either.

Typical of this country - any oppurtunity to rob us even more!!

ELM327

I'm going through the same at the moment. Finding it hard to get finance for a UK reg car after paying £4k deposit, trying to get the process sorted before 31/10 in case they crash out and I get stung with WTO tariffs.

deezell

"
Typical of this country - any oppurtunity to rob us even more!!"

No, no, surely not! Look at the new carbon tax on fuel to reduce usage and climate damage. Most of it is being used to subsidise the purchase of... fuel and coal for welfare recipients. HTF does that reduce climate damage, robbing Peter to heat Paul's arse.

revoke12

dp639 wrote: »

Tried to book a VRT inspect just now, no slots are available in any centres and I'm now on a waiting list and told to keep an eye on my mail and phone.

Is this normal and should I just expect an appointment soon?

Thanks?

yes its normal, same happened with me a few months back, keep checking online tho every few hours a slot opened up for me.

Kitty6277

dp639 wrote: »

Plus my valid MOT won't be accepted either.

Have you exchanged your MOT for an NCT? Will that not be valid after Brexit even if they have been exchanged?

Explosive_Cornflake

dp639 wrote: »

Tried to book a VRT inspect just now, no slots are available in any centres and I'm now on a waiting list and told to keep an eye on my mail and phone.

Is this normal and should I just expect an appointment soon?

Thanks?

I called on a Friday (from the ferry), and on the Tuesday I was sent the appointment for 16 days later. This was Greenhills.

dp639

Kitty6277 wrote: »

Have you exchanged your MOT for an NCT? Will that not be valid after Brexit even if they have been exchanged?

Yes, thats what I mean - it should be accepted today for example but after 31 Oct if the UK leave with no deal it will not be accepted.

Kitty6277

dp639 wrote: »

Yes, thats what I mean - it should be accepted today for example but after 31 Oct if the UK leave with no deal it will not be accepted.

Oh bollix, never even thought about that. Ffs, 6 months of MOT down the drain so :rolleyes:

Buffman

Kitty6277 wrote: »

Oh bollix, never even thought about that. Ffs, 6 months of MOT down the drain so :rolleyes:

If you've already gotten your MOT transferred to NCT then you're grand until whatever date is on it as normal, they can't 'cancel' your NCT. It's only new transfers after Brexit that'll be in trouble.

mickdw

So what's the story if you can't get a vrt appointment before brexit.
Is it date of import that matters? Or would you be caught for any new charges that might be in place if a no deal happened?

dp639

I am registering the car for someone else - my wife - do I need a signed letter of authorization from her - the revenue site says I do but the ncts site has no mention of this?

twigsirl

dp639 wrote: »

Tried to book a VRT inspect just now, no slots are available in any centres and I'm now on a waiting list and told to keep an eye on my mail and phone.

Is this normal and should I just expect an appointment soon?

Thanks?

I live in Cork, I had to take a booking in Tralee for 18th Oct when I first tried to make a booking last Friday as no slots in Cork. Just checked it now, and managed to change that booking to Cork for 22nd Oct. There are a number of openings now in Cork for anyone looking to amend a VRT booking.