Buying a Car with Cash
It was a Saturday morning in a small town, my mother went to the drive-up window of her bank and requested that her daily spending limit needed to be increased to $15,000 in order to purchase a new (used) car. The bank teller in the window said she did not have the power to increase the limit, that only a manager could do so, and being Saturday the manager was not there. So my Mother proceeded to ask for a cash withdraw in the amount of $12,000 from her account. The banker told her that the daily withdraw limit in the drive through was a limit of $3,000. If she wanted to withdraw $12,000 she would need to come back on Monday.
We then asked the bank teller to make a cashier check in the amount of $10,000 and then we would withdraw the daily limit of $3,000 in cash for the purchase of the vehicle. The bank teller needed to know who the cashier's check was going to made out to, and the exact amount. At this point, I butted in thanks to a post by regarding Grant Cardone trying to withdraw 1 million in cash. I remembered this post and how the bank made it almost impossible to withdraw your own money.
I demanded that window clerk contact a bank manager and demand they come into work 'now' to clear this transaction. We could not 'wait until Monday'. It was Saturday and we wanted to buy the car that day.
So after running circles with teller, we where not getting anywhere. I asked the teller to call the manager, I even threatened to call the police, since the bank was holding my mother's money hostage. The teller laughed and said 'the police can't do anything'. The teller told us to come back in 20 minutes and that a manager was coming down to the branch. So we left and went to get a donut and then came back.
Our conversation went something like this.
Manager - "What is the purchase was for"?
Mom - "A car".
Manager - "From where"?
Me - "uggg f*ck if we know, that is the whole point of car shopping".
Manager - "If you don't know the exact amount and who the cashier check will be made out to, then we can not process this cashier check. I am also not allowed to clear more than a $3,000 in the drive through."
Me - "Open your lobby so we can withdraw from the lobby vs. the drive through we want our money."
Manager - "It's Saturday, our lobby is closed."
Manager - "Fine, all I can do is increase your daily spending limit to $15,000"
Thank you, that was the request in the first place.
So off we went. Finally, we found a car she wanted, the total cost was $10,400. We went to pay, here is my Debit card.
Dealership - 'uggh we cant charge anything over $5,000 to a card"
Mother - "Serious?"
Dealership - "You can write a check to the dealership."
Mother - "I don't have my checkbook. I didn't think anyone took checks anymore."
They could not run the card. Let's see, they sell cars over $40,000 and do not accept payments over $5,000? wtf.
The day at the bank was draining than at the dealership not taking our money from a debit transaction.
The dealership lets her have the car, without paying for the car, and said they would come pick up the check that following Monday.
Shopping for a car should not have to be so hard. 🤔
Thanks for reading my Blog about trying to buy a car. It was hell. 💰 🔫
-- GIFS from giphy.com