Buying A Car With Cash

[KathleenSR]

Hi everyone! 
I’ve worked hard on my credit and finally have 4 good credit cards, a perfect payment record and a 750+ score with all three bureaus. I protect my credit carefully and do not allow unnecessary inquiries. I’m also very privacy conscious.

I will be buying a car in the next few months and I will be paying in cash. I am adamant that no dealership pulls my credit reports. If you give them your SSN they will do it whether you give them permission or not, which is illegal but that doesn’t stop them.    Should I freeze my reports prior to shopping?

[WhoCares1000]

Freezing your reports might actually help because they won't be able to ask for them.

If you are planning on negotiating, don't tell them you are paying with cash prior to negotiating the price. The deal actually loses money on the cars they sell but make it off of the loan kickbacks and other crap that they can sell you (such as extended warranties). The loan kickbacks in particular are very lucrative and therefore the deals are not as willing to negotiate with someone pay cash. If you are willing to pay sticker price, that won't be a problem.

The other problem is that the IRS requires any transaction over $10,000 to be reported so the dealer needs your SSN for that. As you said, you can tell them that they have no permission to pull your credit but that does not mean they will not do it anyways. You might want to record yourself saying that to the salesperson and any other employee. If they pull your credit anyways, you might have a suit against the dealership for going against your wishes.

[Bulldoger]

3 hours ago, KathleenSR said:

I will be buying a car in the next few months and I will be paying in cash.

Don't get stopped buy cops then.  

Innocently Carrying Large Amounts of Cash Can Result in Asset Forfeiture & Seizure. 

Why risk it pay with check at dealership or American Express Card if you have one. 

[shadow99]

25 minutes ago, Bulldoger said:

Why risk it pay with check at dealership or American Express Card if you have one. 

Most people say they're paying cash for a car even when they use a check. 

I had one dealership point out that a check was not cash - then they happily took my check.

We've paid for 2 vehicles like that - a cheap used car and a cheap brand new car.  With the new car purchase, we did make the mistake of saying we were paying cash - what could they do for us?  They almost laughed at us and said they made more money off the financing than the car.  I don't think the cheap used car made a difference. It had been sitting there for awhile and they gave us about 10% off asking price.

In both cases, we gave the dealership's our socials so they could handle the registration & tags.  Neither pulled our credit.

[KathleenSR]

Ha ha! I didn’t mean cash money. I will be paying with a cashiers check or personal check. Form 8300 is only required for actual cash transactions. Seems a lot of dealers want to pull your credit to “verify your identity” so I will take my driver’s license and birth certificate (government issued IDs). Unless I am applying for credit they will have no permissible purpose. That said, it takes hell and high water to get a hard inquiry removed from your reports. 
 

EDIT: I put this question to some auto type forums and man did they hit back! They definitely don’t like it when an informed consumer is in control. ??