"Admin Fee" when buying a car

[Agent57]

Buying a used car today and there is a £99 "Admin Fee" on the invoice they have emailed over.

It was not mentioned in the advert and there was no asterisk by the selling price.

This type of practice really annoys me.

All transactions require admin but most don't charge an extra fee.

Not seen that before on previous car purchases.

Anyone else experienced / challenged this?

[interstellar]

Yep just say you aren’t paying it.

If you have a part exchange tell them you have a £99 fee for them buying yours.

[ACCYSTAN]

Motorpoint try this scam and it probably works for them 99% of the time.

If you refuse to pay it and walk out, they will drop it.
The key is to refuse to pay it after you have started the paperwork.

[Its Just Adz]

As above, tell them you aren't paying it.

They claim its to cover HPI and other bits that they are legally obliged to do.

From my time working at Evans Halshaw many years ago, it's just an excuse to get an extra £99 from the customer and the salesman gets £10 of it.

[Pit Pony]

The churlish tt inside me, want to suggest, that not only do you refuse to pay, but demand an additional £99 cash back, as they have damaged your feelings.

I've only bought 2 cars from a dealer and it wasn't painless.

[CoreyDog]

Hate those “admin fees”, just sneaky and underhanded.

The things they claim they are for are business expenses, want to recoup those expenses, add it to the price of the product or suck up the small costs.

Years ago tried buying a Mazda 6 Estate, dealer down near Northampton, looked at the car, nice car and reasonably priced. Got talking numbers and right at the end they go “Oh and the £299 admin fee on top”…. “What do I get for £299?”…. “Well we register it for you and valet clean it”….. “Don’t bother valeting it and if you give me the V5, I’ll fill it in and we can remove the fee”…..”Oh no, it’s a fixed fee. We have to include it”…. They refused point blank to budge, ended up walking away and buying a V50 from another dealer.

[Hugo Stiglitz]

I was told 'we have so little in the car'.


I've seen it on bikes also.

On both occasions both were priced over book.

[Pit Pony]

CoreyDog said:

Hate those “admin fees”, just sneaky and underhanded.

The things they claim they are for are business expenses, want to recoup those expenses, add it to the price of the product or suck up the small costs.

Years ago tried buying a Mazda 6 Estate, dealer down near Northampton, looked at the car, nice car and reasonably priced. Got talking numbers and right at the end they go “Oh and the £299 admin fee on top”…. “What do I get for £299?”…. “Well we register it for you and valet clean it”….. “Don’t bother valeting it and if you give me the V5, I’ll fill it in and we can remove the fee”…..”Oh no, it’s a fixed fee. We have to include it”…. They refused point blank to budge, ended up walking away and buying a V50 from another dealer.

Have to ?? The bain of efficiency in all of society ?

Because why ? In fact let's do the 5 whys?
Why do you have to?
Because my boss says we have to.
Why does he say you have to ?
Because the MD has told him that profit isn't high enough.
Why does the MD think that profit needs to be higher?
The MD was looking at the figures for last year, and we had a higher sales figure.
Why did you have a higher sales figure
Because we sold more cars
Why did you sell more cars?
Because people trusted us to give them good service, including the price you agree is what it cost, but less people trust us now.
Why don't they trust you now?
Their friends don't recommend us as much.
Why don't thier friends recommend you so much ?
Because we try to sell them polish for £500, and we ask extra for a warranty more than 3 months, and we quibble about they depth of the tread on the trade in.
Anything else? So we thought we'd recoup the lost profit by charging an admin fee.
Ah...

Turns to wife...did you say there was an Astra in Birmingham, Lookers, you also liked the look of. Well we can be there before they close, do you want to ring them or shall I?

There's always a deal to be done.

[edc]

Just tell them you don't care how much the admin fee is but the total price you agree/want is £X.

[ACCYSTAN]

Was told a few of the car supermarkets not just motorpoint try the admin fee scam.

As always, refuse and walk away, it’s a buyers market

[VSKeith]

I wouldn't pay it if this is the first time you've been made aware of it.

I think Autotrader now add it to the headline price, so if it was an AT ad showing no admin fee I'd tell them as well.

[Agent57]

I queried the admin fee and salesman said something to the effect of "It's just a standard thing we add. I can talk to my boss and see what he says".

He duly talked to the boss and it was removed. No real problem.

Had it stayed in it could have soured a great day picking up a new (to me) car.

There a far too many of these extra charges creeping in in areas of life now.

[ScoobyChris]

We bought a £1500 runabout and when we came to pay were told there was a £300 admin charge (to cover warranty, etc). Said we weren’t paying it as it made the car uncompetitive compared to others around and we had gone to them as it was the best priced example. The “sales manager” told us he could drop it but it would mean it was a “spares or repairs” sale, even though we would drive the car home.

Left a review of them saying it was a bit of a shady practice not to advertise this cost upfront on autotrader and got a reply saying that it was par for the course in the industry.

Chris

[AKjr]

A bike dealer in Glasgow wouldn't drop this when I spoke to them regarding the purchase of a new bike, recently. The amount was £99 - not a problem, just increase the PX price for my bike by the same amount and we are golden.

No deal, so no purchase.

Just say no.

[Mr Tidy]

I've always thought Admin Fees were a piss-take.

Luckily I've bought my last 4 cars privately, but I'd only consider paying one if the price was good enough to cover it, which is unlikely buying from a dealer!

[defblade]

Admin fees are likely illegal, but it seems no-one with any power over that gives a monkey's.

The last time I walked away from a car with £100 admin fee they wouldn't drop, they still had it up for sale a few weeks later, only reduced by £250...

[Jonno02]

Really should be illegal.

I don’t go to Tesco and buy a £1.50 loaf of bread but the total comes to £1.99 to cover their gas/electricity bill in store.

Mostly seems to be one industry that tries it, scummy practice.

[popegregory]

Someone on here I think suggested it was so their cars looked cheaper in the searches and would show up when you put in “less than” or “price low to high”, but by the time you’d seen it you’d convince yourself it was worth it. As others have said, they’ve just oddly broken down the price a bit so ask yourself if it’s worth it. If it was never mentioned though I’d definitely be in the FRO camp. Was it a junior salesman who thought they could just get a low priced sale then sneakily slide it it in?

[Don Roque]

It's a scumbag practice and is always the first discount you can secure.

I was buying a car a few years ago and noticed the £99 admin fee in the list of charges on the paperwork. I asked the salesman what that was for, knowing fine-well it was just a scam. I got the response back "we've got so little in the cars as it is, this covers the cost of doing the paperwork and prepping the car for you". I replied "so I've got to pay you to do the work of selling me a car?".

The salesman struck a line through the text on the paperwork and deducted £99 from the invoice. A small victory but one that should absolutely be pursued.

[Wish]

I will never pay it …. I would rather walk and leave a 1 star review. It’s the only way to keep these dealers in check.

As bad as double glazing companies.