Third Party Financing and a "Dealer Draft"

[slipsnlide21]

Has anyone done third party financing via a credit union and "paid" Tesla at delivery with a Dealer Draft from a Credit Union?

My CU (Tropical Financial) is sending me a Dealer Draft as opposed to an actual check and they said that Tesla will accept it without issue.

I've tried contacting my delivery advisor to get more info but they are impossible to reach and my delivery is scheduled for Thursday.

 

[jjrandorin]

Has anyone done third party financing via a credit union and "paid" Tesla at delivery with a Dealer Draft from a Credit Union?

My CU (Tropical Financial) is sending me a Dealer Draft as opposed to an actual check and they said that Tesla will accept it without issue.

I've tried contacting my delivery advisor to get more info but they are impossible to reach and my delivery is scheduled for Thursday.

Yes, I just did this on 12/04. Actually I took a loan from my credit union (Navy Federal Credit Union, which is my main financial institution) for about 1/3 of the price of the car, and I paid the other 2/3rds via cashiers check.

Tesla delivery had no issues with this, and was fully aware of what the bank draft was, and what they needed to do with it.
I suggest you pick it up from your bank (or get them to send it to you a few days early) and read through any paperwork they send you.

You only get one copy of it, and it needs to be filled out (by you) and signed (by you, and or whoever else you are financing with if anyone) as described specifically in the document.

 

[slipsnlide21]

Yes, I just did this on 12/04. Actually I took a loan from my credit union (Navy Federal Credit Union, which is my main financial institution) for about 1/3 of the price of the car, and I paid the other 2/3rds via cashiers check.

Tesla delivery had no issues with this, and was fully aware of what the bank draft was, and what they needed to do with it.
I suggest you pick it up from your bank (or get them to send it to you a few days early) and read through any paperwork they send you.

You only get one copy of it, and it needs to be filled out (by you) and signed (by you, and or whoever else you are financing with if anyone) as described specifically in the document.

Awesome. I actually spoke to someone at the 800 number in the deliveries department that was adamant that I needed a real check or ACH transfer only. I'm glad others have had success with the Bank Draft!

 

[Lasttoy]

I had a ck from Navy Fed, they went to bank, called Navy, verified it, deposited.
Easy .. they sent title to Navy. Easy

 

[dsvick]

Awesome. I actually spoke to someone at the 800 number in the deliveries department that was adamant that I needed a real check or ACH transfer only. I'm glad others have had success with the Bank Draft!

A draft is a real check so, yes, they'll accept it. Make sure though that everyone is talking about the same thing and that your credit union is not giving you a letter of credit though, I know that they will not accept that.. That's what my credit union wanted to do and would only give me an actual check to give to them after Tesla signed some papers saying that would make sure the CU was the lienholder on the title.

 

[jjrandorin]

@dsvick

Good advice!

@OP, I was nervous about the "bank draft" ,myself because the owner advisor was not too familiar with the term and was advising me to make an ACH payment through my tesla account, but I wanted to inspect the car BEFORE payment (which doing an ACH before delivery does not allow).

At least in my case, I had zero issues with my delivery advisor knowing what the bank draft was, and processing it properly etc. Navy Federal Credit Union is a pretty large CU though, and he said he had seen several bank drafts from them before already.

My paperwork delivery experience was flawless, much (MUCH) simpler and easier than BMW. No finance office, etc. My issue was I ended up having to reject the car but they found another one that they had at the delivery center with my same specs that was much better (zero due bill items vs 6+ on the car that was assigned to me). My original car was going to need a whole new front bumper, had rock chips down to through the clear coat on the door panels, etc.

I still was supremely impressed with how the delivery center handled it for me. My entire tesla experience so far has been fantastic, and this is coming from someone who is used to leasing new BMWs so used to that experience vs the experience I got buying my son's hyundai (which was very much like buying a car in the 80s.. the hyundai dealer even tried to "4 box" me before I shut that down).

 

[V__2]

Awesome. I actually spoke to someone at the 800 number in the deliveries department that was adamant that I needed a real check or ACH transfer only. I'm glad others have had success with the Bank Draft!

Seems we may be taking delivery on same day, Tesla center in Dania? I also have Tropical Financial Credit Union financing.

Just exchanged text message with the person who first contacted me about the delivery date with a screenshot of the "Pre-approved auto draft" document asking if this is sufficient. The answer I got from the person on the 510 number was :

"Unfortunately we do require an actual check from the credit union, that will not suffice"

Forwarded a screenshot of the response to my loan processor at TFCU and she replied

"Ask to speak with the finance manager or the general manager"

Forwarded that response back to the Tesla rep and after ~1h got the response:

"I confirmed that we are not able to take an Auto Draft Loan at time of delivery, it must be a check. Although we make exceptions for certain credit unions, it severely delays the delivery process by hours"

Not sure what to do and who to ask. The local center person assigned to me Evan has not responded to my 2-3 email messages from last week. Delivery is Thursday. I had an emergency wire transfer from my savings in my checking account just in case i need to take out a cashier check to pay...

 

[slipsnlide21]

Seems we may be taking delivery on same day, Tesla center in Dania? I also have Tropical Financial Credit Union financing.

Just exchanged text message with the person who first contacted me about the delivery date with a screenshot of the "Pre-approved auto draft" document asking if this is sufficient. The answer I got from the person on the 510 number was :

"Unfortunately we do require an actual check from the credit union, that will not suffice"

Forwarded a screenshot of the response to my loan processor at TFCU and she replied

"Ask to speak with the finance manager or the general manager"

Forwarded that response back to the Tesla rep and after ~1h got the response:

"I confirmed that we are not able to take an Auto Draft Loan at time of delivery, it must be a check. Although we make exceptions for certain credit unions, it severely delays the delivery process by hours"

Not sure what to do and who to ask. The local center person assigned to me Evan has not responded to my 2-3 email messages from last week. Delivery is Thursday. I had an emergency wire transfer from my savings in my checking account just in case i need to take out a cashier check to pay...

Yes, mine is scheduled for home delivery but the vehicle is coming from Dania Beach.

This is not what I wanted to hear. My Loan Processor at Tropical ensured me that Tesla would be able to take the draft, she said they write loans for Tesla all the time.

I got contacted by someone from the delivery center tonight, I will reach out to them to see if the draft is acceptable or not.

 

[jjrandorin]

I am not sure that the "pre approved auto draft" is the same document as the "bank draft". That would be up to V_2 to say. A bank draft does not look like a "document". It looks like a check (because it is a check, which is a form of document but I think in this case we know we are talking about two different things).

A bank draft is a check, drawn on the Banks account, that has the payee and the amount blank (for you to fill out), usually with a "not to exceed XX,XXX" total on it.

its not a 1 page document, it looks like a check.

I am not sure what V_2's document is, but @slipsnlide21 ,if your bank (CU) said " we have sent these to tesla before, should be no problem". It should be fine. I know I was nervous just like you as I said, but it was no issue. The only thing different from a regular check in MY case with the credit union I use, is that there was a separate 1 page document you were to present tesla with instructions. They needed to call a specific phone number, with information on the check and get a code from tesla to put on the back. I have no idea what information they had to give to get the code from the bank to complete the validation of the bank draft but it was no issue.

I hope yours goes as smoothly as mine did, and I highly suspect it will, as long as you are talking about a real bank draft (check).

 

[dsvick]

Instead of you playing intermediary and possibly having things get lost in translation, I would have someone at the delivery center call your loan officer at the credit union. That's what they did in my case, I think they had a 10 minute conversation, decided on the extra paperwork step, and everything was fine. Keep in mind though that Tesla had to sign the paperwork ahead of time and send it back to my credit union, I think it took them a day to take care of it.

 

[V__2]

So today I got some last minute answers. FYI I have been calling the local center 3 days in a roll getting only voicemails on all but "for sales" prompt. The sales person seemed to try to help but did not know and tried to get someone from deliveries but i just ended up in the same voicemail box. So that's that. Hope I never have issues with the car because it seems it will be nightmare to get anything done.

Anyway, the person from the 510-694-27xx number told me that the guy assigned to be my Delivery Advisor is not actually local in Dania. Never heard from him anyway. This morning I took time off from work to "oversee" the 240V receptacle by the electrician so was able to call from the moment they opened and frequently. Around 9 was able to contact a person in Deliveries, who asked me to send them the copy of the document I got from the CU. He needed to check and ~1h late called me (first time a call from the local office or otherwise) and told me I should be fine with what was provided by TFCU. Asked if I can work with him but he said it could be him or someone else that will do my delivery as they have a lot of cars. Very reassuring.

Now, I know they know who I am and have my drivers license and all that but this is a very easy to forge document; I printed it out myself online from DocuSign on plain paper! Attached is an "edited" copy.

TL;DR; version - Everything should be OK and while the corporate office said the document would not work even when they got a copy and had time to examine but the local folks gave it an OK. We shall see.

 

[V__2]

Instead of you playing intermediary and possibly having things get lost in translation, I would have someone at the delivery center call your loan officer at the credit union. That's what they did in my case, I think they had a 10 minute conversation, decided on the extra paperwork step, and everything was fine. Keep in mind though that Tesla had to sign the paperwork ahead of time and send it back to my credit union, I think it took them a day to take care of it.

My delivery is late so likely nobody from the credit union will be around to answer a call. And indeed I think it is good that I sent them the document so they can do as they see fit with it ahead of tomorrow.

 

[slipsnlide21]

So after talking with several different reps on the phone and being told the dealer draft was insufficient, I finally got in touch with my delivery specialist this morning. He said that the dealer draft is exactly what they need to confirm financing with Tropical and we are good to go with delivery tomorrow!

Very happy to get this resolved just wish everyone at Tesla was on the same page with this. It would make the process much less stressful.

 

[slipsnlide21]

Just a quick update. I took delivery this morning and the home delivery rep had no issues with the provided dealer draft from Tropical Financial. The delivery was smooth and I am LOVING the car!

Thanks to everyone!