The next stage in our admin fees plans
By Ben Smith, Product lead, consumer products. Auto Trader.
In June last year we announced our plans to tackle the inconsistencies around admin fees on our platform to ensure we deliver a transparent and fair experience for buyers and retailers on Auto Trader. Our position is not to judge whether charging an admin fee is right or not, but to ensure fairness, consistency and transparency for all users. Transparency for the buyer and a level playing field for all retailers. Our teams have spoken to many retailers and consumers to understand their needs so that our solution works for the majority.
The first step in addressing this was to enable retailers who do not charge a fee to display this clearly on their adverts. So, over the last 8 months we’ve been asking you to let us know in Dealer Portal whether you do or don’t charge an admin fee. So far over 8,000 customers have let us know, although that does mean there are several thousand who have not yet provided this information.
What’s next?
If you don’t charge admin fees
If you haven’t let us know yet and you do not charge admin fees, please let us know as soon as possible via Portal. It only takes 1 minute to do and all your vehicles will receive a “No admin fees” flag.
If you do charge admin fees
If you do charge admin fees, you can let us know in Portal now and on 1st March you’ll be able to configure the amount you charge and for which vehicle types. We’ll be in touch again on 1st March if you’ve already told us you do charge an admin fee. Once we have this information, details of your admin fee will be displayed on your adverts from 3rd May.
We’d encourage you to use the admin fee description box in Portal to clarify what’s included in the deal, including what the customer gets for the admin fee. We’ve recently written a blog post on tips for writing advert descriptions. You can also use your new Retailer Store to sell your business and make sure all the services you offer as a retailer are clear to buyers.
Setting your admin fees in Portal
What if you don’t let us know
It’s incredibly important that we receive a response from all retailers to ensure we can deliver a solution which is fair and gives consumers complete transparency. So if we don’t hear from you by 26th Feb, we will assume that you do charge an admin fee and we’ll be working with you to configure the amount you charge so that we can clearly communicate this on your adverts from 3rd May.
If you do not charge admin fees, we’d ask that you let us know as soon as possible, either in Portal or by speaking to your account manager.
Key dates
26th February – retailers who haven’t responded will have their admin fee status set to “Yes” and we’ll be working with you to set your admin fee charges
1st March – if you charge admin fees, we’ll be inviting you at this point to let us know how much you charge. You’ll be able to customise this by vehicle type
3rd May – we will publish admin fees on adverts of retailers who charge them
Later this year
The next step in our journey to bring more transparency to the buying process will come later in 2021 once we’ve completed the above steps. This will see us include the admin fee in the vehicle price used in search, on the advert, to calculate the Price Indicator flag and in our valuations. For example, if your vehicle is priced at £10,000 and you charge a £99 admin fee, the vehicle price will be displayed as £10,099 and this figure will be used to determine whether your vehicle appears in a price search, the price indicator flag the vehicle receives and will adjust valuations accordingly.
What is an admin fee?
An admin fee is a compulsory charge that a buyer must pay to complete the transaction with you and purchase the vehicle. As a retailer you have a duty to ensure that the final price payable, including any unavoidable and foreseeable components must be clearly advertised to the potential buyer, including on marketplaces like ours.
I offer additional value add products, are these admin fees?
No. Anything which is entirely optional for the buyer is not an admin fee. Many retailers offer value-add products or services which can enhance the buying and ownership experience but are not essential to complete the purchase of the vehicle advertised. These are not classed as admin fees and can include:
Warranty/extended warranty
GAP insurance
Paint protection
Service plan
Membership schemes with benefits
Home delivery fee