Manheim buyer fees: what you pay on top of the hammer

Manheim buyer fees are not one number you can look up the way you look up a published band card. The hammer is the price the car sells for. It is not the amount that leaves your account. Manheim adds a buyer's premium that depends on that hammer and on the account you hold, plus an online fee if you buy that way, and sometimes SureCheck, VAT and storage.

This guide sets out the fee structure Manheim publishes, as at 27 September 2026. It does not guess the missing price bands. If your login shows a different rate, use that. Tariffs move, and a specific account can sit off the public grid.

What Manheim buyer fees cover

Think of the invoice in three layers.

The hammer price is the bid that was accepted. Everything else is on top of it.

The buyer's premium is the main auction charge on that hammer. Manheim's own buying-costs page says this amount always depends on the sale price, and that the full calculation is at your local auction centre. Their account page says the same thing in another way: the fee depends on the account you hold. There is no single public table, band by band, that a buyer without a login can quote. Do not fill that gap with a figure from an old PDF or from another auction.

The online fee is separate, and this one is published. It is a flat amount for buying online, and it steps down as the account tier goes up. SureCheck, where the car is sold with it, is another published extra. VAT can apply to the hammer on some cars, and VAT is added to buyer premiums. Storage starts after a free window. A few manufacturer preparations carry their own fee.

Last reviewed 27 September 2026, against the two Manheim pages linked at the end.

The account ladder, and the online fee

Manheim ties the fees to how many vehicles you buy with them between 1 January and 31 December. The public page names the ends of that ladder. Advantage is the tier if you buy 1 to 3 vehicles a year. Premier+ is the tier if you buy 400 or over. Club, Club+ and Premier sit between those two. The page does not spell out the volume band for each middle tier, so this guide does not invent them.

The exclusive online fee, as at 27 September 2026, is:

Those amounts are the online fee only. They are not the buyer's premium on the hammer. A small buyer on Advantage pays more for the online route than a buyer on Premier+. The gap is £10 before VAT, which will not decide a deal on its own. The unpublished premium on the hammer is the larger unknown.

Manheim also says there is no annual administration fee for a motor trade or business account, and no extra charge for the V5C. A new account has a one-off setup fee of £70 including VAT for a motor trade account, or £85 including VAT for a business account. Business accounts are for businesses that are not in the motor trade. You pay the setup fee before the account opens.

SureCheck, VAT, storage and the extras

SureCheck is Manheim's inspection product. If the car is sold with it, there is a fee per vehicle, and that fee also depends on the account and on the SureCheck level. The same public page lists EV, Gold, Silver, Bronze, a cheaper Bronze rate under £1,000, and LCV versions. As one example, Advantage SureCheck Bronze is £33 a vehicle, and the Bronze rate under £1,000 is £15. The rest of that grid is on the page. Treat it as an extra you can see before you bid, not as part of the hammer.

VAT is currently 20% where it applies. On some vehicles it is added to the hammer itself. Manheim says VAT is also added to buyer premiums, and under their reading of the VAT notice it is not shown as its own line on the invoice. If you are VAT registered you will want your accountant to say what you can reclaim. This guide is not that advice.

Storage is the quiet one. Once the car is paid for and the funds have cleared, you have 3 working days of free storage from the date of sale. After that, storage fees apply. The public benefits page points you to a separate storage tariff rather than printing the daily rate, so the daily rate is not repeated here. If you cannot collect inside the window, ask what the storage will be before you leave the car sitting.

A Mercedes-Benz sold with a Cosmetically Prepared certification, also called CP, carries an extra £200 plus VAT. Manheim's FAQ also mentions other Mercedes certifications with their own fees. If the car is one of those, read that line in the catalogue. It is not inside the online fee.

What you still have to get from your login

The useful question is the one the public pages do not answer: on this hammer, on this account, what is the buyer's premium?

Ask for it before you bid, not after the car is on the way to you. Your auction centre, or the rate card inside the account, is the place Manheim tells you to look. Write the premium down next to the hammer, then add the online fee if you are buying online, SureCheck if the lot includes it, VAT where it applies, and a transport number you trust. That total is what the car has cost you before any work.

An illustrative split, using only published figures, looks like this. It is not a quote, and it is not a landed cost, because the premium on the hammer is missing on purpose.

• Hammer: the price you are about to bid. You know this one.
• Buyer's premium: not on the public page. Leave it blank until your account shows it.
• Online fee, if you buy online on a Club account: £42.50 before VAT.
• SureCheck: only if the car is sold with it. Use the row for your tier.
• VAT: 20% where Manheim says it applies.
• Storage: £0 if you collect inside 3 working days. After that, use their storage tariff.
• Transport and any prep: yours to add. They are not Manheim fees.

If you cannot get the premium before the sale, you do not yet know what the car costs. A low hammer with an unknown fee is not a cheap car.

How this compares with a published band card

Some auctions put the whole buyer's fee in public bands, so you can price a car before you have an account. Our BCA buyer fees guide walks through one of those cards. Manheim has chosen a different shape: a public account ladder and online fee, and a hammer premium that stays with the account.

Neither shape is a reason to avoid the hall. A Manheim sale can still be the right car if the stock, the distance and the condition suit you. The discipline is the same one in the hidden costs of buying at auction. Price the extras before you raise your hand. If the only number you have is the hammer, you have not priced the car.

You can sketch the extras you do know on the auction cost calculator. Put the hammer in, then add the online fee and any SureCheck you have confirmed. Leave a line for the premium until your rate card fills it. The calculator is an estimate, not a Manheim invoice.

Before you bid

Open the catalogue entry and tick off what is actually attached to that car. Online or in the hall. SureCheck or not. VAT on the hammer or not. A preparation fee. How many working days you have to collect it, and what happens if the transporter is late. Then open your account and read the premium for that price.

Check the current pages before you rely on the figures above. They were read on 27 September 2026. Manheim can change them, and your own agreement can differ from the public grid. When the two disagree, the rate on your account is the one you will be invoiced.

If you would rather buy from sellers who come to you, and skip the hammer, the fee and the transporter, get your buying site.

See what the fees come to on the auction cost calculator, or try the live demo.