Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) Help Needed.Selling car privately, Payment method?

Not sure if it is still available, but Ebay (Paypal) used to provide an escrow service.

They do, but it still has rule sands dispute procedure.
If there is a dispute procedure where funds can be clawed back by a buyer then there is an associated risk to the seller.

Wow! thanks so much to everyone for your excellent advice. I think that an electronic bank transfer, having the buyer go to my bank or me to his/ hers and physically undertake the transaction is possibly the safest!

Thank you all for your suggestions…

Kind regards,
Steve

Hi I sold a Goldwing to an Austrian dealer. He knew the money 18 k had to be sterling he turned up with 500 denomination euro notes ! After a quick check at bank they are not legal tender.even in europe apparently.
He left empty handed.
If you take cash you must inform your bank you are coming.they are not happy a teller being taken up counting and checking large amounts.
Also .i.d important from both parties as the bank has to inform the revenue.
Out of interest the following case is interesting.just shows how taking all precautions
http://www.wilmotslitigation.co.uk/blog/...1-title-dispute

I would concur with the EFT route, particularly having once drawn some cash from the bank's cash machine and presented £20 note to s shop from the money I had withdrawn. They scanned the note to check it wasn't forged and found it was! I went straight back to the bank (20 mins after it had come out of the machine) and they sheepishly exchanged it without any problem!

When I bought my Roadster we met at the Halifax, the seller brought the documents, and we transferred the payment at the counter, so we both had receipts. The only risk as far as I could see was if the car had 'disappeared'...........
By then you usually have seen the seller and their lifestyle, and taken a view on the risks.

Being a seller is slightly different, but meeting at the bank is a good way in my opinion.

The purchase of the three wheeler was done at the local branch of the Abbey National (that shows how long ago it was) as we both had accounts with them. Since the sum was big, I had of course checked they could do this in advance. Might sound involved but wasn't really and we didn't hold the queue up much.

The sale of Woodstock was finalised in my lounge on a Sunday with a laptop, a faster payments transfer and both the buyer and I having internet banking. The sum was under the limit imposed by money laundering regulations but do make sure you take this into account.

I had a rather nasty experience in which I sold a Laverda RGS 1000 to a New Zealander when I was living in Sydney. I accepted a genuine bank cheque in payment, I even checked with the bank by phone to make sure it was ok.

The cheque was deposited in my bank but 3 days later I was advised that the issuing bank had refused to clear the cheque.

It turned out that my buyer had broken into the house of his neighbour, who was on holidays, and had taken an investment deposit book that had a credit balance of over $35K (about $80K in today's money). He then went and made some deposits into the account, posing as the real owner, and getting himself well known to the bank staff by joking with them and so on. He then started to buy furniture, stereo systems, and so on, plus my bike, using banker's cheques fraudulently obtained against the stolen account book.

Naturally when the neighbour came home he eventually discovered the theft and it seems the police just missed arresting the thief by about 30 minutes as he flew out of Australia. They knew all the goods must be in a container being shipped to NZ but could not locate it in time. In the end the guy got away free as the cost of extradition would have been more than the value of the theft.

I did get paid in the end, with the help of the Banking Ombudsman, as I argued that I had accepted a genuine bank cheque in good faith and that the issuing bank could not pass off the consequences of a fraud against them to an innocent third party.

At least you got your money back, thank goodness.

The faster payment is secure and none returnable, so if someone pays you say £15k electronically within 2hours (normally minuets) it is cleared and in your account. This can not be later taken back out by the original payer or declined by the banks so totally safe.

However each bank in the scheme ( not all) has different levels by which they will allow transactions to take place! Barclay is £99,999, Lloyd's is £25,000 but nat west is only £10,000 so best check the the buyers bank. If their bank is not in then system then CHAPs payment in a branch is secure, but costs about £25 to do.