foreign buyer

[Willard M.]

I have heard from an Abel Jones in the UK responding to a Hemmings ad about a car that I have for sale. His writing clearly indicats that English is not his first language, but he seems to want the car after seeing emailed pictures. Anyone else ever hear of this fellow? Any problems if money is wired to my account before the car leaves my possession? I clearly would not accept even a bank check from another country without a time period to make sure that it clears. Any thoughts?

Bill #2659

[Rob M.]

Re: foreign buyer

Hi Bill,

If the money is wired into your account you should be fine. For as far as I know there is no way to undo the action.

greetings,
Rob Musquetier
The Netherlands

[Mike Cobine]

when money is wired to your bank

you essentially give Power of Attorney to the sending bank to do transactions in your bank. This means they can TAKE money as easily as GIVE money.

When I did this for a car, I opened another account, had only a very minimum amount to hold it open, and let the bank send the money to it. While this is normally a perfectly safe method, there are so many overseas scam artists that simply need your banking information so they can clean you out.

If they are going to steal anything, it is better to take the chance on $50 or $100 than on $10,000 or so.

[Roy B.]

Re: foreign buyer

I have sold two Corvettes and a 56 Chevy Convertible over seas , the vetts they wired the money to my bank and the Chevy I got a cashier check . Told them to pick the car up a week later giving the bank time . All three worked out great, they were happy as I was.

[Jean C.]

Re: foreign buyer

Bill, you should speak with someone at your bank and explain what you are doing and how you are/can be protected. If necessary, you could set up one account to accept the transfer then when funds are received, immediately move the funds to another account in your name.

I know from experience that if we made a wire transfer to a bank through our company's bank's on-line wire transfer facility and we then discovered that there was a problem with the transfer (incorrect payee, incorrect amount, incorrect settlement date, etc), there was a certain amount of time in which we could reverse the wire transfer either on-line or by asking our bank to intervene.

You don't want to get caught short on the sale of your car.

Best regards,
Charlie Cadenhead