Safest Payment

[Patrick O.]

What's the safest way to recieve payment for a car your selling? With all the horror stories going around about people being swindled. I was wondering what is the safest way to get payed for your Corvette? I've heard of fake bank check, fake money orders, etc. Thanks

[Duke W.]

Re: Safest Payment

Wire transfer! It's done with "Federal Funds" through the Federal Reserve System - basically fraud-proof. The funds should arrive the same business day as sent (but just in case - don't do the transaction on a Friday, if possible), and once the funds are in your account, the transaction can't be reversed without your authorization. You will have to provide the buyer or his bank/financial services provider with a routing and account number, which you get from your bank/FSP.

Depending on the buyer's bank/FSP policies, it may cost him zero to about 35 bucks for him to initiate the transfer. If you have to pay an incoming fee, get a new bank/FSB.

I've been using wire transfer to return funds on maturing CDs to my FSP for the last ten years, and the funds have never failed to arrive the same business day, but I usually have to verify by phone since my Web-access account info is only updated overnight.

Duke

[Patrick O.]

Re: Safest Payment

Thanks Duke. I often wondered how was the safest way. Patrick

[Edward B.]

Re: Safest Payment

It is also considered a wise move to keep a separate, minimally funded account into which the funds are transferred; in that way your main accounts do not have their numbers circulated as part of the transfer process. Once the funds have hit your secondary account, simply sweep them where you ultimately want them to reside.

[Robert I.]

Re: Safest Payment

I bought a car and the seller wanted me to use my bank as an escrow agent.

When the funds were in my account, the seller sent the pink slip to my bank. They transferred the funds to his account and handed me the pink slip.

Then the car was shipped.

Of course, I didn't let the seller know that in this case, the bank manager is a very close, personal friend.


Just sold a car, but the buyer didn't want to do it that way. He sent me a bank check as a deposit. When that cleared I sent him a bill of sale for that amount.

Then he sent me a bank check for the remainder.

I made damned sure that cleared before I sent him the car and the title.

BTW I deposited those funds into my local bank account and then transferred them into my brokerage account. Just to make sure I had the money.

All went well in both transactions.

[Rich G.]

Re: Safest Payment

I had a friend get burned by a forged bank check on the sale of his car last year. The forgery took over a week to get found. His bank credited his account. He was happy. Then a week later when the check finally found its way back to the alleged issuing bank, they said it was a forgery. The first bank then deducted the money from his account.

Fortunately the car had not changed hands. He lost two grand in the scheme because he paid what he thought was a fee to a shipping company based on the "deposit" he got. The shipping company was also phoney.

MORAL: just because your bank credits your account with a bank check, it may take a week to find out it's no good. The scammers use this period when you think you got paid to get something from you.

Always use wire transfers and sweep the $ into another account pronto.

There are escrow services for airplane transactions which work well. I have used them for airplane sales that had values not unlike a nice midyear.

Rich

[Harmon C.]

Re: Safest Payment

$100. bills are usally a good way. Switching money from one account to another after payment may seem good but banks are all working together so you will usally lose in the end if a problem comes up.

[Tom L.]

Re: Safest Payment

Lyle is correct, $cash$ is king!

[Dick W.]

Re: Safest Payment

I have a separate bank account that I use for wire transfers. If you remember you have to give the buyer your account info for him to wire you the money. I leave $1.00 in that account to keep it open. I also have another account that I use for credit card monies. There are too many shysters out there that will claim that they never received their merchandise or it was not as described and get their CC company to issue them a refund and result in you getting a charge back without you having a chance to contest the chargeback.

[Robert I.]

Re: Safest Payment

"$100. bills are usally a good way. "

What if the buyer is $3,000 miles away?

[Chris L.]

Re: Safest Payment

I bought a car and the seller wanted me to use my bank as an escrow agent.

When the funds were in my account, the seller sent the pink slip to my bank. They transferred the funds to his account and handed me the pink slip.

Then the car was shipped.

Of course, I didn't let the seller know that in this case, the bank manager is a very close, personal friend.


Just sold a car, but the buyer didn't want to do it that way. He sent me a bank check as a deposit. When that cleared I sent him a bill of sale for that amount.

Then he sent me a bank check for the remainder.

I made damned sure that cleared before I sent him the car and the title.

BTW I deposited those funds into my local bank account and then transferred them into my brokerage account. Just to make sure I had the money.

All went well in both transactions.

WHat a lot of folks don't realise is that the "bank" checks or cashier's checks can show it cleared the bank, however it can take as long as 2 months before the bank finally realizes the check is a fake and then you lose. Best and ONLY sure bet is the wired funds. There is NO substitute.

[Robert I.]

Re: Safest Payment

"WHat a lot of folks don't realise is that the "bank" checks or cashier's checks can show it cleared the bank, however it can take as long as 2 months before the bank finally realizes the check is a fake and then you lose. Best and ONLY sure bet is the wired funds. There is NO substitute."

Yikes!

Next time!

[Pancho T.]

Re: Safest Payment

not so fast on the wired funds being the way to go.My banker just told me about a customer who sold his car and the money was wired to his account.Three weeks later the banks found out that the money that was wired was from a fraudulant account.They came back after it and even though the seller had taken most of it out of that account.The banker told me that they seizeed the reamaing money in the account as well as his other accounts.The guy that sold the car now had all of his acounts tied up and his car was gone.Be very careful

[Kenneth H.]

Re: Safest Payment

Wire transfer. But don't release the car until the transfer is complete and you have confirmation from your bank.

And if you're buying, make sure that you're physically with the car before you complete the transaction. In my case I expected to arrive at noon to make the purchase so I scheduled the transfer to complete at 12:15 pm. If I didn't schedule it for 12:15 pm the bank told me that the next batch wire transaction would occur at 3:15 pm and that was too late for the seller. Well, we got held up in traffic and didn't arrive until 12:20 pm. When we arrived the 'vette wasn't there but the seller was. He told me that the car was out getting detailed so that it would look nice, and was supposed to be back by 11:00 am but hadn't arrived yet. He then offered to go get coffee for us but I wasn't letting him out of my sight. It all worked out and I got my 'vette at 2:00 pm, but there were some anxious moments during our wait since he had my money and I didn't have my car.

Scheduling of wire transfers can be a problem when buying from or selling to someone you don't know.

[Pancho T.]

Re: Safest Payment

Wire transfer. But don't release the car until the transfer is complete and you have confirmation from your bank.

And if you're buying, make sure that you're physically with the car before you complete the transaction. In my case I expected to arrive at noon to make the purchase so I scheduled the transfer to complete at 12:15 pm. If I didn't schedule it for 12:15 pm the bank told me that the next batch wire transaction would occur at 3:15 pm and that was too late for the seller. Well, we got held up in traffic and didn't arrive until 12:20 pm. When we arrived the 'vette wasn't there but the seller was. He told me that the car was out getting detailed so that it would look nice, and was supposed to be back by 11:00 am but hadn't arrived yet. He then offered to go get coffee for us but I wasn't letting him out of my sight. It all worked out and I got my 'vette at 2:00 pm, but there were some anxious moments during our wait since he had my money and I didn't have my car.

Scheduling of wire transfers can be a problem when buying from or selling to someone you don't know.

This is a good point.The seller to protect himself wants to keep the car until the check/transfer clears.But what if you are the buyer and the sellers has the car and your money how safe are you feeling then? Cash is King