Selling a car - best method of payment?

sillystudent_2

Hope this is the right board to ask this (sorry if it isn't ) but anyway here goes - just wanted to get you wise MSErs' opinions

Well basically one of my university friends (best mate actually) is selling his Renault Clio Sport, and has found a buyer, whose coming in a couple of days to collect it and pay. However the question my mate was wondering is - what's the best way to get the money? At first I said to him that the two best forms of payment are bankers' draft or cash, however I've read stories of these both being easily faked - by the time its found out, the would-be buyer is long gone :mad: We would ask him to come with us to the bank but he's working 9-5 every day of the week, and most banks nearby aren't open at the weekend.

Also, its for a lot amount of money (by my standards anyway ) - roughly £5k, meaning that if it was cash it would probably have to be in £50 notes in order for it not to be ridiculously bulky, and although I've seen a few £50s in my life I'm no expert on what's a fake and what's real. And it would be so so easy for any buyer to slip in any number of fakes amongst real notes.

So what do we do? Sorry for the naive question - we're both young students so have never bought/sold a car before (friend got it as gift from generous grandparents a couple of years ago.) Tbh I'm 99% sure that the buyer will turn out to be genuine - its just that it would be an extremely expensive mistake if he was in the 1% of fraudsters (I even read one story that said insurance won't even pay out if you've handed over the keys, meaning you've lost the money permanently! :eek:)

Thanks!

Edit: Forgot to add - we've got the buyer's address and other details from his drivers' licence, but again - is that ironclad? Could a fraudster easily forge something like a drivers' licence?

RayWolfe

Cash. And only cash.

sillystudent_2

Cash. And only cash.

But how do you know that its all genuine? With thousands of pounds in £20s (or even if its in £50s) we're talking over 100 notes - I imagine it'd be so easy for a fraudster to slip in a few hundred quid's worth of fake notes amongst a load of genuine ones, and how do you meticulously check every note?

Lokolo

I'm pretty sure if there is 2 of you, it won't take that long.

noh

Last time I sold a car I took payment by direct transfer to my account.
The purchaser banked with HSBC I have a First Direct account.
He used my PC to log into his account and transfer the money to mine.
I logged into my account checked that the payment was there.
I did prearrange this with him and got him to do a test transfer of a few pence a few days before.
With faster paymets this should now be possible even if the two accounts are with different organisations.

willo65

If you get a bankers draft when it arrives you could always call the issuing(sp) branch to check the draft is valid and genuine.

Extant

sillystudent wrote: »

But how do you know that its all genuine? With thousands of pounds in £20s (or even if its in £50s) we're talking over 100 notes - I imagine it'd be so easy for a fraudster to slip in a few hundred quid's worth of fake notes amongst a load of genuine ones, and how do you meticulously check every note?

You could take them to the bank before you released the car.

That said though, this is a terrible way for someone to place counterfeits - there's way too much of a trail, with the car registration etc. Counterfeit notes, in lots of more than about 3, from the same person is enough to get the police very, very interested.