Secure method of paying out a large amount of money!

KatieKrunch

I have found a motorhome I wish to buy. I suggested paying by bank draft, however the seller has suggested a bank transfer. Once this money is in their account they will bring the motorhome to me some 300 miles away. While I'm not suggesting there is anything untoward with this, (we have met and spent time with the sellers, visited they home, been in contact via email & telephone over the past month) I would like to proceed with caution, and wondered would you have any advice on the best way to complete this transfer.

moneybagsuk

There is no perfect way, considering you want the goods to change hands at the same time as the money:

-Banker's draft: almost as good as cash, and you can hand to them
-Cash: risk of being robbed I guess but otherwise works pretty well unless a huge sum
-Bank transfer: BACS takes 3 days, CHAPS same day (for a fee) but then will either arrive before or after you have the goods - either way puts you at some risk
-Cheque: takes too long to clear

Partial cash deposit up front can be a good way - that way if you don't pay up, your money is lost.

anthony66_2

Please pay by bank draft and only when the vehicle,log book are with you.

UnderPressure

It is a difficult one and short of having cash and driving away there and then there is not really a safe way to do it, I mean safe in the way of having anykind of recourse..............

The obvious would be bankers draft however with the amount of fakes that have been all over the news over the last few years If I was the seller I would only realease upon clearance and would treat it as a cheque, which leaves cheque??

Bank transfer would probably be the best at least then there is a "proper" paper trail that nobody could ever deny.

if you have already been in contact you can usually get a decent feel for somebody if you are happy then anyway really, if it were me I would go for the bank transfer but then again I would also be collecting it and not waiting for someone to show up with it

a&akay

Confirm beforehand that you're both have accounts that have faster payments. If so, he comes to you, you transfer £1 to his account, he logs in to confirm it's received, you transfer the rest, he confirms it's in his account, he gives you the keys etc.

blueberrypie

a&akay wrote: »

Confirm beforehand that you're both have accounts that have faster payments. If so, he comes to you, you transfer £1 to his account, he logs in to confirm it's received, you transfer the rest, he confirms it's in his account, he gives you the keys etc.

Faster Payments are never guaranteed. What happens if the first one goes by FP and the second one by BACS? Or if the first one doesn't go by FP - how long do you stand around waiting to see if it shows up in the seller's account? Not to mention that some banks have limits on FPs (£1 might go by FP but not £500 or £5000), and that some won't let you send two FPs to the same account in the same day...

Too many potential problems to use FP in this situation IMO.

brightonman123

DO NOT PAY ANY £££, til you get the van and keys! could be trying this on with several people..

best meet them 1/2 way, park van near a branch of your bank, go in together to do (same day?) transfer to their a/c, they get the receipt, you get the keys!

JuicyJesus

KatieKrunch wrote: »

Once this money is in their account they will bring the motorhome to me some 300 miles away.

No. Bad.

You're going to send money to a sort code and account number - you have no way of knowing, and your bank has no way of checking, who it belongs to. Once the money is gone, the money is gone, and your bank will probably not (perhaps should not) be able to recover it for you should things go pear shaped.

Add to this that you're being asked to pay before you've even had sight of the goods and this all adds up to look very dodgy. Don't hand over or transfer anything until you've thoroughly inspected it, in person.

Olipro

The way I see it, you basically have a need to make the transfer of funds occur at the same time as the keys get handed over.

My recommendation would be a bank transfer; so long as you can send it via Faster Payments then you can use a PC or laptop to do the transfer and he can verify the deposit over the internet, telephone or at an ATM.

failing that, I'd say just do it in cash unless you think it's likely the guy's going to stab you and run off.

AnonymousForObviousReason

Just to add to others. No don't do it, I'm sure it will be fine but Confidence tricksters work by gaining your ... erm well confidence, so better safe that sorry.

An alternative is to get him to come to you (if you must offer 1/2 petrol money upfront as test payment to sort/account number), then go together to your bank and let him witness you make the payment to his account with the bank teller. Also with any payments make sure you put on the notes bit "Payment for Van reg xxx" so there is no doubt what payment if for if it ends in court.

steady__eddie

Strangely enough, I bought a campervan some years ago and was faced with the same prob. We resolved it by going to the bank together, I withdrew cash and he witnessed the withdrawl. I then handed cash over to him and he gave me the logbook and keys.
The reason I had him witness it was because if there were any forged notes in the cash, (not an altogether common occurence but possible, one high street bank attempted to palm one off to me once), then it was his responsibility to query it/stand the loss and not mine.