Bank Transfer - is it a safe option

paulofessex

Many thanks for all your replies. In this case its just that as the buyers e-cheque has failed l don't really want to have to wait too much longer for the payment as l do feel l may be being messed around a little, so if the buyer now had the funds l could suggest bank transfer to speed things up.

Thanks again for all your replies

antrobus

Crowqueen wrote: »

Once a cheque has been six days in your account without problem, the money is yours to keep without problem even if the cheque is dodgy.

A common mistake. If a cheque is fradulent the money is never yours to keep. The bank can and will remove the proceeds from your account.

Crowqueen

antrobus wrote: »

A common mistake. If a cheque is fradulent the money is never yours to keep. The bank can and will remove the proceeds from your account.

Thanks for that.

Still doesn't mean it is more likely to happen than the issues with other payments.

Cheques were once quite a common way to pay for things or make transfers, so they don't suddenly become hugely risky just because other options are available.

pitkin2020

Crowqueen wrote: »

Here.

Buyers DO NOT know who are the good people and who are the scammers, never work on the assumption that because you're honest the buyer should do as you ask if it means giving up their protection. Put yourself in the buyer's shoes once in a while and stop trying to be clever.

As long as the buyer is happy to pay by BT you're fine to request it. It is a widespread form of payment on the continent.

You can't insist on it, however.

Get off you soap box, please quote where I stated they should do as I ask?? I never said you should force your buyer to give up their rights for protection!!

As for using BT I use it as a buyer and a seller, I am more than happy to pay people using it after speaking with them and a lot of buyers have no issue in paying me via BT after speaking. Infact a buyer put over 2k in the bank only yesterday, I have never met the buyer and he is over 200 miles away. Being an adult I can make a judgement and decide for myself if something doesn't quite add up, 10k later and my gut instinct hasn't let me down yet!!

Jeez what did you do before paypal came along to take a percentage.......

pitkin2020

paulofessex wrote: »

Many thanks for all your replies. In this case its just that as the buyers e-cheque has failed l don't really want to have to wait too much longer for the payment as l do feel l may be being messed around a little, so if the buyer now had the funds l could suggest bank transfer to speed things up.

Thanks again for all your replies

Yes, you can suggest it, you can suggest what ever you want regardless of what others on here think. You can ask to be paid in chocolate buttons if you wanted lol.

If they do pay by BT just make sure the funds are available before releasing the goods, phone the bank to check if in doubt.

antrobus

Crowqueen wrote: »

Thanks for that.

Still doesn't mean it is more likely to happen than the issues with other payments.

Cheques were once quite a common way to pay for things or make transfers, so they don't suddenly become hugely risky just because other options are available.

Well yes it does actually, there has always been a fraud risk to cheques that isn't present with alternative payment methods. The 'official' advice from UK Payments is "Don't accept a cheque, or banker's draft, from someone unless you absolutely know and trust them. Be especially wary when accepting a high-value cheque".

theonlywayisup

antrobus wrote: »

A common mistake. If a cheque is fradulent the money is never yours to keep. The bank can and will remove the proceeds from your account.

This changed with the 2-4-6 rule.

http://www.ukpayments.org.uk/payments_industry/payment_fraud/cheque_fraud/

Typical cheque fraud involves a criminal using counterfeit, forged or fraudulently altered cheques to pay for goods or services.! At the end of November 2007, the banking industry changed the way cheques are processed to benefit customers accepting cheques.! The change means that you can be sure that at the end of six working days (after paying in a cheque) the money is yours and you are protected from any loss if the cheque subsequently bounces or turns out to be fraudulent.! This means that the funds from a cheque cannot then be reclaimed without your permission, unless you are knowing party to fraud.!

soolin

I'm glad someone posted the 2-4-6 rule, there is a lot of misunderstanding still about cheques and the fact that now any bank that has signed up to the 2-4-6 (and that is most) guarantees cheques against being recalled even for fraud after the 6th working day.

Also a bank transfer is guaranteed as cleared and cannot be recalled the workign day after payment. This can cause some real problems for senders, you only have to look at the bank account board on here to see what happens if someone gets a digit wrong when they send a payment and it goes to the wrong account. The only way you are guaranteed to get it reversed without problems is if the account it is sent to does not exist and it goes to a holding account.

antrobus

theonlywayisup wrote: »

This changed with the 2-4-6 rule.

http://www.ukpayments.org.uk/payments_industry/payment_fraud/cheque_fraud/

Ah well, in that case I'm wrong. It has been known.

antrobus

soolin wrote: »

I'm glad someone posted the 2-4-6 rule, there is a lot of misunderstanding still about cheques and the fact that now any bank that has signed up to the 2-4-6 (and that is most) guarantees cheques against being recalled even for fraud after the 6th working day.

That's because a lot of us haven't heard of the 2-4-6 rule. (The blighters keep changing the rules.)

soolin wrote: »

Also a bank transfer is guaranteed as cleared and cannot be recalled the workign day after payment. This can cause some real problems for senders, you only have to look at the bank account board on here to see what happens if someone gets a digit wrong when they send a payment and it goes to the wrong account. The only way you are guaranteed to get it reversed without problems is if the account it is sent to does not exist and it goes to a holding account.

Or indeed as in the case of one thread here where someone had seen a phone advertised on Gumtree, paid by bank transfer, not received the phone, and couldn't understand why their bank wouldn't refund them the money.

As far as the original question is concerned, bank transfers are perfectly safe from the seller's point of view, but a bit iffy from a buyer's point of view.