bank transfer safety

st2loon

HI all ,
newbie here.
If i sell my car and take payment by direct bank transfer am i safe from any sort of scam?

Ben8282

No you are not

st2loon

thank you , please explain further

Terry_Towelling

You could get sent 'dirty' money and that may have serious consequences for you.

You could find the buyer has used someone else's account to send you the money and that 'other' person alleges fraud and your account gets frozen whilst it is being investigated.

These things aren't necessarily the end of the world for you and may be resolved but you still might have to go through hoops to get at your money.

The worst case scenario would be if the money is taken back; you could end up without car or cash.

I'm not saying these things will happen or that they are likely but they are possibilities. I'm sure there are more things that could go wrong. Selling a car privately has always be fraught with danger.

jonesMUFCforever

For a private sale I would always ask for cash.

MDMD

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

For a private sale I would always ask for cash.

But check it the cash is not forged. Or stolen. Or the proceeds of crime and you are being used to launder the money.

Alexland

MDMD wrote: »

But check it the cash is not forged. Or stolen. Or the proceeds of crime and you are being used to launder the money.

It may be safer to ask the buyer to pay you in cash at your bank where they can check the money and put it straight into your account. They might offer you some space to sort the car paperwork out with the buyer. Check with the branch in advance.

Alex

agrinnall

This is a subject regularly debated on the Motoring board. While there isn't usually a consistent conclusion in general for cheaper cars cash is felt to be acceptable, checked with a pen for forgeries (but nobody seems sure whether these work on plastic notes).



For more expensive cars different people recommend different solutions. I was thinking about this yesterday, and I reckon that one way to improve safety for a transfer might be to do the transaction at the buyer's home (so you know where they live) and to ask to see a statement for the account being used so that you can verify that the address on it is the one you are at.



The very best way is to find a buyer who banks at the same place as you so that you can both go to a branch and do the transfer over the counter, which will be instant and should be free of charge.

PRAISETHESUN

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/how-to-sell-your-car-privately

@OP you might have problems if they simply faster payment the money into your account, but if they use a CHAPS payment they typically have to confirm with their bank they that authorise it and it cannot be reversed. There are fees associated with it (usually around £20 or so) but for the peace of mind it might be worth reimbursing the buyer for these fees once you've received the payment. Otherwise cash or bank drafts might also be a safer way - but as above, be careful of fraud and meet in a safe place to avoid you being caught out

Chino

MDMD wrote: »

Or stolen. Or the proceeds of crime and you are being used to launder the money.

Please explain how on earth the OP is supposed to establish that?

Seller: Hello Mr. Criminal, is this cash the proceeds of crime?
Buyer: Cor blimey gov'nor, that's me banged to rights and no mistake.

Is this how things work in your world?

agrinnall

PRAISETHESUN wrote: »

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/how-to-sell-your-car-privately

@OP you might have problems if they simply faster payment the money into your account, but if they use a CHAPS payment they typically have to confirm with their bank they that authorise it and it cannot be reversed. There are fees associated with it (usually around £20 or so) but for the peace of mind it might be worth reimbursing the buyer for these fees once you've received the payment. Otherwise cash or bank drafts might also be a safer way - but as above, be careful of fraud and meet in a safe place to avoid you being caught out

The problem with CHAPS is that it's not instant, so both parties could be hanging around for a long time to wait for the money to move. While this can also be the case for FPS (and could take even longer) in most cases the money is there within a few minutes. And a Faster Payment also cannot be reversed, but as you say doesn't undergo the same level of scrutiny that CHAPS does.