Safest way to take payment for private sale of a boat

eDicky

kaMelo said:

born_again said:

kaMelo said:.  For me a cash or cheque only. 

Having worked dealing with fraudulent cheques...
Even worse.

I

Obviously the cheque needs to clear before letting go of whatever is being sold.

That is if they do let go of it a few days later, when the money is safely in their account already. No, it has to be simultaneous, payment and handover. Last month I bought a car, half cash and half instant bank transfer, receipt visible on phone bank app.

Olinda99

the receipt may well be visible but that does not mean it was not a fraudulent transfer and could be reversed

born_again

kaMelo said:

born_again said:

kaMelo said:.  For me a cash or cheque only. 

Having worked dealing with fraudulent cheques...
Even worse.

I

Obviously the cheque needs to clear before letting go of whatever is being sold.

Despite what it may look like I firmly believe the overwhelming majority of people are decent, honest and wouldn't dream of trying to pull a fast one but, to quote George W Bush, "Fool me once shame on you. Fool me... You can't get fooled again"

They can still be reversed.

fourmarks

boingy said:

We'll be selling our boat soon for somewhere in the region of £25k.
My question is what is the safest way to take payment for it?
I know faster payments can be disputed after the event but I don't know what the alternatives are.

Ten years ago cash was king for this sort of transaction so it was pretty common for sellers to deposit £10k+ in cash at their bank in a single transaction but somehow I can't see that working very well today.

The problem with boats is that there are no ownership papers. You only have the receipt from when you bought it and that tends to be a handwritten affair and you handwrite the same for the new owner. It's all quite informal.

Simple. Put it in an offshore account.