Selling car privately - how to get paid 30 January 2008 at 11:53AM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Motoring 11 replies 2.6K views

Bean_Counter

Hi,

I currently have my car up for sale on Autotrader. This is the first time that I have sold a car privately.

How should I look to be paid by a potential buyer? I obviously want to avoid being scammed by a dodgy bankers draft or forged notes etc. What is best practice?

Price is around £7,500, so possibly too high for cash anyway.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

h901

you can get a cheque then wait till it clears then hand over the vehicle. If the buyer is genuine they should not have any problem with that or they can give you cash but if it's cash i'd take it to a bank straight away just in case the person is dodgy.

cyclonebri1

Cash every time:money:

Just a tip, ensure you complete all the paperwork as detailed on the reg document and send your part off yourself immediately. Failurev to do so can result in allsorts of issues re speeding, parking tickets etc.

Write a receipt detailing the payment in cash, and giving the description as you advertised, ie No implied warranty but no false info.

£7500 is not a lot of money for a car, and anyone who's buying privately is likely to have cash or to have taken a personnal loan which will be available to them by cashing the cheque etc.:money:

Jorgan_2

What about a bank transfer? It may cost £20 or so, but you have piece of mind that the money is in your account & nobody can rob you of it on the way to the bank.

Bean_Counter

Thanks for the replies.

I'll try the CHAPS route and use cash as a fall back option.

Riyazi

£7500 is a lot of money so I would complete the sale in a bank. Ideal if both of you have a common bank so that you both meet there, he withdraws the money and you deposit it in to your account. Or he meets you at your bank with the money and deposits it in to your account and you handover the key/docs etc.

Having never done it I dont know how practical this may be eg: getting a convenient time for both of you to meet when the bank is open, gettign the car there, etc but to me this seems to be the safest way.

bclark

I sold my Car privately last year for £8500 and we used cash. The buyer came around to my house and we drove the Car to the nearest branch of my bank and we paid the cash in there and then. £8500 in cash really doesn't look as impressive as it should in £50's!

cyclonebri1

Forgot to add;
:T Best of luck with the sale, it's a bit difficult
out there at the moment

Wig

If you are both in the same bank, then an account to account transfer will be (or should be) free.

If different banks tell them to bring cash and the transaction will be done in your branch, after the money has been paid in issue the reciept and keys and V5 slip, complete the rest of the V5 and send it yourself to DVLA.

Cheques and bank draft cheques can both be reclaimed by the payee after they have been paid and cleared into your account, so any arguement about you should accept a cheque bla bla bla you tell them, I don't accept cheques, only cash in my bank branch.

Bean_Counter

Thanks again for the replies.

It gives me useful information if and when a buyer appears.

Smi1er

h901 wrote: »

you can get a cheque then wait till it clears then hand over the vehicle..

Are you aware cheques can still bounce after they've appeared to clear?

For that sort of money I would be asking the buyer to buy the car during banking hours, you drive the car to the bank, they pay the money (cash) or do a CHAPS transfer, you hand the keys over, and they give you a lift home:D