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Buying a car privately
dont_use_vistaprint
Posts: 841 Forumite
in Motoring
If you are buying or selling a car privately how do you do the transaction to protect yourself from fraud, money laundering or being ripped off.
Is it safe to hand over or accept large sums or cash ? I would think not, particularly with so much fake currency.
At what point does the transaction happen ? With a property a solicitors used to transact the amounts on signing but what about with a premium used car for say £15-£20K ?
Is it safe to hand over or accept large sums or cash ? I would think not, particularly with so much fake currency.
At what point does the transaction happen ? With a property a solicitors used to transact the amounts on signing but what about with a premium used car for say £15-£20K ?
The greatest prediction of your future is your daily actions.
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Comments
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You basically have to trust each other. If you dont trust the person, dont buy the car.0
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Make sure you know there address and you have receit and part of the v5c before you give the money. It is more risk than a garage and that is why it is cheaper.When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you. Nietzsche
Please note that at no point during this work was the kettle ever put out of commission and no chavs were harmed during the making of this post.0 -
And if you are the seller, agree to go to the bank, and for the buyer to pay the cash into your account.“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”
Juvenal, The Sixteen Satires0 -
If I was buying a car for £20,000 I would spend the extra and buy from a dealer.
If I was selling a car for £20,000 - it probably wouldnt sell privately so would use a trader again and chop it in for another £40,000 car.0 -
No way to fully protect yourself from being ripped off in a private sale, which is why people tend to prefer going to dealerships for larger amounts of money.
Your main challenge is checking that the person actually owns the car, and you can prove that you have paid them. Always meet them at their house, check the paperwork carefully, and make sure that they actually invite you inside to look at the paperwork.
You can meet them at a bank and pay in a draft to their account then get the keys, but who knows if the car will actually be there when you get back? Accomplices working together in some form of bait and switch isn't something I'd be worried about for a £2k car, but it would start to cross my mind for a £20k one.
If you pay by bank transfer on the day (which is how most people want to be paid) then make sure you see a debit card with the a/c number and sort code on, and their passport to make reasonably sure that the account you are transferring your money to, is actually theirs, and not disappearing off to some untraceable location in Nigeria.0 -
foxy-stoat wrote: »If I was buying a car for £20,000 I would spend the extra and buy from a dealer.
If I was selling a car for £20,000 - it probably wouldn't sell privately so would use a trader again and chop it in for another £40,000 car.
I understand that but a £20K car is about £3K-£5K more through a dealer which is why many are bought and sold privately. They have no incentive to be competitive for cash because they make more money from finance , so they will just hold the car for an inexperienced finance customer. I tried to get an 18,500 car for 16,500 are they are not interested at all, same cars are 14-15K on autotraderThe greatest prediction of your future is your daily actions.0 -
I thought there may be some kind of third party service that specialises in this and takes a small fee but cant find anything.
Thanks for the replies, checking Passport matches name on document is good when buying, I guess I can check ownership online too via DVLA search ? For selling I think having them come to the bank and pay my account is a good idea and ensures against fake currencyThe greatest prediction of your future is your daily actions.0 -
dont_use_vistaprint wrote: »I thought there may be some kind of third party service that specialises in this and takes a small fee but cant find anything.
It's called 'the bank' or 'my muscle from the scrapyard' depending on which part of London you come from.0 -
dont_use_vistaprint wrote: »I thought there may be some kind of third party service that specialises in this and takes a small fee but cant find anything.
Thanks for the replies, checking Passport matches name on document is good when buying, I guess I can check ownership online too via DVLA search ? For selling I think having them come to the bank and pay my account is a good idea and ensures against fake currency
They would be scammers0 -
dont_use_vistaprint wrote: »I guess I can check ownership online too via DVLA search ?
No. It says in big on the top of the front page of every V5 registration document "THIS DOCUMENT IS NOT PROOF OF OWNERSHIP."
DVLA only hold information on who is the registered keeper, not the title.This is a system account and does not represent a real person. To contact the Forum Team email forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com0
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