imlach

Hi folks,

What's the safest & quickest way of accepting payment on a 2nd hand car being sold privately?

ie, if seller was turning up at midday today, how do we execute EFT (electronic fund transfer) to get money from his account to my account - AND IT NEEDS TO BE CLEARED within 1 hour as some of the money is required to pay off finance.

Anyone any good ideas?

andymac

Exactly as you say using EFT - speak to your personal banker and I'm sure they'll oblige - it does cost though. The other option is... Cash. If clearing isn't so much of a problem but you want to be as certain as you can be, when we sold our FTO I went to the bank with the buyer and stood next to him at the counter whilst he picked up his bankers draft - that way you can be 100% sure (unless he's mates with some dodgy cashier) that the draft is genuine and not nicked (it does happen). I then went down to my bank and paid it in 30 minutes later - even though it's cleared funds, it still took over a week to clear

cheers
Andy

harj

The best way is to Electonically transfer funds, as its a transfer in the UK it should clear instantly when it arrives in your account. You may need to go into your bank and complete a transfer form to send the money to your finance company. Then all it takes is a telephone call from yourself to your bank and say transfer, remember that most banks stop all E transfers after 4pm!

Remember your buyer needs to do the same as above.

Hope this helps

imlach

OK, thanks guys!
I just needed clarification on whether anyone had actually got funds CLEARED into their account (and therefore useable funds) within the space of 1 hour.......sounds like it all works! And in this day & age, I should think so - why do banks still take 3-5 days to clear funds now we in a wired world!!!

Quick enough to take it out aren't they!

Dr Hu

Because the robbing barsteward banks get the interest for 4 or 5 days off your money before they pay it into your account.

Multiply this by the millions of cheques handled every day and you see why the banks make Billions of £ profit every year.

The customer comes first...errr No !!

Paul Frank

OK
this is how it goes . . .

1) drafts are NOT cleared funds, simply another form of cheque
2) forged drafts DO exist (ask yourself - would you know what one should look like?). There was a thread on here last year about someone who had sold a 3 series BMW against a forged £35k draft (M3 I think). NOT a happy bunny.
3) cash? well sold my last car for cash to a mate - got bank to check it & they found 5x duff £10 notes in there . . . my mate coughed up like a good 'un (don't you just love cash businesses )
4) CHAPS payments are almost instant (few minutes), cleared money and cannot be stopped or recalled. Banks have a cut-off time to do these - usually 2pm Mon-Fri only). A normal charge is approx. £25 (cheap at the price I'd say). This is what your solicitor uses when you buy a house or sell your company for lots of £££ (I know )


hope it helps
Paul
(from an EX-accountant, wife=bank manager)

[This message has been edited by Paul Frank (edited 16 January 2001).]

Alan

A) Use the same bank if possible, then the funds will transfer immediately!

B) if not urgent, ask to be present when the Bank draft is being drawn up, and for it to be handed to you when ready.

C) Cash - Ughhh!

KEL_1

This is going a bit of the subject,
But when i bought my car (private sale)
I went down with a cheque,wrote out the ammount and drove home in it.
He didn't even wait until the cheque cleared,I showed him ID but he didn't take a note of my name or address.
Just show's you,I could have had a fake cheque,But lucky for him i was genuine.

KEL.

Richard F

Bankers Drafts are cleared funds (providing they're legit) because a bank won't make one out unless you have the cleared funds in your account. They right it out and debit the money from your account. Unfortunately I know this as I had to find 6k to complete the purchase of my house and I was 200 quid short. I had to get my account manager to ok the draft against uncleared funds (the bank assumed the risk of my account not receiving the necessary cash).

Whichever way you go, any reasonable purchaser shouldn't have a problem with you requiring fully cleared funds before you release the car. It shows you as being responsible and most people would accept that.

Bernmc2

You can phone the issuing bank and check that a draft is legitimate. (Phone the actual branch the draft was issued at).

chiark

Bernmc2 - that doesn't guarantee anything.

Dr Hu - how fast do you expect pieces of paper to travel? The UK has a 3 or 4 day clearing cycle, and if you can make it faster then so much the better. Problem is that legislation won't accept image as a valid pay instruction...

The real rip-off is 3 days of BACS payments and the uses that the banks can put the money to. Now *that*s a lot of money.

BarryK

Think about the cleared funds thing from a historical perspective.

Then come forward three hundred years and imagine the vast wad of "floating" funds in the pot.

Every day money is added and taken away but the underlying pot is absolutely huge by now. If the clearing banks suddenly returned these billions into the money supply it would be economically catastrophic.

The Bank of England has a statutory duty to manage the money supply and they have the powers to make banks keep vast amounts of moolah on deposit WITH THEM. That's how they control it. Piddling about with the clearing system does not suit them.

It's nothing to do with holding on to your cash and earning a few bob interest on it, they have all our money anyway, what do you think they do with it the rest of the time? There is a bigger picture.

Anyway on topic, when I worked for Natwest, the easiest way to check the bona fides of a cheque was to go to the branch it was drawn on. Ifthat costs you more than £25, then EFT is for you as described by others above.

ca

BarryK,

Eh?

I don't follow. Are you saying that Natwest/Barclays etc.. don't need the additional 3 days interest?

Whether they need it or not, they certainly seem to get it.

C