bank transfer advice

[jas328sport]

I have taken a deposit on my motor tonight and the guy asked if i would be prepared to do a bank transfer to make things easier for him so that he doesnt have to mess around dealing with large amounts of cash. I have only ever dealt in cash so know nothing about how bank transfers work, are they a safe way for me to take the money and what is involved, what details would i need to provide him with.
Car is being purchased on behalf of a dealer who will be exporting the car to Kenya at the weekend the guy that came to view the car drove over 2 hours to get here and tells me that he travels all over and buys loads of motors for a dealer and who just exports them all.

[Sanj]

Transfers vary with different banks to clear. Halifax is 3-4 days and Lloyds will take 30 seconds!Online that is.

Find out who he banks with and then ONLY let the car go when the bank can confirm the transfer has been received.

FYI... a bankers cheques is also not good enough. The issuer can cancel as it takes 4 days apparently.

[Jalf]

I've sold cars in the past using bank transfers, worked well. I made sure I went to the bank with them and saw the transfer and I've never had any troubles, give your bank a call and have a chat with them to see what they say, they'll be more certain and give better assurances than random bloke on the net. *me*

[jas328sport]

Aha I always thought a bankers cheque was as good as cash so that's an eye opener.
He is going to ring me again on Monday as I asked him to try and get cash if possible but will give my bank a bell and discuss a transfer in the meantime as I suppose I can always ring them to make sure that the money has gone through ok before letting the car go.

[Sanj]

Jalf and I are no where near as good to give advice as your bank. Give em a call as advised by Jalf...

Cash can also be risky - what if it's not real. I know, bit sceptical but wifey works for bank and they are not an uncommon practise...

Funds clear, car can go - call bank to get confirmation. Golden rule.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[petert]

Sold a car recently and we did it by bank transfer. Both parties waited until the money was confirmaed as transferred before the car changed hands, but the buyer knew where I lived and we met and discussed things in some detail before hand.

Peter T

[thedweeb]

Can work the other way as well. I paid for my X in cash. Two days later I had a phone call from the chap saying some of it was fake. This caused me and the wife a week of crap and no sleep. I would never and I mean never take or give cash again, I would always use Bank transfer even if i had to wait. As has been said fake notes can be common.
thedweeb

[X5Sport]

Although generally seen as one of the safer ways of moving money, you need to be aware that they are not guaranteed and can be 'reversed' if the other party claims the wrong bank details were used, oops oh dear, so sorry genuine mistake etc. Have a look on the web under 'Bank Transfer Safety' and see what you think.

The phrase 'Being bought on behalf of a dealer' along with the word 'Kenya' in your post immediately rang alarm bells with me as Africa is the destination for a large number of stolen vehicles from the UK as they are right hand drivers too. There are a number if scams running around this. Losing a low deposit is all part of the game.

Cash would be the best, but take it to the bank with the buyer and get it checked! That may not be terribly practical, but if the buyer is that keen they may play. Anyone working on behalf of a dealer would co-operate.

Do not handover the V5 until you are 100% sure it's all gone through, in fact just don't hand it over, and don't accept any suggestion that the buyer will 'take care of it on your behalf mate'.

Sorry to be suspicious (possibly without any justification), it comes of working with Police Officers for many years and having a brother who's a senior officer!

[pvr]

When I sold my previous Z for 20k privately, I had a similar issue. However, the bank was very uncooperative as I had a bankers draft in my hand but the issueing back would not confirm that they issued it due to data protection rubbish.

So I have the buyer with me, I have a draft but noone can confirm it is real. My bank states it has to go through the normal clearing process, and his bank would not confirm it was real. What else can you do? Very uncomfortable.

If I would receive cash, I would want to take the money in the bank with the buyer so that the bank verifies the money is real and in my account before releasing the car.

[jas328sport]

Well i have now spoken to my bank and they said that the best way for me would be if he were to turn up with cash and then me take him into my bank to check and count it and make sure it is in my account before releasing the car although they also said that isnt really fair expecting him to travel all this way via train with such a large amount of cash on him.
She then said that the next best option would be bank transfer which according to her is very safe and that i just need to ring first to confirm that the funds are in my account before releasing the car as transfers from some banks can take up to 4 days to clear and not instant as most people assume, the fact that the money will be probably coming from a business account means that there is no way that it could be done instantly even if he had the same bank as me.
I must admit that i do prefer the walk into the bank with cash option but will have to see first whether he can get cash as he has already said that he would first have to wait whilst the funds are transferred from his business to current account.
Funnily enough i have viewed a car today from a local dealer and got chatting and he also sold a car a couple of weeks ago to a trader who was exporting to kenya and said there were no problems and that he always used bank transfers whenever possible.
Now i just have to decide whether or not to go for the very nice looking focus st-3 that i viewed earlier or wait around and try and find a decent r32 golf, head is saying go for the focus as it is much newer, one lady owner, low mileage, more practical, probably cheaper to run and insure although depreciation will be higher, heart is saying go for the golf as they are more desirable and will hold their money better although they are now starting to have the odd rust issue and it will be of a similar age to my X which means that they are getting on a bit now.
This is the focus in question, what do you think.http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/ ... ?logcode=p
The best bit is that it is has also just been main dealer serviced and mot'd and ready to go.

[pvr]

Focus versus R32? Those cars can not even be mentioned in the same breath.

The R32 is a quality car, and very, very nice. The Focus is just a Focus, cheap and nasty.

[jas328sport]

Normally i would have agreed with you and i still do to a certain degree however all of the reviews of the st-3 are positive. Other than image i cant really see any other advantage that the golf has over the focus other than the 4wd which can be troublesome anyway, even the build quality on the st-3 is supposed to be good.
I have previously owned a 1998 vr6 which was at the time 5 years old and already had rust and a 2002 mondeo st220 which is the most underated car i have ever had which is probably why i like the focus as it shares the same seat style which is by far the most comfortable seat i have ever sat in. Then of course you have the cheap tuning potential of the ford turbo.
I would think that i may well struggle to find an r32 in the same condition as the focus which wasnt far from mint and i would certainly need to travel further than the 1 mile that the focus is away from me and later in the week i will be without transport.
The boss has said just get what you want although i think she would secretly prefer the golf if i didnt have to travel too far to search for one.

[pvr]

I have never driven the R32, but am a big VW fan and have always had them during my life (and still do have 2 at the moment). It is just such a nice place to be in and the drive generally is so great which is something that I can not say from the Focus.

Again, I have not driven the ST version and only the common normal one (typical rental) and it was truly awful and falling apart in my hands.

Surprised to hear you had rust, my 17 year old Clipper is rust free and to be honest I have never had a VW with rust. Mine are always parked in a garage though.

[jas328sport]

I had a rusty booted and rear arches on my old vr6 and a quick look shows that it is still the bootlids that are rusting again.
Off to see an r32 tomorrow so will have a good idea of what they are like in the flesh, hopefully I won't be disappointed.

[jas328sport]

Well I have just got back from a test drive in an r32 and all I can say is WOW what a motor.
I was allowed to take it out by myself and the dealer actually encouraged me to put it through it paces and pointed me in the direction of a quiet stretch of dual carriageway so I could give it a thrashing. It didn't disappoint at all, very solid, superb handling and the engine noise is fantastic. Performance was superb and I couldn't quite believe how hard it was pulling even in 4th and 5th gears and it was actually nice and smooth in 6th, good job it was quiet as it hit silly speeds very quickly. Brakes weren't as strong as I was expecting although it did have to pull me up from way more than I should have been doing so probably my own fault. Seats are awkward to get in and out of but nice when you are in.
All in all a great motor that now has my deposit on it.