Hot Rods Payment for an expensive car

Guys, I have a buddy that has a high quality, OT car for sale. A guy from out of state has sent him correspondence wanting to buy the car.

He is worried about getting scammed. He i(my buddy) is setting up an account specifically for the transaction in his bank. We were thinking that we could overnight the title, once the money has cleared.

This would be a wire transfer. It's a substantial amount of money, just trying to cover our bases. Does this have any holes in it?

He sent a purchase agreement that sounds pretty boiler plate. The thing we are unsife about is can a wire transfer be retracted?

 

He should ask that question at the bank with the special account...

I'm wondering if a certified check may be safer. And is the buyer in the US or in another country?

 

Let cleared payment sit for three days before sending title or withdrawing funds. Once had an overdraft when I deposited a bigger check and then withdrew it. Two days later their account charged mine back. I was able to get it straightened out but like I said give it three days to avoid hassle. And trust me what I went through was a hassle lol

 

The buyer is very pushy, not overly pushy, but it makes us cautious. I told my buddy to do his research until he feels comfortable. He has the car the guy wants....he has the upper hand. It's a very good car, there will be another buyer if this one falls through. The buyer says this is his dream car.....blah blah blah.

Anyone around Centre Hall, PA?

 

I called a bank about this last time someone wanted to pay me for a car from out of state. The bank said once the funds were verified to be in the bank, they couldn’t be retracted. But, I would verify with whatever bank he is using.

 

I bought my 40 from out of state. Set up an account I could wire transfer from and went down to look over the car. After agreeing on price it was easy for the seller to accept payment.
When it was determined the transfer was successful the deal was done.
Prior to this I had sold a car to an out of state buyer. He had a branch of his bank in my area so we closed that deal over the phone in a short time frame, gave him the title and car and he drove it home.
Either way it’s the way to go.

 

You have to have a good OOPs Great banker who will tell you exactly how to do it. Then do exactly what the banker says to do.
There are ways for banks to transfer money to other people with other banks where the actual sender has no detailed info on your account.
Not a thing wrong with having them send a check or certified check and stating that the car will be shipped when it clears the bank too. Us old farts remember the days of mailing off a check and waiting two or three weeks before the check cleared before the seller shipped the item.

 

When I bought my Corvette, I had my bank transfer the cash to the sellers lawyers office escrow account. Once there, the lawyers sent me the title. I'm sure it cost the seller a couple of hundred bucks but it gave both sides some comfort having a 3rd party involved.

 

Thanks guys. We will see what he decides to do.

 

Depending on how your handling the money another aspect that is more apparent than ever before is government monitoring of money transfers. Also banks are required to do more reporting on movement of large amounts of money. While sometimes a pain, Cash is still king!

 

i have a car buddy who lives in Center Hall. PM me if you need some info

 

just did this, took out new acct at bank, guy wired the $, soon as it hit my bank, I transferred it to another acct. just check with your bank for details....my new acct said only I could withdraw from it.
His transport guy picked it up the next day and the next day it was in the middle of Florida.
...then I sent the title to him Priority mail so we could track it.

 

Exactly, which is why I try to deal in cash always if possible. Just took a Greyhound bus ride to Austin about a month ago with cash on me to buy a car. I don’t really want payment other ways and don’t expect others to take it other ways if it can be worked out with cash in person.

 

Bank to Bank transfer. After his bank confirms the transfer is complete, he can release the title.

OR

Buyer pays a smaller deposit to hold and prove serious. Both parties meet at sellers bank, funds transfer, title is released.

I do this all the time as both a buyer and a seller. Cash is king, but even cash has its issues.

 

Only think that matters is cleared funds. That cannot be reversed. No other form of payment is 100% safe.

Only your bank can confirm this.

A common scam is to make an deliberate incorrect payment, and ask for this to be repaid before the first payment has cleared. Then the first payment bounces.

 

When I sold my '36 to an out of stater, I did exactly as rusty1 and everything went easypeasy. Hope it goes smoooooth! Mitch

 

Cash is not always 100% either. A buddy of mine recently sold a car for a pretty large amount of cash. The buyer was a Christmas tree farmer and had a good bit of cash on hand, the rest he picked up from his credit union. The credit union cash was bundled at the credit union. When my buddy went to the bank to deposit the cash, the teller said, "Uh we have a problem. One of these bills is counterfeit." Apparently, it had the electronic information to clear the automatic counter but when you looked at it, you knew it was counterfeit. It even had some Chinese symbols on it.
The buyer was a straight up guy but both he and my buddy were questioned by the police and the credit union got a call.

So. be careful when taking cash, as well. It gets terribly inconvenient to count out lots of $100 bills sometimes but you never know what is bundled in that stack.

 

All banks wire transfers are permanent and can not be retracted once funds have been sent and deposited.
On the other hand once the funds have been wired , now the buyer is concerned that the seller will not follow through with their end or a scam.
Vic

 

I sold my dad's vette, which was in the classifieds. I did bank-to-bank transfers, and when the money hit the account and was good, I overnighted the title and gave the buyer the tracking number so he could tack it. He got the title the next day, and a week later, the transport company came and got it.
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I have done deals with bank transfers a few times that's where mid range price point, they all worked out ok but kind of a pain. With the car being at a upper end price point I would think it would justify the buyer to fly out and look it over and also deal with the transaction face to face, fly home and arrange shipping from there. The fact that he is willing to put realitivly big money out and not willing to buy a plane ticket to verify and ensure it goes smooth would be a red flag for me.

 

If you do some research, the only way a wire transfer is retracted if the info on the receiving end is incorrect. Name, account number or routing number. I researched this 5 years ago and found no exceptions to this rule. I'm another one that is skeptic about cash. If you have the special marker and check every bill is one option, the other is some kind of light test. Anybody want to check 75 grand in hundred dollar bills? Caution is always wise.

 

This is a story of something that allegedly happened relatively recently in Ontario Canada ... Total Performance T for sale (it looked to me like a TP T, I could be wrong though) for just over $50 grand (seemed over-priced to me). Buyer shows up with certified check and also produces the receipt from the bank for the certified check. Although it all looks good, the seller contacts an acquaintance that works at a bank (I do not know the position they hold there) and asks for their opinion. The way the story was written, it sounded like the seller took a pic of the check and receipt and emailed/texted it to their friend, just a guess though. Bank friend says "looks good to me" so the buyer accepts the check and releases the car. Not too long after, the certified check is deemed a fake and the sellers have lost their car and the "money". The seller had taken pictures so they were able to contact the towing company the thieves had hired. The only info the driver could provide (or so we've been told) was "I dropped it off in Scarborough (part of Toronto ... car was sold several hours east of Toronto). The seller then posted the story on F-book with the story and asks people to keep an eye out for it. That is where I learned of it.

This one from quite a few years ago ... seller advertises an expensive race engine. Buyer shows up with a certified check. Check is accepted, engine leaves. In this case, the seller wrote down the plate number of the buyer. Check comes back fake, plates were stolen. Seller advertised (this is before the 'net) in a local buy/sell paper, asking for help recovering engine, identifying thieves.

I get that the OP of this thread didn't specifically ask about certified checks but I thought this info should be included.

All that being said, I would absolutely ask a QUALIFIED person at the bank ... not just a teller, exactly how to proceed. The question would be ... what is the absolute BEST way to transfer money, cost be damned. If I need a lawyer and escrow, then tell me that, don't sell me some nonsense your bank can provide if lawyer/escrow IS the best/safest way.

Best of luck to you and your bud

To be completely honest, I am NOT liking your comment regarding the buyer being somewhat pushy ... that scares me more than a bit. What's this persons rush. Seems scamish to me.

Legendary Autocar is a business that is in the Toronto(ish) part of Ontario Canada ... I've wondered if it would be best (IF I had an expensive car for sale), to sell a vehicle through them and accept the cost of their commission as the cost of safely doing business. These guys regularly deal with million dollar cars (legit GT40's, Ferrari's, true Shelby Cobra's etc) and I think their experience might be well worth the cost of preventing a potentially huge monetary loss. I am not suggesting Legendary, just stating that a similar business in your part of your country might be a good option.

 

People buy cars this way every day. It's not really a red flag anymore. If you can talk to the guy on the phone, that goes a long way.

A friend of mine sold an OT muscle car to a buyer across the country last year. It was about $70K, talked to the guy on the phone but never met him. Got his money, guy sent a transport truck, and the deal was done.

 

I've sold 3 cars using a wire transfer with the bank, they went to Tokyo, Sweden & Texas I believe it is the safest most secure way of selling a car. HRP

 

Bank wire transfers have been the preferred method of payment for the majority of all transactions, domestic and international for many years.

Unless the sender mistakenly deposits the money in the wrong account instead of the receivers account or the sender is been clearly defrauded by the receiver there is no risk of monies being reversed and there is no need to set up a separate bank account.


Jim

 

Awhile back I sold a car to Europe. Same as many others in this thread, my banker set up a new account, then once the money came in we would transfer to my real account, done deal. However...my banker told me if the bank on the other end sees any fraud going on they can take the money back for up to 6 months. This is rite from the banker! but, I've never heard it mentioned on any other deals, and in my case the guy cancelled the buy, because we think he was a scammer.

 

I sold a truck about 14 years ago. Met the buyer at the bank, he had a bank draft. I walked into the branch, they called the issuing branch and verified it then deposited it. After I had the money, we filled out the bill of sale and everyone went their happy way. Verifying payment with your branch doing all they deem necessary and confirming deposit before releasing a vehicle is the safest way to do it.

 

Personal first-hand experience here. Yes, wire/bank transfers can be reversed…up to a point. Happened to me last year.

Once the wire has cleared and is deposited into your account, it is no longer reversible. How long that takes, varies. I’ve had it take up to 7 days. But typically 2 days. The ONLY way to verify the money is actually there is to transfer it out. I’ve been told by the bank, “transfer is cleared, it’s yours”, then upon them attempting to transfer it out bouncing back as “not yet cleared”. Due to deposit law changes(part of the availability of funds act I believe) it will show the money as “available/cleared”, but the full balance will not be actually available to put your hands on.


I’ve used wire transfers for years as the “golden standard” safe way to pay and be paid. Most bank employees seem to be unaware that wires are reversible. I dug rather deep into the info after my bad experience last year and it’s rather common knowledge amongst the professional business folks that it can be done and is done quite often.

 

All I'll add, is the buyer is in no position to be pushy. If you're friend has the vehicle & this guy wants to buy it, the seller sets the terms. If prospective buyer gives a bad vibe, hit the bricks & on to the next one.
You'd think both parties would prefer a patient, pleasant transaction. I guess buying & selling just brings out some folks impatient nature.

 

I have done this many times. I have several bank accounts, but I keep a car account at Chase and there are a lot of branches across the nation. Branch to branch wire transfer into an account I set up that day, as soon as the money arrives it is moved into another account and the new account is terminated. I will caution you that this will trigger a SAR (suspicious activity report) with the OCC (office of the comptroller of the currency) but as long as you are not a terrorist or money launderer it shouldn't be an issue.