Selling caravan privately, how have you been paid?

IanTG

I know there's advice in various places, but just wondered what practical experiences you may have had.

our caravan is stored securely on an isolated farm, so thinking we would bring it to our home address for viewings, but how best to get paid? 

Could be a lot of cash to handle?  Are inter bank transfers  non-retrievable (by the bad guys)? What is the bankers draft was a stolen one? Or just wait for a cheque to clear, before releasing?

any thoughts, ideas, experiences most welcome.

BorisSnowhead

PayPal?

 

rogerwyn

Most of my vans were parts exchanged with a dealer bar 2, both were sold privately, after the deal was done we arranged to meet at a bank were the cash was payed
in to our account and checked by the cashier, on both occasions the buyer understood our concerns having been scammed with counterfeit  notes when sold a car many years ago,
 

ChemicalJasper

Basic rule is wait until you have the money!

Cash - instant (cash is King, as they say!)

BACS transfer, but hold the van until the money has appeared in your account - if this is late in the day, it may not appear until the following day and you will only have their word for it!

Paypal (as above) but make sure you get a video of them driving away with the van, so they do not put in a claim for none delivery against you.

Cheque - again wait until the money has cleared  - could be days!

I would avoid a bankers draft unless you go to the bank with the buyer and witness it being made out by the teller.

Fake drafts will clear into your account but when the bank realise its a fake, they will remove the money weeks later, leaving you high and dry!

If the buyer is genuine, they should have no issues with meeting how you want it done. 

EasyT

New £5 notes should be safe 

 

Chrys

I went with a buyer to their building society where they withdrew a cheque, I told the cashier what name to put on the cheque. We then went to my bank where i deposited it. Job done and perfectly safe.

HarleyDave

Don't use PayPal it's a scammers best friend as the payment can be reversed within 30 days.Good suggestion above i.e. B/soc cheque,cash but get cash checked in bank with seller with you or a bank transfer which us what I have used several times when selling
or buying

xtrailman

I wasn't aware that a  banker's draft can be with drawn once it's showed in the account?

I sold a caravan that way but made it clear that the caravan would not be released. Buyer agreed, but after some days he started to get insistent that the draft was good, even though i could not see it in the account.

Eventually it did and the buyer departed in bad grace, it left a bad taste in my mouth. Following caravan we traded in.

This time round i will want cash or bank transfer.

Sold two cars, one was a bank transfer on the day of collection, or the day before, but i saw the money in my account.

Second car (X Trail) buyer agreed to go to the bank in the xtrail and pay the money into my account, no hassle with selling either car.

xtrailman

Found this on Google

"Yes, if you decide to accept a cheque or banker’s draft in payment, you can be sure the money is yours at the end of six working days after paying it in. After this time, the money cannot be claimed back by your bank without your consent, unless you are
a knowing party to fraud."

brue

You could check with your bank about the safest payment method.

DEBSC

Thanks Ian TH. We are about to put our caravan up for sale but with so many scammers about I am very unsure of how we should accept payment if we manage to sell it, so I was about to post the same question. My brother recently sold his car and insisted the
buyer go with him to the bank to pay the cash in, a friend of his had been caught out with a sale when the cash was dud. Very interested in the replies to the post. However it works both ways, if I was buying something I am not sure I would want to hand over
a cheque and wait for it to cash with nothing in return.

EmilysDad

When we sold our caravan recently, the buyer showed us the  money in his bank account, he transfered it to my wife's bank account by interweb banking on his phone. The money showed almost instantly in her account. Job jobbed!

ChemicalJasper

I wasn't aware that a  banker's draft can be with drawn once it's showed in the account?

Yes common scam on auto trader, usually they want to "export" the vehicle so they send you a a bankers draft for the full amount + an amount for the shippers, say £400 +an amount for your trouble say another £100, but ask you to wire the money to the shipper
once the draft is cleared into your account and the shipper will contact you once paid.

You recieve the draft, it shows as cleared, you wire the shipper their money (the scammer, who you have just wired £400 willingly) and a week later the bank pull the money back out of your account.

They tried it on my office partner, I warned him it was a scam (he did not believe me) so I set up a false hotmail account called 'scammersuck@hotmail.com' and cold emailed the scammer the detials he had requested  about my friends car, but about a totally
made up car. The fact that they just ran with it, shows how many they must have on the go.

I ended up with a bankers draft for something like £23K and a very upset scammer, when I emailed them an original piece of "art" work, a drawing of a spider (worth in my opinion at least £23k), instead of wiring the shipper. 

Had it pinned to the notice board for quite some time.

 

brue

All money has to be "cleared" even though it appears instantly on an account, it is important to check with your bank about the safest transaction, this might involve a fee but it's better to be safe than sorry.