Thread: Selling things, Internet and otherwise

Are you opposed to immediate paypal down payment + use of escrow for the remainder? Or a bank check

My neighbor has a 'car auction license" (not sure the official word) and 3-6 times a year will pick up a steal and flip it on ebay.

He uses paypal, or cash. However, the paypal must clear first meaning that he would be able to withdraw the funds. He would not accept checks, cashiers checks, or money orders due to the large amount of forgery going on. Many stories about people cashing a check, money order, or cashiers checks to find out 2 weeks later that it was a fake and they must pay back the money.

Probably the only foolproof ways are either cash or a bank transfer. Just have to make sure if it's a transfer it's based on a cash withdrawal from their bank and not some other instrument. Just about every other method could be a scam. Sometimes it takes week for checks to clear and cashiers or certified checks could be fraudulent.

Paypal is not foolproof either. I just wanted to put that out there

I do not know enough about Western Union or Moneygram to suggest them, but you might want to look into these as well

Checks or cash for > 1000$? How quaint.
Are you guys in the US still living in the stone age?
How about a bank transfer? It is safe, sure, and traceable.
Paypal are scumbags (try resolving a problem or conflict with them) and western union is a high risk as well.

Originally Posted by Bruno

How about a bank transfer? It is safe, sure, and traceable.

One of my friends spent 20yrs working for banks but is now employed by the police as a bank fraud investigator.
There are numerous scams involving bank transfers, some very sophisticated. Just when you think something is foolproof, along comes a fool who suprises you with his ingenuity.

That is true of course. But most scams involve you sending people money, which would work regardless of whatever payment method you'd choose. At least the bank transfer itself has the benefit of being safe. If you see the money arrive at your account, you know it is there. And with the new bank transfer system (at least in Europe) the sender will see the account name he is sending it to, and the person receiving it will see the account name from which the money came.

No method is foolproof, but at least with bank transfers you won't have to worry about the actual value transfer, like you would worry about fake money orders, checks, and cash.

Alan I would tend to agree with Bruno as that is exactly how we do it at the Dealership...

If we are taking a check from distance on a unit then the check clears before they drive the unit off the lot (Which constitutes delivery here)...

If they are picking it up and we don't have time to clear the funds then we do a Bank Transfer...

Bank Transfers are the safest for you and them, and as already stated there is no 100% safe there is only varying degrees of gray...

Good luck with the sale

The scam with bank transfers is people will deposit a check and do a transfer based on the check which appears to go through and then the original bank finds out the check was bad and the transfer is reversed. I've found when you go to a bank and ask about how long it takes for things to clear often times they don't know or won't say and it could be quite a while before it actually does clear. I know people who were told a transfer cleared and then weeks later after they spent the money their account was debited for the transfer amount. You have to make sure your bank calls the other bank to determine the transfer is based on cash.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

The scam with bank transfers is people will deposit a check and do a transfer based on the check which appears to go through and then the original bank finds out the check was bad and the transfer is reversed. I've found when you go to a bank and ask about how long it takes for things to clear often times they don't know or won't say and it could be quite a while before it actually does clear. I know people who were told a transfer cleared and then weeks later after they spent the money their account was debited for the transfer amount. You have to make sure your bank calls the other bank to determine the transfer is based on cash.

That doesn't work here. If the money is there, then it is there. Checks are not considered backed by banks anymore, so no bank will allow you to perform transactions depending on the value of the check before it is cleared. Checks have been deprecated here as legal tender, quite a while ago.

The only exception are registered bank checks. They are accepted by everyone because the bank locks the value of that check when they make it. If you ask for a registered check, the bank locks that amount from your account for the purpose of backing that check. No money -> no check.