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Got someone off FB coming to look at my bike. It's £400 so not mega bucks.
He's coming to my shop so I can take a credit card. Is that the most secure way?
I always thought cash was most secure in that it can't be taken back
He now wants to do a bank transfer.
Bank transfer is the safest for you.
Just make sure you can confirm the cash has arrived in your account using your phone banking app or similar.
I know it sounds obvious, but don't accept confirmation notifications in emails etc.
As above, bank transfer and see it arrive in your app.
If you can't do that, tell him it's cash or no.
Yep, bank transfer, or cash. Not a bad idea to make 2 copies of an invoice and have you both sign it as well.
This has cropped up before but it's worth asking the buyer to make a transfer of (eg) £1 a couple of days before the actual transaction. That way it comes up on their account as "a previous payee" and it comes up in your account with the relevant info plus you can see how long it takes.
It makes the actual transaction much quicker and much more difficult for them to claim they made the payment but got a number wrong or to later argue that they don't recognise the transaction!
But then you don't get to have an awkward, hour-long conversation waiting for the money to clear through to their account...
I once bought something locally (not a lot - maybe £200) and, sod's law, the money never came through. So we stood and chatted for half an hour, discovered that we had a load of mutual friends in the cycling world. In the end, he got bored of waiting and as he was happy to take me on trust, said he'd message later when the money came through. Which it did...6 hours later!
Otherwise, this is the right way to do it - better than cash too.
Whatever you ask, they'll turn up and want to do it how they want to do it anyway!
Last week I sold a bike on eBay - listed as cash on collection or payment through eBay [b]before[/b] collection.
Buyer turns up - 'sorry mate, not had chance to go to cashpoint, can I do it through eBay now?'. So he does payment, and it shows as received in my eBay app. So then you have to decide if they look legit as eBay don't actually release funds for a day or two.
Bike was only £150 and the guy seemed legit. If it was a lot more I'd have sent him away.
£400. I’d just pay in cash. My last bike purchase was £1200 and they made me a nice cup of tea as we chatted whilst the money transferred. I made a £1 test transfer first to avoid typing errors on a large amount. Went smoothly to be honest.