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Selling old car later today to a bloke in a train station car park
Payment by faster payments
Assuming I'm not actually robbed of the keys, what scams do I need to watch for?
I'm working on the assumption that once he transfer me the cash and I see it in my bank, we both sign 2 copies of the receipt v5c etc and he drives off that's pretty much irreversible?
Value is low 4 figures - an amount I would very much like to have but we're not talking a £30k camper van here.
Transfer the v5 together online at the time of sale, then you're covered.
Get a receipt signed by both of you - there are templates available in the RAC website I think.
From a payments point of view, a Faster Payment cannot be recalled except in some pretty rare circumstances. So, basically, once the money is in your account, he can't get it back.
Remember to cancel your insurance straight away too.
There is a scam where buyer uses a fake banking app. All looks legit on their screen, but money doesn't arrive in your bank. Buyer claims this delay 'sometimes happens'.
They rely on seller saying it will be fine and trusting what they are shown as they don't want to hang around for ages waiting for it to show in your account.
Thanks for tips. Have got receipts sorted, insurance details to hand and I didn't know about the online V5 thing so that looks handy.
That sounds like a possible scam with the fake banking app if they managed to put you under a bit of pressure. From talking to the guy we went through the you send me > I check > then he takes the keys chat so hopefully not something that'll happen.
Payments: yhey watched money leave account and I watch it ping in. I do NOT think 'oh it will go in shortly' - it needs to go there and then and arrive in my account.
I just sold my van, and they didn't go anywhere until I could see the money in my account on my app. Just simple bank transfer. I was nervous as it was a lot of money, but after the many emails etc it all felt like it was going to be legit, but I was still nervous until I could see the payments in my account.
Just be aware that faster payments aren’t always instant. Occasionally they will get held for BAU fraud checks (especially if the large-ish payment is unusual activity for the sender) I think they can hold them for up to 2 hours.
I sold a car a few years ago and the faster payment took 45 mins to show up. Had a few awkward cups of tea in my kitchen whilst we waited…
Just be aware that faster payments aren’t always instant. Occasionally they will get held for BAU fraud checks (especially if the large-ish payment is unusual activity for the sender) I think they can hold them for up to 2 hours.
You can reduce the risk of this by getting the buyer to send you, if they're willing, a deposit a couple of days before, say £20. That way the 'main' payment is to an existing payee that has been in place for a period of time, which will lessen the 'potential fraud' scoring at the sending bank. You can always then knock that off the final price or give it them back on the day if they change their mind.
Be aware that the "send a quid to check, then send the full amount" thing can ring fraud alarm bells, as a fraudster may well also send themselves a quid to see if it works before doing the full fraudulent transaction.
Both times a buyer has used faster payments I have had to wait upwards of an hour for the payments to go through.
Both time it was eventually resolved by the buyer contacting their bank and authorising the payments.
You can reduce the risk of this by getting the buyer to send you, if they’re willing, a deposit a couple of days before, say £20.
It doesn't really stop that - all it achieves is making sure you've put the correct bank details in (to stop a big amount ending up with some random because one digit it wrong).
I've had loads of payments blocked after doing the small payment first thing.
The v5 thing, i.e. tell DVLA on-line straightaway can be important...sold a car on Friday night and did online notice, car got zapped speeding on Sunday (miles away on M1) by 2nd buyer and ticket came to me, so at least I could show that I had sold the car, if I had waited until after weekend I could have been nabbed;) or words to that effect! Good luck...it'll be fine.
IME the RBS and Natwest apps and maybe others won't show an arriving transaction if you are logged into it on your phone. You need to log out and re-log in for it to show the payment.
Sorted successfully. Guy was a car trader so pretty straightforward. His game seemed to be buying up small cheap petrol cars from the provinces and shipping them ULEZ bound.
It doesn’t really stop that – all it achieves is making sure you’ve put the correct bank details in (to stop a big amount ending up with some random because one digit it wrong).
I’ve had loads of payments blocked after doing the small payment first thing.
Well, yeah, you will have done, because like I said, the "send a quid, then send the big amount immediately after" thing is a classic fraud pattern.
If you send an amount a few days before the main payment, this will be seen as a more trustworthy pattern, as fraudsters are very unlikely to wait a couple of days after the first 'test' payment before sending the main payment as by then the account holder may well have noticed the first payment and flagged it to the bank as dodgy.
And as for using a small amount to check the receiving bank details, you don't really need to do that anymore as all the main banks now use Confirmation of Payee to check the name of the recipient account against the name you give them. If it doesn't match they'll tell you, and give you the option of going ahead or not.
Fwiw, I work in payments for a building society.