Buying a car privately

[KillerHERTZ]

Maybe a stupid question, but how do you normally pay for a car when buying it privately? All previous cars I have owner I have bought from a dealer and paid on card.

I dont fancy carrying £XXXX's as cash, so do you normally do a bank transfer? write a chq?

I might have found a nice motor a hundred odd miles away so I dont fancy making 2 trips after waiting for a chq to clear etc.

 

[Spin_bowler]

For large amounts I've always used CHAPS and split the fee with the seller.

 

[RMS]

one of the above usually

 

[wemorgan]

From a dealer I've paid with debit/credit card.
Private, I mostly pay cash, but we're not talking huge sums here, mostly ~£5k. I've also used a bakers draft, but made sure I bought the car during banking hours, so the vendor can call the bank to verify that the bankers draft is genuine.

 

[snail]

If it's under £10K a normal bank transfer should take less than 2 hours and cost nothing. For security and speed I agree CHAPS is the way to go.

 

[Deleted member 11979]

When someone bought our camper we both went to the bank where he drew out the cash and I immediately paid it in, old fashioned but it worked for us and I knew it was 100% irreversible

 

[WOODYTHEWISE]

Take the vendor to a branch of your bank and withdraw the money. The vendor then has his cash, cash that he knows is not fake.

 

[DSM10000]

Assuming you both have internet banking an online transfer should be easy to set up, speak with both banks and ask them if they have a process to help speed up transfer and receipt?

 

[flango]

Chaps and depending who you bank with there is no fee, but i,ve paid large sums in cash before but that brings its own problems as the buyer usually wants to go to the bank with it to check its not fake so chaps is best

 

[KillerHERTZ]

Im viewing it on Sat afternoon so all HSBC's are shut for 'banking' I think. Bank transfers 2 hours on a Sat also?

I will check out CHAPS... Chaps!

 

[BigSilverEstate]

It does work on Saturdays and we were told in practice funds often transfer nearly instantly. Takes longer to show up at the ATM though so get the vendor to check online or ring his bank rather than at the cash point (which is what the muppet who sold us my wife's Golf kept doing, leaving us sitting in the car park for over an hour with 2 kids in the back until we persuaded him to ring them up)

That said, when we got home we were kicking ourselves wondering why we had not used Paypal. AFAIK all you need is an email address and I think you can set it up with a credit card to get better buyer protection.

 

[brucemillar]

As said CHAPS is good. Bang it through NatWest or RBS you will be absolutely fine.

 

[flango]

Im viewing it on Sat afternoon so all HSBC's are shut for 'banking' I think. Bank transfers 2 hours on a Sat also?

I will check out CHAPS... Chaps!

Hsbc open while 3pm on Saturday with the right account chaps is free also you can do chaps 24/7 via telephone banking or internet banking so the seller can see it in his account, hsbc have been brilliant with me in the past when buying swmbo car it was done in less than 30 mins

 

[BigSilverEstate]

PS very much coveting your outgoing vehicle. Sadly after viewing a couple as a possible runabout / second car SWMBO absolutely ruled out a W202 despite my best efforts so we are stuck with a mk4 golf that I should have walked away from but lost the will to live. Has so far cost over £800 in repairs and the list goes on!

 

[Aletank]

Its quicker if your both in the same bank.
I sold a motorbike recently to a lad in Essex, he wanted to buy the bike without seeing it.
He sent me the money via bank transfer to pay the bike courier that i had organised, the courier collected the bike, took it down to him, when he seen the bike & it was as described etc he then done a transfer, once it was completed, i phoned the courier to tell him all was good and to let him have the bike.
About a 10 min wait, that was with Nationwide to Nationwide of a Sunday.
If your going to view the car, explain to the seller what you intend to do and do it on your laptop or his laptop in front of each other, have a cuppa while it goes through.

 

[moonloops]

Last person I paid using chaps was a bit surprised, I guess he wasn't into cowboy gear

 

[A-AvantGarde]

CHAPS or bank transfer is how I've done it in the past. Less than £2k I've typically done with cash.

 

[Ian Donkin]

In reality now all the major banks use the faster payments scheme so unless you have an unlucky RBS type situation occur, it will be pretty much instantaneous. This works at weekends too.

We recently sold both a Range Rover and a Volvo, each being transactions in their own right over £10k and out of banking hours. On both occasions by the time the buyer had completed his transfer and I had logged into my account, the funds were there. I'm with Barclays whilst one buyer was with Santander, the other Lloyds.

If you both are with the same bank (worth checking ahead of time), it will be instantaneous anyway. Alternatively, ask for the vendors details now and send him a fiver as a test transaction.

We also bought the Merc on a Saturday evening using a bank transfer via on-line banking; I didn't have my Barclays pin sentry device with me however the vendor had his NatWest device to hand and this generated the necessary code when I used it to verify my details!

Good luck!

 

[jam38]

Why not take a friend with you and take cash? I have done this in the past as I have someone to look at the car with me because I know that my heart will start to rule my head and I will overlook things. You will also have a second driver to drive the car back that you came in.

 

[The _Don]

One more option - if you want to buy the car you can leave the cash with someone back home and get them to go to the bank and pay in to sellers account.