selling a car - deposit and meeting at the airport...

[Corranga]

So, we've had an offer on the vx, potential buyer lives at the other end of the country and is sending her other half up to collect in approx 3 weeks time.

She has offered to pay a deposit on the basis that we take the ads down and keep it for the 3 weeks, all discussed over the phone, no viewing or test drive.

Does this sound ok / normal, or...?

They would be paying the remainder on collection, at the airport, part of me has alarm bells ringing, another thinks the airport will be nice and secure with plenty of cameras.

Any advice? Am I just being paranoid?

[rossybee]

Chris - I've sold two cars which involved me collecting the buyer from Dundee Airport, and a further one who drove all the way up with a friend, only to return home - all three were from London.

If you're wary, take a friend, but if the gut feeling is ok, then go with it.

Just take the necessary precautions ref ensuring full payment prior to releasing the car

[sendmyusername]

If it's reasonably priced and there aren't a lot of them, it's more than likely legit.
Most the scams are people not turning up and keeping your money. Just don't give them too much info when they are paying in a deposit.
Plus depending on the size of the deposit, nothing to stop them walking away from deal after driving it.
They may pay you £500 deposit, not like it and pay an extra£100 getting train home again.
Also in your advert if you've made it sound loved, that can go a long way towards convincing someone to take a chance.
Added bonus if they fly in - they have supplied I.D. For the flight, and they'll be on cctv.
I bought my first elise from london, and my first exige from manchester, and I live in dundee.
I also bought my last elise in london, but didn't work out so well for me this time, as it's a bit of a turd, and I was basically stranded... But those are the risks. (wouldn't have bought it if it had been local)

[Andy G]

with most cars I've bought I've had to travel all over the UK to get them.

[douglasgdmw]

I sold Sandra's Ducati Monster to a guy down south (slightly different as he had a business colleague up here to check out the bike).

However to protect myself with the deposit I set up an Online Saver in my Bank Account so that I was not giving away any of my normal bank account details and obviously had zero funds within that online saver account. Easy to do if you have online banking.

Obviously if they are travelling up and then paying cash on collection, just make sure you go to the bank with them so that you do not end up with a load of dodgy notes.

George

[Corranga]

Thanks all, have checked local bank opening times close to the airport, and there is an RBS open on a Saturday til 2pm in Corstorphine, so that might be a good bet.

[douglasgdmw]

Thanks all, have checked local bank opening times close to the airport, and there is an RBS open on a Saturday til 2pm in Corstorphine, so that might be a good bet.

I also had someone pay cash for my CBR-600 years ago in Edinburgh.

It was a young lad and told him I wanted to go to the bank to make sure the notes were not dodgy. Unfortunately his father took it that I did not trust him. Ended up with me leaving Sandra as collateral in his fathers shop while we went to the bank

George

[s29ttc]

Sold my Skoda to some guy from Luton a few month back who came from Luton. Picked him up at Glasgow airport, gave him my account no. and sort code and he transferred the money into my account on the way to my house. Checked over the car done paperwork in the house and checked my bank and made sure accounts where clear and shook hands and drove off. Simple painless sale and before he came i check with the bank who said it was the safest way as once the money is transferred its safely in the account. All someone can do is give you money apparently with just sort code and account number nothing more and they can't cancel or retrieve it once its left their account.

[mwmackenzie]

Sold my Skoda to some guy from Luton a few month back who came from Luton. Picked him up at Glasgow airport, gave him my account no. and sort code and he transferred the money into my account on the way to my house. Checked over the car done paperwork in the house and checked my bank and made sure accounts where clear and shook hands and drove off. Simple painless sale and before he came i check with the bank who said it was the safest way as once the money is transferred its safely in the account. All someone can do is give you money apparently with just sort code and account number nothing more and they can't cancel or retrieve it once its left their account.

Funds can still be cancelled once showing in your account! even if you go into the bank with them and get the teller to do the transfer they can still cancell the transfer after that! Checked all this out when selling Andy's old car for him... I kept the guys pasport and shoes for a week and sent them back once I was sure he could no longer cancel

[GBOBM]

I sold my VX to a guy in Holland.

He paid a deposit of £300 to hold it and then paid the rest in cash when he arrived. I only wanted a small deposit so that if he reversed the payment or something then I would still have the biggest chunk of the cash in my hands.

[sendmyusername]

There are quite a lot of ways that money can disappear even after they have beed shown as credited into your account.
Apparently what you need to ask is if they are cleared AND with value. Though even then they can con you.

On the otherside of the coin, when I bought my last elise, went down south, hooked up laptop, set it to make the payment, let the guy double check it, took a print for him to keep, then pressed enter.
Everything went fine. Usually takes two hours to clear, but guy trusted me and let me go on my way.
Got home late the next day and decided to check my account .....
No money had left my account.
Contacted the guy (was worried he'd have called the police by then) he hadn't even checked.
Many frantic calls to the bank the following day. They had no record, no idea what had happened and assured me that it definately hadn't been held up.
Had to re-do it.
Went fine second time....
Internet banking ... Thought I was going to jail

[sendmyusername]

Read through the scams on pistonheads and on autotrader ( you don't have to use them to read the scams)
They cover quite a few of them
Because it's not a run of the mill car, most owners are trusted to take good care of them.
My pal agreed price on his without seeing it.

[mwmackenzie]

I've bought most of my cars from a far.. Bristol for my Bora, Halifax for my Golf, Hethel for my first Esprit and I have sold to even further away, Disco went to sheffield (Idelivered that one and guy tried to knock the price down... needless to say I boarded the train with every penny I came for lol), Esprit went to Holland (deposit and cash on collection, £500 deposit) and my Elise hardtop went to France (funds in my account guy left then funds not in my account ... next day funds were back in my account after some strong words, mix up with his cards aparently, I had his pasport and driving licence photographed at point of sale so I knew where he lived incase police needed details, he was a SELOC member too) .

Just make sure the deposit is big enough for your trouble if they do not show or pull out prior to collection as you're keeping it for 3 weeks and withdrawing your advert from other potential buyers. Make sure you have detailed any and every little niggle or fault prior to them coming as they'll be pretty pissed if it's not as described and you don;t want to lose a sale after holding back 3 weeks.

My sale to the Gentleman in Holland was smooth and painfree, top bloke too! I wouldn't shy away from selling long distance but cover all angles and make sure your sale is watertight

[s29ttc]

Sold my Skoda to some guy from Luton a few month back who came from Luton. Picked him up at Glasgow airport, gave him my account no. and sort code and he transferred the money into my account on the way to my house. Checked over the car done paperwork in the house and checked my bank and made sure accounts where clear and shook hands and drove off. Simple painless sale and before he came i check with the bank who said it was the safest way as once the money is transferred its safely in the account. All someone can do is give you money apparently with just sort code and account number nothing more and they can't cancel or retrieve it once its left their account.

Funds can still be cancelled once showing in your account! even if you go into the bank with them and get the teller to do the transfer they can still cancell the transfer after that! Checked all this out when selling Andy's old car for him... I kept the guys pasport and shoes for a week and sent them back once I was sure he could no longer cancel

Well I must have been lucky. I was assured by my bank after speaking to them that once the funds showed in the account there was no way to cancel or retrieve them? I made it clear I wanted the safest method and this is what they advised. Out of interest how can they cancel it once the transfer is made?

[Stewart]

If he pays by Faster Payment and it is showing in your bank account it is done and dusted and cannot be reversed.

BACS payments and possibly CHAPS payments can be recalled, but extremely rare.

If at a later date it is found that funds were remitted to you as funds obtained as part of a fraud, you *may* be liable to return the funds. I have never seen this happen but I believe it is possible.

See if you can find their profile on a forum somewhere and look at how long he has been on that forum. Probably quite a good modern way of discovering if someone is legit. Unfortunately/fortunately most people now leave an electronic online trail that can often be quite enlightening with a wee bit of googling.