Dealing with money when you sell a used car (salvage, taxes, bank)
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I would not let the person take a picture of me, nor see my driver's license (where I live). I would, and I have bought a car this way, meet a my credit union, and give the seller a bank draft from the bank (credit union). Bank draft or cashier's check from the bank are easy ways to transfer a sale.
Not sure what you can do about having your picture taken if the buyer holds up his phone and snaps a pic before you can react. Are you willing to have the third-party banker verify your identity? If not, no deal.
My biggest worry when selling cars is that the seller is who he says he is and is in fact the person named on the title. Crooks sometimes forge signatures and sell cars they do not own. In that case, police will return the car to the rightful owner and the buyer who was scammed will be out the money.
I sold a camper and got a deposit of $200 and a week later a cashier's check for $5800. Gave the buyer the title and camper and immediately deposited the check.
After getting it home he decided it was in worse shape than he thought so he tried to cancel the sale and had his credit union put a stop payment on the cashiers check. Several days later, the $5800 disappeared from my account. So for a time, he had the physical camper 200 miles away and the title and was out only the $200 cash.
We did call him and read him the riot act, reading to him the sales contract he signed and we ultimately got our money - less the return check fee from my CU.
I didn't know you could put a stop payment on a cashiers check.
I always want cash and like others have said go to the buyers bank and have them withdraw the money while you wait.
I know there is a Craigslist scam where when you are selling a vehicle someone contacts you from out of state. They want to buy the car full price and will come get it. In good faith they will send you a cashiers check in advance. When it arrives its for a higher dollar amount. The person contacts the seller and say deposit the check and western union me the over payment. The bank accepts the cashiers check and seller sends the extra money back. A few days later the cashier check bounces and the seller is out the western union money. I don't know if someone can pull this sort of scam locally with a cashiers check but I would only accept cash withdrawn from the bank while I waited.
Not sure what you can do about having your picture taken if the buyer holds up his phone and snaps a pic before you can react. Are you willing to have the third-party banker verify your identity? If not, no deal.
My biggest worry when selling cars is that the seller is who he says he is and is in fact the person named on the title. Crooks sometimes forge signatures and sell cars they do not own. In that case, police will return the car to the rightful owner and the buyer who was scammed will be out the money.
Ask for ID. I have gone to see cars where it had an open title or the person claimed to be a friend or family member of the person on the title. I would never buy a car from this sort of situation. Even if its notarized. Ask for ID from the seller. You also need to check the title for title loan liens. In Arizona you can do it online for a few bucks from the state. People could have gotten a duplicate title and then taken the original one to get cash against the title. You won't know because the title they show you is clean. But when you try to transfer the title you cannot without paying off the title place.
Make a copy of buyers drivers license - both sides. Same with buyers old registration if they have one.
Take a phone picture of buyer.
Write a Bill of Sale (2). Keep one signed copy.
If cash, do transaction at YOUR bank. If $10,000 or more IRS issues arise.
Best is to have buyer do a wire transfer. Make sure it is a wire and not just electronic.
Certainly, you can take a bank check from buyer if buyer meets you at YOUR bank and have YOUR bank verify the check AND the amount of check.
Might be good to have an adult friend or relative with you.
No IRS issues need to arise. Bring the Bill Of Sale when depositing the cash. When I did that the bank scanned the BOS and attached it to the transaction record the bank keeps. Nothing else was ever heard on the matter.
I would not let the person take a picture of me, nor see my driver's license (where I live). I would, and I have bought a car this way, meet a my credit union, and give the seller a bank draft from the bank (credit union). Bank draft or cashier's check from the bank are easy ways to transfer a sale.
Why? You have to write the buyers details, including address and driving license # into the title when you sell it, at least in my state.
If you sell a car to a complete stranger, you will usually ask for cash. I'm leery of doing this since it may be a large amount.
If you don't want a check or money order (because it might bounce) there are many phone apps or other internet methods of transferring the money. But I'm nervous about that also.
Can you offer any tips or other ideas?
Venmo is NOT instant, or assured. Even bank transfers are not guaranteed until cleared. That takes a few days.
How Much Money Can You Deposit Before it is Reported?
If you deposit more than $10,000 cash in your bank account, your bank has to report the deposit to the government.
The guidelines for large cash transactions for banks and financial institutions are set by the Bank Secrecy Act, also known as the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act. The goal is to prevent money laundering by criminals using cash deposits to disguise their illegal source of funds.
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