Overhaulin'

Someone wants to buy my car for cash?

I have put my car up for sale and currently I have someone wanting to purchasing the car. I am selling my car for £15000 and the buyer says he will pay in cash. This is my first time selling a car privately so obviously I want to get everything right and hoping I don't get conned or something. Is there anything that I need to check, watch out for or ask the buyer in order for the transaction to go smoothly if it happens? Many thanks

Public Comments

1. Lets be fair. You can't go too far wrong if he brings cash. Just do the paperwork right count the money, give him a receipt for the cash and get him to sign a pre-prepared note stating that the car is 'sold as seen' OK?
2. When someone says they will pay that amount in cash folding money two words come immediately to mind - money laundering. I would go for a BACS transfer instead and hold the car until your bank gives it the all clear. Incidentally, there a lot of forged £20 and £50 notes around, you would not want to get a large bunch of them. Mind you, there is of course a way of getting cash payment safely, you and he go together to the nearest branch of his bank. You could pre-arrange that he and you go to the nearest branch of his Bank, he draws the money out over the counter in cash (having pre-arranged that through his own branch), You immediately and without leaving the counter fill in a deposit and transfer slip and hand the cash straight back and have the bank trandfer it to your bank account.
3. For the sake of £50 explain that it cannot have any £50 notes and that you intend to and will have to check them for forgeries - you can buy pens to do that.
4. I'd say it's quite unusual to complete a sale for that amount in cash. For one thing it's very risky (for him as well as you) to be carrying that amount of cash around. For any amount over a thousand pounds I think i'd always be insisting on bank transfer. The money still isn't safe if it's come from proceeds of crime, but it's your safest bet. If you really must take the cash, then do as the others have suggested and check the notes very carefully. Given that it's not a hassle-free job to take that amount of money out of a bank account I wonder why he's doing it and not simply transferring the money to you. Tread carefully.
5. So long as he's prepared to do the transaction in your bank where they can check the money is real, fair enough. If he's money-laundering that's not your problem, but getting stuck with 300 fake £50 notes very definitely would be..