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Most sure way of NOT getting ripped off


chathamsolutions

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OK. I've had some interest in my boat. Now I need to know what to do when someone decides to show up and pay for it.

What method of payment is the most sure way of me actually getting paid? $35K is a lot of money and I don't want to get taken.

I know a bunch of you have done this multiple times. Please help.

- wire the funds?

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OK. I've had some interest in my boat. Now I need to know what to do when someone decides to show up and pay for it.

What method of payment is the most sure way of me actually getting paid? $35K is a lot of money and I don't want to get taken.

I know a bunch of you have done this multiple times. Please help.

- wire the funds?

I have always had them meet me at my bank. Wiring funds is good but it usually takes over 24 hours and most buyers won't give up the cash without the goods.

Edited by 06vlx
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35 thousand dollars bills would be nice and they wouldn't take up too much room in your wallet. However, even that would be best done in the bank.

Have them bring a bank/cashiers check to your bank and verify funds as well. I know it is basically cash, but some banks will only clear half or less until it clears regular. That is making all the money available to you for withdrawal.

I have done wires across country, make the cutoff, and it can happen in 6 hours or less, they always tell you 24-48 hours.

Good luck!

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OK. I've had some interest in my boat. Now I need to know what to do when someone decides to show up and pay for it.

What method of payment is the most sure way of me actually getting paid? $35K is a lot of money and I don't want to get taken.

I know a bunch of you have done this multiple times. Please help.

- wire the funds?

I have always had them meet me at my bank. Wiring funds is good but it usually takes over 24 hours and most buyers won't give up the cash without the goods.

Plus1.gif Or just plain out say that the check needs to clear your bank before they take possession!

Edited by 68Slalom
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Andy,

I looked at this a bunch when we did ours. Being that both of us (seller & buyer) were meeting in a third state (them from AZ, us from OR, doing the transfer in CA), we found a bank that functioned in both home states (Bank of America). We both started checking accounts - he transferred his funds to that account before we all hit the road, then we met at the bank to do the transfer. (I took a deposit on the boat prior to hitting the road, so my expenses were covered if he decided to bail on the transaction.) It was super easy & made for great peace of mind, since we were on the road for a full week following the sale. The buyer drove the boat home, literally from the bank. That was hard to watch, but she's in good hands.

Cashier's checks can be easily forged anymore & take much, much longer to recover the funds off of than a personal check. Most banks anymore won't post one until the funds have actually cleared, which takes time. Of all of the methods that I looked at, meeting at the bank was by far & away the safest & most straightforward.

And don't take cash.

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1. Go to the Bank with the buyer and get a cashiers check or if they bank at the same bank you do, get a money transfer.

2. If they show up with a cashiers check, go to the bank with the buyer and cash it. If they won't let you cash it, verify with the bank that the cashiers check is authentic.

3. If the customer is financing the boat, go to the bank/credit union with them and get a cashiers check directly.

4. If you accept a cashiers check, without going to the bank, tell them you will sign over the title in 5 business days to make sure the cashiers check clears the bank.

5. A big suit case of money is always good. :)

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Cash is King!!!

if not cash, then wire!! even if it does take 24 hours, the buyer will have to be the one to go out on the limb not the seller.

Edited by txwakejunkie
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Most banks anymore won't post one until the funds have actually cleared, which takes time.

I don't understand this statement. When you get a cashiers check at the bank, the money is debited from your account immediately. That's what makes them as good as cash. Since forgery can be done easily, its best to go to the buyers bank and the bank issue you one directly.

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Cash is King!!!

if not cash, then wire!! even if it does take 24 hours, the buyer will have to be the one to go out on the limb not the seller.

Actually, I was advised by our bank to not accept cash. Counterfeiting is actually more prevalent than you would think.

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Cash is King!!!

if not cash, then wire!! even if it does take 24 hours, the buyer will have to be the one to go out on the limb not the seller.

Actually, I was advised by our bank to not accept cash. Counterfeiting is actually more prevalent than you would think.

You know it realy sucks these days when you cant even get a big chunk of cash for something with no worries!!

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Cash is King!!!

if not cash, then wire!! even if it does take 24 hours, the buyer will have to be the one to go out on the limb not the seller.

Actually, I was advised by our bank to not accept cash. Counterfeiting is actually more prevalent than you would think.

And for cash transactions over 10,000 there is a great deal of explaining that needs to be done when you go to put the money in the bank. (I work at one, trust me its a pain for everyone) As stated above being present when buyer draws the cashiers check is good, but I'd go wire transfer, it may take overnight, but once the funds are moved they are yours.

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Andy,

I looked at this a bunch when we did ours. Being that both of us (seller & buyer) were meeting in a third state (them from AZ, us from OR, doing the transfer in CA), we found a bank that functioned in both home states (Bank of America). We both started checking accounts - he transferred his funds to that account before we all hit the road, then we met at the bank to do the transfer. (I took a deposit on the boat prior to hitting the road, so my expenses were covered if he decided to bail on the transaction.) It was super easy & made for great peace of mind, since we were on the road for a full week following the sale. The buyer drove the boat home, literally from the bank. That was hard to watch, but she's in good hands.

Cashier's checks can be easily forged anymore & take much, much longer to recover the funds off of than a personal check. Most banks anymore won't post one until the funds have actually cleared, which takes time. Of all of the methods that I looked at, meeting at the bank was by far & away the safest & most straightforward.

And don't take cash.

Plus1.gif But unfortunately it is harder to find sellers as willing to go thru the trouble to do what you did. Where I live there were no good deals on used boats and the boats that were good deals weren't what I was looking for. I went on Craigslist to find a deal and found only people wanting cash. I can understand cash for transactions under $10K but seriously who is going to carry around even that kindof cash? And isn't the idea of Craigslist to reach buyers and sellers in a larger area? If we could sell or purchase in our home area, why would we need CL, accept for the fact it is free advertising.

The first ordeal we went thru we even offered to send the seller the check 7 days in advance so it would clear his bank if he would take it to a mechanic of our choice that we would pay for, and this was a check from USAA a national lender that he could've verified funds on before he deposited it. But that was too much trouble for him to go thru.

We eventually found a party selling their boat that was willing to use a boat dealership as a middle man for the transaction, the dealership was willing to take the USAA check because they were familiar with the lender and then they paid the seller, whom trusted the dealership, in return I bought about $800 worth of acessories from the dealership.

I just think it stinks that there are so many scammers out there.

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Hello Maddam,

I am wanting to present for you a very special offer. I am willing to give you $10,000 american dollars more than your asking price for you boat, in return I ask that you send back me $5,000 american dollars. I am willing to give for you $5,000 as good fathe.

You are right scammers suck, they need to study better english at their scammer school.

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Hello Maddam,

I am wanting to present for you a very special offer. I am willing to give you $10,000 american dollars more than your asking price for you boat, in return I ask that you send back me $5,000 american dollars. I am willing to give for you $5,000 as good fathe.

You are right scammers suck, they need to study better english at their scammer school.

LOL, I got a similar offer on a house I had for sale.

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Hello Maddam,

I am wanting to present for you a very special offer. I am willing to give you $10,000 american dollars more than your asking price for you boat, in return I ask that you send back me $5,000 american dollars. I am willing to give for you $5,000 as good fathe.

You are right scammers suck, they need to study better english at their scammer school.

LOL, I got a similar offer on a house I had for sale.

I had a similar one when I sold my last snowmobile. I replied "Nice try". Never heard from them again.

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There was a show on MSNBC where they actually played the game with a scammer from Nigeria and led him all the way through meeting up in London to complete the transfer. They actually did this with a few different email scammers. It went on for months before they actually met in person. It was pretty funny to see them squirm when they put them on national TV and asked them how they thought this was all going to end. Some of them ran away, some of them denied it. Definitely worth a watch if you can find it somewhere.

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Andy,

I looked at this a bunch when we did ours. Being that both of us (seller & buyer) were meeting in a third state (them from AZ, us from OR, doing the transfer in CA), we found a bank that functioned in both home states (Bank of America). We both started checking accounts - he transferred his funds to that account before we all hit the road, then we met at the bank to do the transfer. (I took a deposit on the boat prior to hitting the road, so my expenses were covered if he decided to bail on the transaction.) It was super easy & made for great peace of mind, since we were on the road for a full week following the sale. The buyer drove the boat home, literally from the bank. That was hard to watch, but she's in good hands.

Cashier's checks can be easily forged anymore & take much, much longer to recover the funds off of than a personal check. Most banks anymore won't post one until the funds have actually cleared, which takes time. Of all of the methods that I looked at, meeting at the bank was by far & away the safest & most straightforward.

And don't take cash.

....

Plus1.gif But unfortunately it is harder to find sellers as willing to go thru the trouble to do what you did.

....

True. Honestly I'm not sure that we would have gone to those lengths either, but we had a unique situation/opportunity present itself at the right time, so we took advantage of it. Otherwise, we would have had the boat for a while longer. This economy dictates that anyone that isn't willing to do a little work to sell a boat right now doesn't want to sell it that badly.

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When we sold our last boat, the seller gave me a personal check. he and I went to his bank to cash it, and i got a cashiers check from the teller for the funds. Then i took that to my bank and deposited it, and he took the boat home.

The only thing that sucked was that his bank charged me $10 for cashing the check because i did not have an account with them.

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Sold my last boat (I/O) on CL for 12K. It went in less than a week, 4 or 5 locals looked at it, but ended up selling it to a guy who drove down to MN from Saskatoon, Saskachewan.

I was a little bit worried about the sale being from out of the country, but had him bring a cashiers check and meet us at my bank so it could be verified before we signed the paperwork. He also had to deal with having all the titles and a notorized letter from us so he could cross the border.

All went well with the sale, but I was a bit nervous. Already had purchased the Bu so it was nice to get ride of the old boat so quickly.

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Thanks for the quick responses.

Cash isn't king for anything above $10K. Holy Cow, I've been through so much anti-money laundering training in my industry, there's no way I'd take cash. No bank would give someone that much cash so the only way they could have gotten it was to hoard from their vending business or the baaad way.

Sounds like showing up at ideally their bank, but mine would work as well. A wire is a good idea. I'll definately look at all those options. And as Tracie said, you just have to be open to ways to making the deal work.

Though -

I wasn't willing to take a $25K check, an '87 Malibu and a KTM 300exc in trade for my boat today :) Gotta have the money... All that would probably be worth it, but need the money, not other items to sell.

Funny, but sad - my brother had someone sting him on a $3,500 CL deal. He was 'hired' by this firm to build a web site and he specked it all out for them. He said they were really intelligent, knew the lingo, etc. They sent him a check for $1700 more than what he asked for up front. They said to just WIRE them the difference. He thought that was odd.

He sat on it for 2 days and waited for the check to pass. He called his bank and they said it could take weeks for it to really clear. Wacky. he told them it was probably a bad check, someone scamming him and they said if it came to that, they would probably lock down HIS checking account.

He then received another check for the same amount as the first one. He took it to the originating bank and they said it was a forged check. It took them a while to figure it out though. Man, people are hungry to steal these days.

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Very Important Piece of Additional Info...for your consideration

We got into a big mess with a cashier's check deposited to our checking account.

The amounts are changed, but you'll get the idea.

Let's say this guy you know, has $15,000 in his checking account.

He sells a car for...say...$25,000.

Seller and buyer meet at the bank, bank accepts cashier's check, verifies that the check is legit by calling the originating bank.

New balance in your checking account is $40,000.

Right?

Wrong.

Let's say that bank has a policy that all Cashier's Checks are subject to a 3 day safety hold that cannot be overridden.

So a hold for $25,000 goes on the account.

And the cashier's check balance is not added to the checking account until after the 3 day hold.

So in reality - this guy now has a $10,000 negative balance. Mad.gif

And let's say that 20 or so visa debit card transactions, automatic payments and checks clear in the next two days before this guy you know realizes that according to the bank's wierd math - he has a negative balance in his checking account. And let's say that he doesn't realize this negative balance is there until he's trying to pay for $50 worth of gas that he's already pumped!

And when all h3|| breaks loose with that guy standing in the bank lobby talking to the branch manager, she informs him that the 3 day safety hold was disclosed in a brochure that was sent to all account holders when Harris Bank bought the bank they are now standing in...the guy should obviously been aware of the policy and deposited the cashier's check in to his savings instead of checking...

Hmmm.

A big cashier's check will get a safety hold put on it. Deposit it to savings - not your checking account.

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