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How to pay for a car from a private seller


ostego

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Hi,

 

Am buying from a private seller and we were looking at ways to pay.

 

Would rather not carry a large amount of cash on me, so was planning on doing it via bank transfer (Faster Payments) online, which i believed would mean the money would be in the sellers account within 2 hours max.

 

He said he called his bank, and for amounts over £2,500, via online banking, they said it can take 24 hours to clear, which is odd since it says on the faster payments page the maximum limit for lloyds FPtransfers is £25,000. He lives quite far away, so need to get it all tied up in one trip really.

 

Was looking into CHAPS payment as an option (where you pay your bank £25 to make a same-day transfer, yet this would be done on a saturday, so finding an open branch may be difficult, as well as the working day issue)

 

But was wondering whether anyone on here has any experience in this field, and what method is the best/safest? Was considering just splitting the amount into 4 x £2000 payments if the £2,500 limit was an issue (not sure whether anyone can give any advice on whether that works!?)

 

I'm not sure whether I'm being overly paranoid with not wanting to drive a long way to someone's house with over £7,000 on me in cash!

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when I sold my merc - walked into my branch (his also happened to be the same bank) and he did a transfer from his to mine - cashiers confirmed it

it was £7,500 in one go

Edited by ioneabee
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I have used bank transfer for last two exchanges. Took my mac to someones house, logged onto their internet, transfered the money out of my lloyds account on a sunday afternoon, went through and cleared in his account in about 2 minutes.

 

Sold the VX last weekend, same thing, guy transferred from Barclays to my Lloyds account, 2 minutes.

 

Easiest way really.

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I took a 4 hour train journey to get mine so was in a similar predicament, didn't want to take cah, cheque/bankers draft took time, and we could go into our banks as they were closed. So I went onto my phone and transfered the money online on my phone, it says it can take up to 2 hours but it was instant. Drove it away promptly after :)

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Problem is, when you call banks nowadays and get through to some 18 year old wet bag who will say anything to get you off the phone and carry one flirting with Tina next to him to often throws up issues.

 

Like, you can transfer £15'000 via online banking, if the payment has been set up before and it's not the first payment.

 

Otherwise you have to do it another way.

 

It's the idiots giving out information that isn't 100% tailored to your situation which is often the problem.

 

Make a couple of calls to your bank and explain the EXACT situation to them and see if you get two matching scenarios, would be my advice.

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Honestly, just ask the seller what he prefers. It's his risk, not yours.

 

But, if you travel up with the intention of viewing, paying and driving away, in one visit, a surprise 24 hour delay with ruin that.

 

Let seller know your intentions (of driving away that day if cool) and clear everything up prior with Tina and John at your bank before leaving.

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With Lloyds, you can pay out to a first time person within minutes, no notice required. They ring your mobile as the payment goes through to authorise it. When Justin paid via Barclays, he popped my details in and had some calculator thing with codes on, again first time payment, went through in minutes no problem.

 

When I sold the Zed, guy turned up with the money in £20 notes, I had to go to a bank to check it.

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With Lloyds, you can pay out to a first time person within minutes, no notice required.

 

For payments up to £5000 mate.

 

I bank with Lloyds too.

 

I had that issue when I bought my 370Z.

 

I went mental down the phone as internet banking was saying no. Ending up speaking to a manager and he gave me a work around.

 

As I had Phonebanking, which is the old service before Internet banking was the thing, he could set up the payment for me that way over the phone and it would be approved for a higher transfer limit (£25000), then I could log onto internet banking and the payment option to that new person would be there and I could do it that way.

 

Got there in the end but it was the key fact that that option of the call back payment set up is limited to payments of £5000, per day.

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Honestly, just ask the seller what he prefers. It's his risk, not yours.

 

But, if you travel up with the intention of viewing, paying and driving away, in one visit, a surprise 24 hour delay with ruin that.

 

Let seller know your intentions (of driving away that day if cool) and clear everything up prior with Tina and John at your bank before leaving.

 

Have already viewed the car a couple of weeks back

 

Just phoned up his bank (halifax) and they say they have a £2,500 limit for sending and being processed same day, but in terms of receiving it simply depends on my bank (lloyds), so whatever they're happy to send, halifax can receive as soon as it is there! So maybe this £2,500 thing is a mis-communication, as it would appear from what everyone else has said in terms of their transactions working fine through one off bank transfers!

 

Guess it all lies with my bank now then, lloyds customer service is closed at this time so will wait till tomorrow to call them and check! Fingers crossed they'll give me the answer i want!

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With Lloyds, you can pay out to a first time person within minutes, no notice required.

 

For payments up to £5000 mate.

 

I bank with Lloyds too.

 

I had that issue when I bought my 370Z.

 

I went mental down the phone as internet banking was saying no. Ending up speaking to a manager and he gave me a work around.

 

As I had Phonebanking, which is the old service before Internet banking was the thing, he could set up the payment for me that way over the phone and it would be approved for a higher transfer limit (£25000), then I could log onto internet banking and the payment option to that new person would be there and I could do it that way.

 

Got there in the end but it was the key fact that that option of the call back payment set up is limited to payments of £5000, per day.

 

wargh, just when i thought i was in the clear! Is it something that needs to be pre-arranged then for over £5000?

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Not sure Ostego, I have paid out over £5k before first time over the net, the same as the guy that bought the VX off me at the weekend, Barclays let him pay out over £5k first time payment as well.

 

It could be something to do with individual limits, if they exist? Not sure. But you can definitely pay a first time payment over £5k based on my experience.

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No it isnt, I paid out a fair bit over £5k for my VX, done in minutes, first time payment authorised over the phone. Maybe your limit is lower?

 

There we are then, it's a random nightmare.

 

Don't see why the limit should depend on the person but when I was trying to pay for my car via the call back internet banking option it said no, maybe it was a £15'000 limit, I forget but I certainly couldn't pay the full amount that way.

 

Ended up calling them and doing it the way I described above.

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I bought my Zed in cash, went to the bank with the seller. Was nervous as hell as I was in his town, with him, on my own, drawing out a load of cash. Much prefer the internet way of buying now, it really makes things much less stressful!

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Just found a 24 hour number for lloyds and they said a £2,500 limit is for phone banking, but online it is £25,000!

 

So looks like thats where the numbers may have got confused, and all should be fine!

 

Thanks for all of your advice and am glad i'm not the only one paranoid about travelling with all that cash!

 

Hopefully come Sunday I'll be posting up some pictures of my new 350!

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Just found a 24 hour number for lloyds and they said a £2,500 limit is for phone banking, but online it is £25,000!

 

So looks like thats where the numbers may have got confused, and all should be fine!

 

Thanks for all of your advice and am glad i'm not the only one paranoid about travelling with all that cash!

 

Hopefully come Sunday I'll be posting up some pictures of my new 350!

 

Good Luck Ostero and welcome to the Land of Zed.. :welcome:

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Boom !!!

 

Got it, I remember know why it wouldn't work for me, I'd recently moved and they were unable to confirm my telephone number for some reason so internet banking was unable to call me to confirm the payment.

 

That's why I couldn't set it up online and had to call them to set it up but could then log on and make the payment.

 

Yes, all coming back to me know, :lol: .

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Do banker's drafts still exist? Like a cheque, but can't bounce. Easier to securely carry on your person than cash, just remember to wash your hands.

 

 

I think the problem these days is sophisticated forgeries.

When another member on here bought mine, he transferred the money online while he was at my house, no problems, just checked my account for cleared funds and he drove away.

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