How to take payment for a car sale ?

I'm selling a project car for $22,000.

I've been offered a "bank check via courier service" as payment.

Then, "I will handle the shipping myself".

Admittedly, it's a lot of money to expect cash. How easy is it to fake a bank check,
and is that the same as a cashier's check ?

For that much money I would want a wire transfer straight to my bank.
Or a certified check, and you do not release the car until the funds clear your account.

I have no problem with bank check/cashiers check but I go straight to the bank or meet the buyer at the bank named on the check. If you do not have a branch in your area I would take it to your bank to deposit and they should be able to verify it's authenticity immediately. I just did that. Then release vehicle.

Personally I would not accept cash unless you are able to verify it is not counterfeit. That's just me.

a few years ago there was a tv segment about a fellow who sold his car, and payment was a bank check- deposited the check and it cleared...UNTIL... a month or so later the $$$ were taken from his acct as it was a bogus check... i agree that a transfer or cash is the way to go...

I recall a claim 40 years ago for a counterfeit cashier's check on a Mercedes, about $30K.
IThe ones I've seen lately look a lot harder to fake.
Wire transfer is probably best if cash won't work.
For stuff like that & Ebay and other stuff I have a separate account with a small balance I can risk being hacked.

I think there must be a dozen threads in the archives on this situation, if that helps.

Thanks guys.

How can the bank clear the damn check and then come back 30 days later and claim OOPS ?

Is there a caveat like: "A friend owes me 30k - he'll send the cheque to you - you keep the 22k for the car and send me the 8k difference. I'll have my shipper pick it up in a couple days".

FWIW, I don't think handling the shipping himself would be an issue, that's what I'd do if I bought a project car.

No nothing too fishy, I'm just concerned about a fake bank check I guess.

There’s a federal law requiring banks to cash checks promptly, but the process of verifying the check is legitimate takes longer than the time the regulation requires.
So the bank cashes the check and weeks later if they find it’s bad, you are on the hook.
Here is an article about methods to help verify a check is good.
https://www.thebalance.com/how-to-check-a-check-315428

When I brought a bank check to my bank they did tell me 3-4 days. I told them I needed to release car now and that's when they took a few minutes to verify (probably contacting bank named on check) and then told me check was cleared/money available. I released car. If you cannot go to bank named on check and cash it that's how I'd do it at my bank.

I would say wire transfer is better though just a lot more rigmarole and that's why people prefer the bank check.

Wire transfer ONLY!

Here's what you do - go to your bank and open a separate account, put the minimum amount in there to keep you from being charged fees. Then you give the buyer THAT account number, not your regular one. Once the wire goes through, you transfer the funds over to your regular account. This way, you are only risking the small amount that's left. In my case, it's $300 minimum. Keep that separate account open in case you buy or sell another car.

I've done this a couple of times, most recently a few weeks ago when I wired money to a guy for a car I bought.

I sold a car on Bring A Trailer in late February. The guy was old school and sent me a cashier's check from his bank. My bank was very suspicious of it since they have seen an uptick in fraudulent cashier's checks.They actually keep a database of pictures of cashier's checks and the buyer's bank had recently changed their checks, so my bank was very suspicious. They ended up holding half the funds back for 10 days (7 business days). The buyer was bent, but what could I do?

Bottom line is, if you are remote from the buyer, the only way to do it is a wire.

I just sent $9K to someone (not for a car). I went to my local bank, told them I wanted to wire $9K to someone. It took about 10 minutes and they charged me $25 for the transfer.

I've never done it before but they made it very easy.

Passing a bogus check of that size is a felony. A guy would have to want to risk pretty much everything to do that.
Just call bank and verify funds, exchange title when funds are cleared to you. I have sold literally hundreds and hundreds, actually thousands of cars, never had an issue with a check.

I have been paid that way many times. Take the check to your bank and deposit it. They can verify the funds are available from the buyers bank. Once it clears you are good. You can ask the manager at your bank the questions that you are worried about and they will give you the answers. You keep the car until your bank says the funds are yours. If someone was charged back there was more to the story.

This is funny! In Canada we log into our bank account on our computer, tablet, phone or whatever and do an online transfer Takes about a minute. The transfer is instant. It costs the sender $1.50 regardless of the amount being sent. It costs the receiver nothing. Its 100% foolproof for the individual receiving the money.

There are way cheaper ways than 25 bucks here in the US
In the meantime I will keep paying my current 21% business tax, about half what Canadians pay, same with gas, about 1/2 as much because of all the Canadian taxes... not to mention 13% Ontario sales tax.

I met the buyer at his bank where they cut him the cashiers check right then. This particular bank would only clear the cashiers check immediately if you had an account with them, so I opened an account and deposited it right then. Done deal. $24k

too easy..

i'd only do wire transfer.. anything on paper can and is easily faked.

I only do wire transfer or cash. Out of state checks and checks from different banks can take 7-10 days to clear.

I would be suspicious I was helping a friend sell a car last year and had quite a few of those ," I will arrange shipping and send a check" .. so they are buying the car with out physically looking at it? I just said no in person transaction only. I met a guy in a parking lot to sell a car once, it was only a few grand , cash deal but before I gave him the title I took the bills into the bartender at the nearby Applebees and had them check to make sure the bills weren't bogus.

I've done it several times with a certified check. Put it in the mail then asked the seller to contact me when they received and deposited it. The sellers have told me it would take X days to clear. That is fine as chances are if you call a hauler today, they won't be able to pick it up for several weeks. Yep, you want the car for sure but there is a process and it takes time. Doesn't sound like the buyer is trying to rush anything so that is great. I had have always had more issues with the shippers than the sellers.

Heck, every car I have bought I didn't look at. Now most were projects in one form or another but the Cyclone came from north of Seattle and I live on the east coast. Diego had talked to the guy and turned me on to him. I talked to him multiple times and got about 50 pictures. No problems.

Nope - even the bank can't verify a bank check or CC. Guy in my golf league sold a late model to a guy from Chicago. Two guys drove in, they all met at his bank, his bank said the check was good, he paid off his loan, they released the title lien, he handed them the keys & they drove off. Two days later his bank calls him & tells him the bank check was counterfeit & he owes them like $18,000. It was on him even though the bank said the check was good. LUCKILY, the police found the car in WI. that an older couple had bought for $9,900 cash from someone in Chicago. He got his car back, the couple in WI. was screwed.

My advice is either do a wire transfer or accept CASH.

Buy some version of a Counterfeit Money Detector or meet at a bank - let them count & validate the money.

A friend of mine sold his Harley a few years back and took a bank check for it. His bank said it was good so he released the bike to the buyer. 2 weeks later he gets the call from his bank, check was counterfeit. He got lucky, his bike was insured with State Farm and they paid out for theft.

When I bought mine last year .
all was done via wire transfer

I have sold a few cars out of state and even out of country.
I recommend wire transfer, by far the safest type of transaction.
I have also done a bank check transfer.
Basically the buyer and I used the same bank. We met at the bank. The bank issued him a check in my name. I then endorsed the check and deposited it in my account.
Of course this only works if the buyer and seller use the same bank.

Now that's interesting. The guy in my golf league who found out 2 days later the check was a fake, called the police first & they started looking for the car. Then he called his bank whose employee said the check was good - so what - so she couldn't tell if it was legit or not. Then he called his insurance co. - they asked him if he handed the "buyers" the keys - he did - they told him he was on the hook for "giving" them the vehicle. His insurance company would not back him - he was out over $18k unless the car was recovered. I certainly learned a lesson in selling anything from this!