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Bank drafts
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When using one to pay for a vehicle (10k ish) would you expect the
seller to release the vehicle to you there and then, or when they've
banked it?
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There's been a lot of grief with bank drafts in the last few years. They
don't have the "same as cash" status that people think they do.
If I was on the receiving end I would prefer to meet the buyer at a branch
of his bank and get the bank to certify that the funds had been transferred
to my account.
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This may be the best bet. The seller is reasonably local to me, so I
could suggest us going to my branch and he can have cash.
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By far the best bet: you have no security issues and no money leaves
your account until all the final checks are made and documentation taken
care of.
With my bank, Alliance & Leicester, I can phone up the day before and pre-
arrange to collect large sums of cash at my village post office for free.
Same day for main branches of PO although less significant now as my new
address has an A&L branch within a mile.
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Halifax needed 2 working days, so I gave them notice today for a
Saturday withdrawal. Seemed easiest and I've not lost anything if the
cars turn out to be pants.
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Alternatively, if you both have telephone banking then use CHAPS which
costs £25 and is a same day transfer.
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I can do that through my internet banking.
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I'm old fashioned: I forget that whizz kids like you have internet
access 24/7 via your Oakley's HUD...
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heh, nah, I'd just sling the laptop in the back of the car.
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seems the BBC's Money Box prog agrees with me
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When they've banked it and it's cleared.
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Bad form etc - why use a draft instead of your debit card?
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I wouldn't take a bankers draft.
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Business = YES, there and then.
Private = NO, only when banked, cleared.
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Take cash, it makes it much easier. I've never understood why people
bother with bank drafts, notwithstanding that often a bank won't be
able to give you 10 grand in fifties, so it takes up a bit of pocket
space.
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Isn't there some downer nowadays on transactions in cash over £10K?
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Halifax said if I wanted more than 12 grand they would have wanted to
know more details about what it was being used for.
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Cheaky sods! Maybe they need reminding whos money it is.
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Na, they're were great today. Toddled into the bank of busy Saturday,
by-passed the queue to a back room where the counted out the cash and
wished me happy motoring.
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when I sold the RGS in 2002, for ~8K (I forget how much exactly, but
it was under 10K) the bank manager wanted to see the bike's V5, and
the invoice letter I'd done for the buyer *plus* ID from the buyer!
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It has to do with the money-laundering rules - apparently it was a
favourite way for villans to convert their ill-gotten gains into clean
money:
Take sackful of dirty money to buy car (with false ID)
Hand over cash, drive car away
Sell car next day for nice clean, untraceable cash.
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Ummm... That would exchange one set of banknotes for another, but wouldn't
help in laundering the money.
i.e. It doesn't mask the source of the funds - you'd still have no way of
explaining how you got the cash to buy the car you bought in the first
place.
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I suspect that will change too.
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Why?
In fact, it would take a major cultural shift to do so. The swiss
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The major cultural shift is already happening in Swiss banking - look
at the SWIFT debacle where Swiss banks were handing over personal
identification data to the US without bothering to tell the account
holders..
It'll probably take longer in Switzerland than elsewhere since they are
not part of the EC.
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banking system relies on the payer depositing into the payee's
account, rather than giving them a cheque; in fact, chequebooks are
not issued by the banks at all. So if you want to pay for something
and walk away with it (or drive/ride away) there's not really any
alternative. And why would we need one?
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For the same reason that the legislation came into effect in this
country (and it's nothing about convenience for the end-user!) - to
protect against criminal money-laundering.
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It's the money laundering regulations.
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indeed - these days if I were selling a bike privately, I'd just try
and arrange a transfer from my online banking to the vendor's account.
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You might want to look ahead on that. I think they're limited to about
2.5K, or at least there was some limit around that last time I tried
moving that kind of sum around.
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I regularly transfer sums of >5K between bank accounts by online
banking - never had a problem.
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Individial banks have different policies depending on the destination
account. With the banks I deal with internal transfers are usually
unlimited; transfers to an account with a different bank but in your own
name are limited, varies bewteen £3k & £10k. Transfers to third party
accounts sometimes have lower limits.
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It's not the amount as far as I can tell, well certainly not for my account.
The main issue I suspect with online banking re buying either a car or bike
is that it goes via BACS and takes 3 days. Not something I'd really want to
do for a private seller and without seeing the car/bike etc.
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They might be flagged but it would be simple in a legit vehicle transfer to
justify the debit & credit should Nanny State come knocking.
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But according to my bank it doesn't "clear", they take the money from
my account as soon as they write it.
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Indeed - but it doesn't credit mateys account until his bank has
interfaced with yours to ensure the draft is legit.
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Why use a draft? So many forgeries out there. Credit transfer, or (if
your credit limit allows it), use plastic, get the consumer protection,
and the Air Miles, loyalty points or whatever, and a month's
interest-free grace.
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I don't think you'll find many car dealers will accept credit cards [1]
because they pay a % commission which may wipe out their profit on the car.
[1] Well, that my understanding, not that my CC limit would have come close
to covering the payment anyway.
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