My wifes family has been in banking forever and today she really couldnt give me a good answer. Most cashiers checks have lines in the paper that show up when you hold it up to the light. There is a water mark and I believe some other features. So do you trust it? Could it be a fake? Can the buyer put a stop payment on the check as soon as they have your car? Most guys dont want to carry that much cash. Its easy if you both have accounts at the same bank but what if you dont? Do you go to his bank and say draw up the check right there from his account? Seems like the only 100% safe way to do it.

you can always have the buyer wire money straight into your account from his/her bank, then hand over the car and title when it shows up

i got burned before. i would do cash or wire

Yes. The banks wont even give you a clear answer on this. It takes "a few days or so" (quote from my bank) before the funds are clear. To top that, they wont even let you know if the funds are clear or not. Cash is King.


I recently sold my sand car. the best way for me to do it (I have BofA, he had chase) was to open a chase bank account and transfer the funds over right into my new account. Pain in the ass but other than cash, its probably the best way

When I sold my rail I had the guy do a wire transfer and when the funds showed up I gave him the car and pink. To me it's the only safe way of doing a sale....

I know on Real Estate deals it can take time for a wire to go through the system. I Assume this is the same deal. Pretty sure all funds go through one of the 12 Federal reserve banks.
Lets say it takes 2 hours. So the buyer sends the wire from his bank and I am sitting at my bank waiting for it to clear. Then he comes over to wait with with me. Title in hand but no go until the wire comes through. Sure seems like a pain.
My wife suggested the cash thing but who wants to walk around with that much in their pocket.

How about we give it a few extra days and I tell the buyer to open an account with Wells Fargo my bank. Wait until the funds are good and then do the transfer at the same time I hand over the title.

I always go with the buyer to their bank and either watch the teller draft the cashiers check or get cash.

i bought mine with cashiers check had seller meet at my bank and he cashed it right there i dont know why he just did not me to show up with cash

Anytime I've tried to get alot of cash they told me no.. I had to make a request once and wait 3 days to get 30k out....
Only way I would accept a cashiers check is if I went to the bank with him and watched the teller draft it..

keep it for 2 weeks. if it passes you will know, if not you will know weven more!

I recently sold a lotus and the buyer was in cali (I'm in AZ), he sent it threw paypal and it showed in my account right away but cleared 2 days later, the buyer had a transport campany sit at my house the day the money cleared, when I got home we loaded it up, the funny part was he wanted it so bad he bought it with out ever seeing it...

i only deal with my good friend cash. the last truck i sold i was paid with a big stack of hundreds, i checked em with one of them pens while i counted it. easy deal. the trucks i parted with before that were paid with cashiers checks and the transaction was kind of a pain in the ass.

Yes they can put a stop payment on a cashiers check. They can have the check drawn up leave the bank with it in hand go outside call and have a stop payment put on it and still have the check in their hands and it is no good.
It is not as safe as some are led to believe. cash is KING.

Wire transfer...... no risk and minimal wait time to final transfer.

This is the easist and safest way to do this. The cashiers check in your name is good as gold.

If lost or stolen yes, problem with C.C's is fraud I would be fine if I picked it up in HIS bank.

100% true. The issuer can stop payment on a cashier check anytime they want up to 10 days later. I will take a Cashier check but the check must be filled out with my name as the issuer and payee. Yes the bank will do that.. you are the only one that can cancel or reissue the check if lost. Make them do it at the bank and you are golden. A very wise and rich man taught me that years ago. He made me do it on our first transaction I think to teach me a lesson. Now we do hand shake deals all the time. Wire transfers can be stopped aswell if they don't hit your account. much harder to do but there is still a small risk. If the wire shows up pending in your account you should be fine.

Even the pen isn't a sure bet. Counterfeiters bleach $5 bills and reprint with $100. The pens says they are good.

The security strip still says "Five USA" though.

CASH

wire transfer is very safe...once it's in your account it's Done.
In fact if they srcrew up with a wrong account # it takes a court order to correct it.

Cashiers checks are no different than a regular check as far as i'm concerned. They can be faked, forged, and washed. I've heard of people getting money orders for $10, washing them and changing the amount to $10,000. The cashiers check is real, no way to tell it's not, but it won't clear for the amount typed in.

I do a lot of wire transfers for overseas accounts and have had some people local use wire as well. It takes a few hours to go through but it's guaranteed funds..

I set up the wire account in a free checking account at a different bank, once it clears, I write a check to my company from my company that I deposit in my main account at another bank. I'm kinda paranoid about that, but when someone is wire transferring you well over a 100k, you wanna make sure it's not going anywhere, lol.......

Go to their bank and its a done deal. Have the bank issue the check to you and then plan what your going to spend it on while your driving home.

Do what one duner already said. Open an account at there bank. Takes about 20 minutes. Then have them transfer the money into your account done deal. Have bank transfer the money from that account into your normally used account. Done deal and very safe. No waiting on checks to clear and worring the whole time.

I once had a cashier's check issued by B of A, and I took it to another branch of B of A to cash it. They had to call back to the first branch to verify the check. The teller told me that cashier's checks were so rampantly and easily forged, that they don't trust them at all, not even their own.


What's wrong with cash? I've carried large sums in cash in a brown paper bag on several occasions. The trick is to not climb out of a Bentley wearing a $6,000 suit and a Patek Philippe. Just wear some raggedy jeans and a t-shirt. Leave the bag under the seat until everything is inspected, the contract is signed and the handshake is done, then bring it out.

Just make sure if you're withdrawing or depositing large sums, move less than $10K at a time. $10K or more must be reported to the IRS by the institution.

EXACTLY..

When I bought my boat, I took the seller to my back and got him a check directly from my bank.

If I was selling, I would go to the buyers bank personally and get the check.

I would NOT trust a cashiers check if I did not see it come from the tellers window, Cashiers checks are very easy to forge.

either CASH or I want to see the check come out of the tellers hands...no ands ifs or buts

A stop payment can still be put on it as soon as you walk away.



Cash is king.

At some point the buyer is going to tell you to go eff yourself..

I've used cashiers checks for all my toy purchases never any issues with me the buyer or the seller. I also make the check in both parties name (and/or) so if the deal breaks down I re-deposit my money.

Seriously I understand the paranoia, but wow some of you are just extreme.

Also as a buyer I'd have no problem with the seller asking me to go to the bank with them to get the wire or check from the teller. It does add a little more logistics to the deal though;
where to meet for inspection
where to make hand-off, do you the seller have a trailer at the bank with the buyer with his empty trailer, then get your check and move sold car to buyers trailer
wierd issues to think of

who's to say the sellers not the shady character, shows you the item at said location, you two go to the bank seller gets your money, you go back to get the item and bam its all cleared out, WTF then?

Who were you calling paranoid?

I hear ya and have done it before. Wearing grubby levis and an old rag T-shirt no one would know but at some point in larger amounts even hundreds are going to show some bulges




I agree. I bet 99.9% of the time things are fine. The last few vehicles we have bought have been financed with Think bank in Minnesota and they just send a check made to me and the seller. Never had someone else have a problem with it. Good info in this thread and for sure I know what to do to be safe.

Sadly, the Feds allow (Insist even) the deposit of a cashiers check without any verification..

and allow access to part of the value of that check..

That's the flaw in the system the crooks use to scam you..

Deposit the check, forward funds somewhere else.. (Shipper, agent, car transport, etc)

Check bounces ten days later, your account is debited for total amount..

You wonder what happened..

Cash only sales! If you absolutely have to, sit with him at the bank and have it transferred.

The last cahiers check I got was drawn on a wells Fargo account, so I took it to wells Fargo & asked to speak to the branch manager, she comes over & I talked to her about the possibility of there being any chance of fraud, could they come back to me in 6 months & say the check was no good, after she verifies the check she told me ounce she cashes that check the funds are automatically withdrawn from that account & its done, so what I did is have her cash that cashiers check & issues me a new one & I then took that check to my bank & deposited it.

Oh I forgot to mention that I didn’t release the car until then!!

x2 the only safe way to do it drive with him there and then drive to your bank and deposit. My wife works at a bank and we had funds available when we sold our truck