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Selling A Car For Export. Scam Or Not?


Martin Keene

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Chaps...

I have got the wife's S2000 up for sale and have just received a call from a bloke in Germany who wants to buy it.

He found the advert on Pistonheads, not eBay, and was asking all the right questions, such as:

* Does it need anything doing in the near future

* Does the roof leak

* What's the clutch like

* Is it HPI clear

* etc

We have agreed a £500 deposit to be paid by direct bank transfer and he is bringing the remainder with on Friday in cash, at a time that will allow me to pay it directly into the bank. He says he needs a copy of the V5 to arrange short term insurance to drive the car back to Germany and register it there.

Questions:

1) Is an IBAN bank transfer safe, can he withdraw it or anything after paying?

2) Can he clone anything with the detauls for the IBAN transfer?

3) Can he do anything dodgy with a copy of the V5?

4) Anything else I should be looking out for?

This is all a bit new, last time I sold a car privately the internet didn't exist for Joe Bloggs in the street...

TIA

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Afraid I don't know the answer to any of your questions Martin, but just sold my car (to someone in this country) and all he required for insurance was the registration number.

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He's German so everything will be done by the book.

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IBAN is safe martin, but allow 5-7 working days for the fund to clear fully. Upon transfer the ballance will show in your account, but you can not draw from it. then 3 or so days later you can and is shown as available funds, but the payment from the payer is not yet fully cleared, this like cheques can take a full 5-7 working days. Once fully cleared you are safe, unless it is proved that you are part of a fraud. I think it meens International Bank account number and is as you can probably work out a compendium of your banc account number, and your banks BIC number.

He can not do anything with the V5 copy, the originals have water markes etc, but make sure that you do complete it correctly when exporting/selling. He will need this for the purpose of insuring and registering it locally prior to bringing it into Germany/europe, just a she says.

All good fella, but don't meet him as a service startion or other common meeting point, Meet him at the bank?

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Just re-read my OP, I should say, everything that has been 'agreed' so far has been verbally over the phone, he has sent me an email, with a list of what he needs from me, copy of the V5 and bank transfer details, so I get the remotest hint of not being happy with this it can all be easily canned.

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I would give the bank details first, then see if any cash turns up, then do the V5.

Obviously there are some details you should never give him....the long number on the front of your card, and the 3 digits on the back....but you knew that already i am sure.

All good to give are:

So acounts number

Sort code

BIC if you know it

IBAN if you know it

Full name as seen on the account holders details

Bank's address where the account is held

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I've sold quite a few bits via iban with no problem, probably a couple of grands worth in total. The most expensive was £600 worth of diving gear which I posted to Honk Kong. As your getting the rest in cash which is going straight into the bank I'd say it all sounds pretty sound.

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sounds normal for european buyers ,duna worry ,send bank details and wait for depsit then send the v5 copy ,this is normal to

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My mate just sold his S15 to a guy from Germany. Think the exchange rate must be making our cars quite appealing

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IBAN is safe martin, but allow 5-7 working days for the fund to clear fully. Upon transfer the ballance will show in your account, but you can not draw from it. then 3 or so days later you can and is shown as available funds, but the payment from the payer is not yet fully cleared, this like cheques can take a full 5-7 working days. Once fully cleared you are safe, unless it is proved that you are part of a fraud. I think it meens International Bank account number and is as you can probably work out a compendium of your banc account number, and your banks BIC number.

He can not do anything with the V5 copy, the originals have water markes etc, but make sure that you do complete it correctly when exporting/selling. He will need this for the purpose of insuring and registering it locally prior to bringing it into Germany/europe, just a she says.

All good fella, but don't meet him as a service startion or other common meeting point, Meet him at the bank?

He is in London with work and is proposing to catch the train to Peterborough on Friday, I pick up from the train station, show him the car, take the cash to the bank while he is still here, he drives home. That is the plan for the minute

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Thought I'd posted that response earlier, turns out I hadn't, I have emailed the guy the IBAN details. We'll see what happens.

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Right, so he has emailed back acknowledging receipt of the IBAN details and has attached a contract from carbuyingtips.com, in which he put his name and address, the car, the price and deposit agreed and signed it.

On the bottom of the form he has also added:

1) Buyer will send deposit of £500 via banc transfer to sellers account on 12th March 2012

2) Seller will declare car as sold till 16th March 2012

3) Seller will refund the deposit if car has a hidden damage which was not listed in the advertisement

4) Seller will meet buyer at Peterborough train station on Friday 16th March to collect the 4100gbp in cash and to give over the car inc all keys and V5 document

Seems to be legit...

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Why mess around with IBAN, just email him and say it's yours, if he is in the UK. Just bring £4600 in cash with you to Peterborough and once banked you can take the car ???

Not sure if the damage thing could be a get out clause for the recall of deposit :(

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Yeah I would probably agree with the above, what's the worst that can happen? you have the car for an extra week?

Anyone that phones in the mean time tell them its provisionally sold but take their details just in case.

Seems like less hassle with little risk to me, and deposit or not he'll either take the car on friday or not.

Doug

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