Chum lee wrote:
Nothing is for sure these days. IMO, a wire transfer is the safest way to transfer money. At the speed of light, you can confirm that the money was sent from your account. The recipient can confirm that the money has arrived in their account. It's usually best to execute transactions during business hours so there are bank people to talk to if there are issues.
Carrying large amounts of cash (over $10,000) is dangerous. Some (police) states can legally confiscate cash just because they THINK you are up to something nefarious. It happens all the time.
Chum lee
Not quite right. Yes the transfer itself is fast but then it breaks down. WT from bank to bank is initiated. A person or an electronic app has to debit your account. Your instructions are to send it to institution "X" that has routing number of "Y" for further credit to recipient "A", account # "B" (or in person upon presentation of proper identication). So if the 2 institutions are not correspondent banks (i.e., Bank X and Bank Y have bank clearing accounts with each other (doubtful when the buyer and seller are 89 miles apart) then the wire will be routed through the Federal Reserve bank appropriate to the district (in the OPs case, District 7, I think). Then Fed Res's accounting system debits the sending bank and credits the recipient bank and notice goes in the queue for the recipient bank. When recipient bank gets around to looking for FRS credits for the day, it will see that there is a credit for customer (seller) account number and then function a credit to that account number. Most of this process takes people noticing that something electronic has happened and then, following your instruction, moving it on to the next stage. So the transfers are lightning fast. The people functioning each stage are not.
If one institution is small, the person handling wire transfers might be out to lunch, might be in the middle of taking a loan application. Then the recipient after checking with his institution has to rely on that wire transfer dept to physically credit his account and notify him. In actuality, wire transfers often take several hours from sending to notification that the $ is there. WT have to be instituted prior to 3 pm for same day credit. Good part of the WT is that it is a safe way to physically transfer money in one day with no chance, once credited to the recipient'a account of there being a stop payment/reversal.
Face to face purchase - Cash is king. And don't do what someone on another current thread and that is pay cash to a dealer and leave with just the RV. One is buying the RV AND the title. She is still waiting. Get the signed off, including liens, title and make sure it gets to the DMV.
