Selling - okay to take a personal check?

[jpwiggo]

Selling my Class A DP. Is it okay to take a personal check for the funds? I DO NOT transfer title until the funds clear.

Thus if the check bounces then that's fraud, perhaps even grand theft auto.

I know most suggest certified check, but those are easy to scam today anyway. (You need to call the back to verify, and find the bank number from Google, and confirm its a real bank.)

[tropical36]

jpwiggo wrote:
Selling my Class A DP. Is it okay to take a personal check for the funds? I DO NOT transfer title until the funds clear.

Thus if the check bounces then that's fraud, perhaps even grand theft auto.

I know most suggest certified check, but those are easy to scam today anyway. (You need to call the back to verify, and find the bank number from Google, and confirm its a real bank.)

Best way is to escort him to his bank, do the title work there and maybe have them direct deposit into yours.
I did demand cash from a buyer once and ended up with a huge pile of $100 bills. Counting them correctly was bad enough and then it made me nervous with carrying that much to our bank, so.....

[JALLEN4]

jpwiggo wrote:
Every car I have bought in the past. I walk into a dealership, write a personal check and then drive a car away right then. Bought three used cars for my three boys this way. Just did another one this week.

The dealer told me that he would hold the title until my out of state personal check cleared. Then mail me the title. I drove away.

Everything we do has risk, but I don't see a negative to taking a personal check. Now if I did not get a good feel for the person, or got bad vibes - that's different.

I did some research and yes if they pass a bad check -it is grand theft auto, if they don't make good on the funds. Insurance covers scams and theft.

Again, not transferring the title, and keeping my own tags.

People wish to assume that because it is Illegal and the dealer has insurance, all is good with them. Having been down that road more than once, I can assure you it is not. Insurance never pays the full loss and getting law enforcement involved with fraud across state lines or even locally can be very difficult in retail sales.

What the public does and what dealers do should never be confused. I often took checks and delivered cars but my people also took steps to limit the liability. On a minimum we made an effort to verify the check and to look up the people and address to confirm validity. Often we ran a credit report. If you can actually verify the person is listed as a resident at the address on the check and if they have good credit, you are most likely good to go. Still, not always.Even on purchases from our Rolls Royce store, if we did not know the people and the check was for the whole car, the only acceptable payment method was a wire transfer. We did not accept cashiers checks.

[rk911]

jpwiggo wrote:
Every car I have bought in the past. I walk into a dealership, write a personal check and then drive a car away right then. Bought three used cars for my three boys this way. Just did another one this week.

The dealer told me that he would hold the title until my out of state personal check cleared. Then mail me the title. I drove away.

Everything we do has risk, but I don't see a negative to taking a personal check. Now if I did not get a good feel for the person, or got bad vibes - that's different.

I did some research and yes if they pass a bad check -it is grand theft auto, if they don't make good on the funds. Insurance covers scams and theft.

Again, not transferring the title, and keeping my own tags.

research can be worth what you paid for it. call your agent and be sure before you proceed. what's the worst that can happen? the check bounes, the theif has your RV, he changes the VIN, forges a title, sells it and, discarding his alias, disappears.

but if you're so set on accepting a personal check why ask the question in the first place?

good luck to you.

[T18skyguy]

time2roll wrote:

T18skyguy wrote:
I know a guy who took $10,000 in cash out of US Bank. When he got home he discovered that several thousand of it was counterfeit. He took the bad money back to the bank, they would not take it back.

Did he tell them it was counterfeit?

Maybe it is best to have the pen right there at the bank.

Yes he told them it was counterfeit, but there is no way for the bank to be sure that he didn't do the substitution. Banks do unwittingly pass counterfeit notes. They even have a machine that weighs each bill. Don't know how they didn't catch it but they didn't. The last person holding the bad money loses I suppose.

[jpwiggo]

Every car I have bought in the past. I walk into a dealership, write a personal check and then drive a car away right then. Bought three used cars for my three boys this way. Just did another one this week.

The dealer told me that he would hold the title until my out of state personal check cleared. Then mail me the title. I drove away.

Everything we do has risk, but I don't see a negative to taking a personal check. Now if I did not get a good feel for the person, or got bad vibes - that's different.

I did some research and yes if they pass a bad check -it is grand theft auto, if they don't make good on the funds. Insurance covers scams and theft.

Again, not transferring the title, and keeping my own tags.

[gutfelt]

Edd505 wrote:

Bird Freak wrote:
If the buyer is serious he will find a way to do it when the bank is open.

Yep write the check while in the bank with the buyer, the bank will verify the funds before they deposit it into your account.

lets get back to basics here the OP clearly said the buyer can not come to his place during banking hours that's why he asked about taking a cheque and holding the title till the check clears in full

[Edd505]

Bird Freak wrote:
If the buyer is serious he will find a way to do it when the bank is open.

Yep write the check while in the bank with the buyer, the bank will verify the funds before they deposit it into your account.

[Bird_Freak]

If the buyer is serious he will find a way to do it when the bank is open.

[gutfelt]

yes but there not reversible in the context of what we are talking;;
That is funds are paid to you in the correct amount ;; any scenario other than than this not at all related to or come into play in this situation so therefore a wire transfer is 100% safe

[DownTheAvenue]

rgatijnet1 wrote:

DownTheAvenue wrote:

rgatijnet1 wrote:

DownTheAvenue wrote:
Meet the buyer at his bank and get cash directly from the bank. Then immediately buy a cashiers check with that cash. That is the safest way. That way, the buyer cannot stop payment on any check, and he has no control over any of the funds you receive. If he buys a cashier check, he can stop payment on it.

Accepting a personal check is not wise. Always meet the buyer at his bank.

A lot of banks do not have much cash on hand anymore, without making prior arrangements. I prefer a wire transfer directly in to my account. It cannot be reversed, the funds are verified by my bank, and I don't have to worry about anything that could go wrong.

All done at the same bank, you would not actually be holding that much cash, I used that more to describe the transaction.

Wire transfers can be reversed.

Can a Transfer Be Reversed After Being Accepted?

Once a wire transfer has been accepted by the recipient's bank, there are only a few circumstances that allow for the reversal of the wire transfer under the Uniform Commercial Code. The only available options for reversing a completed transfer are if the sending bank made a mistake, if the payment order was a duplicate of a previous order, or if the order is for an amount greater than the beneficiary was entitled to receive under the transfer. In those cases, the beneficiary's bank will recover the funds improperly paid to the beneficiary.

Thank you for confirming my statement that wire transfers can be reversed.

[gutfelt]

well my point was I guess is your not simply going to claim it as a theft through your insurance company if the check comes back as no good ;; All I know if someone wants my unit and its a personal check the unit stays with me till the cheque clears;; obviously I would have given them a written signed bill of sale with those conditions but frankly I would just most likely never do it that way in the first place

[DrewE]

gutfelt wrote:

I personally think your dead wrong;1)You tell your insurance company that you allowed a stranger to take your MH and the check bounces even though you still hold title ? there going to say to you "Not our problem" wheres the theft claim? you gave it to them willingly
and 2) why would you ever take such a risk? do as I suggested earlier Hold the title and the unit till the check clears and offer to deliver the unit

If I were a buyer, there is no way I would deal with a seller who took my money but would turn over neither the motorhome nor the title until the check cleared. It may very much reduce their need to trust that I'm acting in good faith, but it requires that I put full trust in their acting in good faith. In other words, it is simply shifting the risk from the buyer to the seller, and I suspect few if any buyers would be willing to accept the sort of risk that few buyers are willing to accept.

When I bought my motorhome from a private individual, I brought a bank check to them and they turned over the title and keys. It worked out fine; we were both dealing honestly.

[gutfelt]

jpwiggo wrote:
There can be scams in most methods. Including CASH and nobody is going to be able to get $50K+ cash. I'm talking to potential buyers who are hours away, and we can only meet on weekends when banks/title offices are closed.

Asking the question differently. If I hold the official title, and don't transfer it until a personal check funds clear - I think I'm okay and protected. If the funds don't clear - this is theft. I gotta believe then my insurance would cover.

I personally think your dead wrong;1)You tell your insurance company that you allowed a stranger to take your MH and the check bounces even though you still hold title ? there going to say to you "Not our problem" wheres the theft claim? you gave it to them willingly
and 2) why would you ever take such a risk? do as I suggested earlier Hold the title and the unit till the check clears and offer to deliver the unit

[time2roll]

T18skyguy wrote:
I know a guy who took $10,000 in cash out of US Bank. When he got home he discovered that several thousand of it was counterfeit. He took the bad money back to the bank, they would not take it back.

Did he tell them it was counterfeit?

Maybe it is best to have the pen right there at the bank.