Faster payments...not always fast!
Discussion
Hi,
Just wanted to share and warn you all about my experience today.
I went to view a car on Saturday. The car looked great and the paperwork was in order so I agreed to buy it. I logged onto my online banking and set the seller up as a payee, then transferred £500 as a deposit. The payment was received by the seller within a couple of minutes.
I returned today to collect the car and pay the balance.
I transferred £9500 to the seller. The money left my account. Then we waited for the funds to show up in the sellers account.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited.
After an hour or so, we both called our banks. Both said that it can take up to 2 hours, sometimes longer if the payment is suspected of fraud.
We waited another hour or so, and still no sign of the money.
To cut a long story short, I called my bank again 6 hours after the payment was made and they told me that the payment had been processed and not held up by them, so it must be the receivers bank that hasn't released it. They offerered to put a trace on the payment.
The seller called their bank and they said that no payment was being held by them.
After another 2 hours, the seller contacts me to say they just received the payment.
TLDR: Be careful buying cars with faster payments and have a backup plan for if your payment disappears for hours!
Just wanted to share and warn you all about my experience today.
I went to view a car on Saturday. The car looked great and the paperwork was in order so I agreed to buy it. I logged onto my online banking and set the seller up as a payee, then transferred £500 as a deposit. The payment was received by the seller within a couple of minutes.
I returned today to collect the car and pay the balance.
I transferred £9500 to the seller. The money left my account. Then we waited for the funds to show up in the sellers account.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited.
After an hour or so, we both called our banks. Both said that it can take up to 2 hours, sometimes longer if the payment is suspected of fraud.
We waited another hour or so, and still no sign of the money.
To cut a long story short, I called my bank again 6 hours after the payment was made and they told me that the payment had been processed and not held up by them, so it must be the receivers bank that hasn't released it. They offerered to put a trace on the payment.
The seller called their bank and they said that no payment was being held by them.
After another 2 hours, the seller contacts me to say they just received the payment.
TLDR: Be careful buying cars with faster payments and have a backup plan for if your payment disappears for hours!
Had this before myself, so the next car I bought (for similar money as the OP) I decided I'd pay cash.
Went to get cash from HSBC and they look at you like you're lying when you mention previous problems with internet banking transfers, and you don't half get the Spanish Inquisition when you say you want 10k cash. Internet, Cash, it's potentially a painful experience either way in my experience.
The fastest/ safest way seems to be to go to your Branch and pay £30 for a BACS Transfer. Rip-off, but fast, safe & reliable.
Went to get cash from HSBC and they look at you like you're lying when you mention previous problems with internet banking transfers, and you don't half get the Spanish Inquisition when you say you want 10k cash. Internet, Cash, it's potentially a painful experience either way in my experience.
The fastest/ safest way seems to be to go to your Branch and pay £30 for a BACS Transfer. Rip-off, but fast, safe & reliable.
I've bought two cars that way in the last few years and the money was in the sellers' banks buy the time it took to drink a coffee. However, I recently made an on-line payment to a frequent payee and I did spot a message telling me it could take up to 24 hrs - I think that was the time period, I didn't pay it any attention as it didn't cause a problem. Obviously it would if car buying so worth checking out with your bank first.
SteveSteveson said:
Cash is a huge risk for large amounts. Anyone paying or accepting thousands in cash without very careful checking is a fool.
Well no one would just take all that cash and do the deal. You'd sit and check every note, then get a friend to check it too. Still sounds quicker than the OPs methodLast time I bought a nearly new for almost 15K from a dealer, a deposit was paid using credit card, £250 rings a bell. On collection day, we just stuck remaining balance through on the debit card. Its a bit worrying watching nigh on 15K disappear just by entering a PIN number on the chip and pin terminal. Transaction approved in the usual amount of time, job done.
My neighbour just bought a used VW polo privately, their bank transfer took a long time to go through and the seller was not letting the car go until he had his money. One hour after the transfer my neighbour got a call from the fraud department confirming it was him making the transfer and did some ID checks with him, it took another 2 hours for the funds to eventually transfer so whilst they waited the seller and my neighbour ended up going to a coffee shop and waited whilst having a coffee.
My neighbour just bought a used VW polo privately, their bank transfer took a long time to go through and the seller was not letting the car go until he had his money. One hour after the transfer my neighbour got a call from the fraud department confirming it was him making the transfer and did some ID checks with him, it took another 2 hours for the funds to eventually transfer so whilst they waited the seller and my neighbour ended up going to a coffee shop and waited whilst having a coffee.
About 20 years ago I tried withdrawing the huge sum of £2,000 in cash from Barclays in Stamford, in order to visit BCA Peterborough. I was told they needed two days' notice, as they didn't have that much cash 'spare' at that moment. I'm not sure if it was true, but I felt a bit sorry for any potential bank robbers that day
I had the same thing, sat in a sellers house for most of a day after I'd sent the money. It was awful. I thought he was scamming me, and no doubt he thought I was scamming him. Both banks were useless as well on the phone trying to find out what the f
k was going on. Eventually it showed up.
k was going on. Eventually it showed up.280E said:
About 20 years ago I tried withdrawing the huge sum of £2,000 in cash from Barclays in Stamford, in order to visit BCA Peterborough. I was told they needed two days' notice, as they didn't have that much cash 'spare' at that moment. I'm not sure if it was true, but I felt a bit sorry for any potential bank robbers that day
Times have changed, a couple of months bank I went into Barclays to withdraw that amount and was told I could have taken it from an ATM - whether or not dynamite would be needed they didn't say but that's what they said. As their ATM is in the window in full view of anyone passing I prefer not to use it so pick up my pocket money at the counter.Same experience when I bought a car privately a few years back, I gave the seller £250 in cash and then wanted to send the remainder via bank transfer. So i setup a new payee via my phone app, transferred £3k, nothing showed up after waiting in sellers house for 30mins.
Only so much small talk can be said and in the end I asked him to call me when the funds showed up. I made sure I got him to write a note saying that I had paid x amount cash and x amount was pending and got him to sign it.
1 hour later bank phones me up, fraud department, went through some checks, they released funds, seller called me within 10 minutes to say money had been received, I went back and picked up car.
On the other hand, last year I paid £10k via the same card (account) via chip and pin for my next car and it went through instantly.
Only so much small talk can be said and in the end I asked him to call me when the funds showed up. I made sure I got him to write a note saying that I had paid x amount cash and x amount was pending and got him to sign it.
1 hour later bank phones me up, fraud department, went through some checks, they released funds, seller called me within 10 minutes to say money had been received, I went back and picked up car.
On the other hand, last year I paid £10k via the same card (account) via chip and pin for my next car and it went through instantly.
I work in this area.
Faster payments is not instant payment, the SLA is indeed 2 hours. However, it is mostly instant. Of the millions of transactions a day, some, like big payments are queued for fraud checking. For this, don't blame financial organisations, blame the regulatory bodies. They're only attempting to stop you getting scammed, and for the most part, this is completely transparent.
You can pay for a chaps transaction but if you're buying privately, and it's a large sum that cash is inappropriate, use a bankers draft and ask the seller if they'll accept one. Alternatively, meet the seller at a branch. You can withdraw cash in a safe environment and the seller can pay it in if it's his account or take it nearby to their branch.
Faster payments is not instant payment, the SLA is indeed 2 hours. However, it is mostly instant. Of the millions of transactions a day, some, like big payments are queued for fraud checking. For this, don't blame financial organisations, blame the regulatory bodies. They're only attempting to stop you getting scammed, and for the most part, this is completely transparent.
You can pay for a chaps transaction but if you're buying privately, and it's a large sum that cash is inappropriate, use a bankers draft and ask the seller if they'll accept one. Alternatively, meet the seller at a branch. You can withdraw cash in a safe environment and the seller can pay it in if it's his account or take it nearby to their branch.
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