How to pay - bank transfer?

[CrawfW]

I should be buying a new-to-me run about today, for ~5k from a private individual. Does anyone know if a bank transfer from the first direct app should be quick?

Or is there a better way to do it?! Also have Starling...

(Got stuck in Blackpool a few years ago trying to buy something much more expensive, which the bank decided was fraud. Ended up in a hotel for 2 days!)

[Ziplobb]

If you had an experience as described surely you would go with cash on the hip ?
Personally I dont have two days left in my life to dedicate to buying a used car for £5k if something you have no control over goes wrong

[Wilmslowboy]

Ring them up (rather than do it online) and they can walk you through any additional security checks.

My last three payments (up to £50k) for private car purchases have all gone through within a couple of hours, sometimes quicker.


I also find setting the payee up in advance can help, by doing a £10 online payment.

[nick1871]

Ask the seller for their bank details now, then send £1 and save as a payee. Ask them to confirm receipt.

When you collect the car you transfer the rest of the money and all should go smoothly.

[James-gbg1e]

Should be done via "Faster Payments" so it usually shows up within minutes, but I would use telephone banking to pay it, they'll avoid your account being blocked by fraud detection.

Make sure you have viewed the car and you're happy before making the payment.

[TheInternet]

Wilmslowboy said:

My last three payments (up to £50k) for private car purchases have all gone through within a couple of hours, sometimes quicker.

Is there not a daily transfer limit in place? I was expecting to have to do it in chunks over multiple days.

[oilslick]

TheInternet said:

Is there not a daily transfer limit in place? I was expecting to have to do it in chunks over multiple days.

Depends on your bank, the limit imposed by the faster payments scheme is £250k but most banks have considerably lower limits than this.

[clockworks]

I'd be wary of trusting an online bank transfer for anything over a few hundred quid these days, unless you have plenty of time to spare if it gets picked up as a potential fraud.

I opened a new current account with Nationwide last week. I'm an existing Nationwide customer, and this new account pays a bit of interest on balances. Very easy to open the account.

The problem came when I tried to transfer £1500 into it from my Lloyds current account. I set up the Nationwide account as a new payee, and transferred £1 just to make sure that I'd entered all the details correctly. Payment went through.

I then tried to transfer £1500. Got a message saying that it had been flagged as a potential fraud, and if I didn't ring Lloyds within 24 hours, my account would be suspended.
I was on hold for 35 minutes before I got to speak to a real person. All they did was ask me if I was doing the transfer of my own free will, or had someone asked me to do it.

Quite a bit of back and forth, me asking how it could possibly be a fraud/scam, since the account I was transferring to was in my own name?

What got me was, they only asked for details that were easily visible on the online banking screen - no additional security checks - so the whole thing was pointless.


I'd just take cash, safer and easier for everyone, unless you get mugged. I can't see a private seller turning down a wad of readies - unless they are £50 notes.
Whenever I'm buying or upgrading from a dealer, I always ask what their cash limit is. So far, £5k has been OK at most places. If I'm spending more than that, it goes on a credit card.

[Tye Green]

clockworks said:

I'd just take cash, safer and easier for everyone, unless you get mugged..

the possibility of getting mugged would be a real concern to me

[SIMON67]

When I've bought / sold a car in the past few years, I've always just used a bank transfer via mobile app. Never had a problem. Sold my motorhome a few weeks ago and the private buyer just pinged me £20k from his bank to mine on his phone. I think that bank transfers are un-reversible and pretty safe. Only took a minute for the money to appear in my account. I'd have felt a lot less confident with cash

[DodgyGeezer]

Tye Green said:

clockworks said:

I'd just take cash, safer and easier for everyone, unless you get mugged..

the possibility of getting mugged would be a real concern to me

This ^^^ I sold a vehicle about 5 years ago, recieved £15k cash - after bank closing time. Although I'd agreed to buy another car a few hours away for the same amount it was a (nervy) 18 hours or so.

[Jamescrs]

HSBC will allow you to transfer upto I think £10k via the app, so I would expect First Direct to be the same.

I bouhgt a car for over that and had to use a PC and their website to do it with extra security checks, thats how I found out

[trevt]

I also bank with First Direct and have transferred more via Faster payment.

I always do what is said above - set up new payee, transfer £1 in advance and confirm receipt before transferring remainder. However for a new payee FD only allow 1 payment in 24 hours, bit of a bummer as i transferred the £1 @ 10 pm the night before and tried to pay the balance 3 pm next day

[Wagonwheel555]

As said above, send an initial £1 and make sure the recipient gets it. Then send the rest.

People buy cars with bank transfer every day, I would bet hundreds of them.

Faster payments is usually instant, I’ve only had it take longer once and have sent several thousands plenty of times for cars or other purchases etc.

As a seller, cash would put me off as I can’t be bothered to find somewhere to pay it in. Having to drive to my local town, pay to park just makes me think nah, can’t be arsed.

Edited by Wagonwheel555 on Monday 30th August 16:17

[lost in espace]

Watch out if it is a Revolut account or one that is not mainstream, stick to main bank to main bank.

[DodgyGeezer]

Jamescrs said:

HSBC will allow you to transfer upto I think £10k via the app, so I would expect First Direct to be the same.

I bouhgt a car for over that and had to use a PC and their website to do it with extra security checks, thats how I found out

this was another issue for me recently both on buying and selling. Bought my current car outright and was only able to transfer batches of cash over to the garage (lucky he knew me so I was able to take the car there and then). Sold my old car and the buyer had to transfer over the course of 3 days - was not fun for them (squeaky bum time to be fair)

[Wilmslowboy]

TheInternet said:

Wilmslowboy said:

My last three payments (up to £50k) for private car purchases have all gone through within a couple of hours, sometimes quicker.

Is there not a daily transfer limit in place? I was expecting to have to do it in chunks over multiple days.

Yes, I think my online limit is £40k (£10k for any one single payment), I just call through now - saves loads of fraud alerts being set off.

[anonymous-user]

Sold a car last year and the money never turned up after the transfer.
Long wait for the buyer over the Xmas period waiting for the money to arrive in my account while I held onto the car.

I wouldn't accept any cash and always put on adverts bank transfer only.

[esuuv]

it's not that hard - I paid 30k for a car last year privately- HSBC limits 20k a day so as suggested above - send him a hundred or so maybe as a deposit, check it works - then do the rest.......

The bank systems check names etc match on payments now so it's much harder for the money to go missing.