What forms of payment would you take for a private sale of boat?

[TSCTSC]

I know most people require cash and cashier's check. Is it very unsafe or dangerous to accept personal checks. If the check bounces and the papers have been signed and the boat taken, what can I do? Thanks

[nofishfisherman]

I know in the furniture store that I use to work in when someone paid with a check that bounced and they had already picked up their furniture there was very little we could do. We could call the police but they never did track down the people who did this. I would stay away from the personal check if I were you. Anyone legit can go to the bank and get a money order as well that will protect you.

[TSCTSC]

Wow...even a Merchant is powerless against such checks? I though that they have some cost recovery fee that Walmart displays. Bounced checks are levied 20 to 30 dollars to the person who wrote the check and the amount is still taken off their account right?

[nofishfisherman]

If the person is a criminal the chances of them writing a check for an account that is active is pretty low. If the account is open and the person using it is the person who wrote the bad check then there is something you can do. But in the case at our store the check was from an account that had been closed, so there was no account to penalize.

[Valv]

Don't ever take a personal check unless it's somebody you know and trust 120%.

Only way I would accept it if they will come back to pickup item after 10 days or when check cashed.

I've got burned many times, and now it's one of my basic policies, no checks.

[Slyster]

C.O.D. is the best way to go. $100 bills don't take a lot of space. Or straight from the bank money order / bank check.

[lawdog]

Its definitely the safest and best policy to require cash or money order. You do have some chance of a remedy if the person passes a bad check intentionally though, its a crime to do so and I prosecute them all the time in our office. Its a hassle though and will take a long time to get anywhere with that, if you even do... I think some counties tend to not want to prosecute that as a criminal offense and going civilly is really tough as you are probably trying to collect a debt from an insolvent dead beat...

[Random guy]

NO checks! I had to go re-pop an ATV after a bad check from a guy I worked with!

Cash, cashiers check, or if they insist on bringing a check just tell them to take it to their bank and cash it out and bring back the cash, if the check is good they have the money in the account and it won't be a problem for them to get cash. If they seem like that is a hassle I would start to wonder a little.

Plus if you don't know this person it may not even be their check. Now you have a bad check and some unknown guy has just drove away with your boat. I always try to get a license plate number or some form of identification just incase something comes up later even when doing a cash deal.

[mamohr686]

On my last boat sale I accepted a personal check but I didn't send the title until the check cleared. The buyer was from out of state and he wanted to drive the boat before we finalized our price. I guess if you think the person is honest, and you write up a bill of sale using their driver's liscence information it would be easy to track them down (but probably hard to retrive your boat or payment). I guess it comes down to what your comfortable with and the price of the boat.

[dfv87]

In the words of our former Famous or IMFamous Viking Randy Moss "Straight Cash Baby!"

I would go with a money order or cashier check. Personal checks are no good, trust me or not.

[boatluvr]

If you are negotiating the sale, cash speaks volumes. I just purchased a used boat. I was negotiating the price down %10 less then he wanted. He was not moving on the price but a couple hundred dollars. When I pulled out an envelope of $100 bills and said I really wanted to make a deal today .... the negotiating seemed to magically get very close to my number. I just sold my old 14' boat for less then my bottom line, because the guy came with cash and wanted to drive it away immediately.

[Bobby Bass]

I'll drive them to the bank for cash. To bad it has to be that way but even with my business I have had some local banks that are just a real pain to cash personal checks with.

[Slyster]

I once was selling a Honda Magna V45 motorcycle.. was a nice bike.. and the guy left his wallet and car to give a test ride. That wsa the last time I ever saw that motorcycle in one piece!.. it was found totaled in Duluth weeks later. Called 911 after I started getting worried.. the car was stolen and the wallet empty. I didn't even THINK to look. I've wised up that's for sure. C.O.D for anything worth over $100 and sold in person.

[Eric Wettschreck]

I take cash.

[Bobby Bass]

Gas Card?

[Mr. Nailz]

Think twice before you take a money order also. There has been some problems with them lately as well. There is no way to guarentee them. Straight cash homey or a bank cashiers check only.

[nofishfisherman]

Am I wrong but I thought a Money Order was right from a bank. The only way to get one from the bank is to give them the money for it. If you want a $500 money order you have to give the bank tellar $500 cash plus a small fee, or they could withdraw the money directly from your account. It should be as good as cash since it was backed by the cash or moeny from the account at the bank.

What is the probelm with money orders? How are they not guarenteed?

[WigglinMyWorm]

I know in Fargo here that you need the drivers liscence of the person on the check....imprinted or hand written...doesn't matter....if you have the DL# the county will prosecute and if it is over $500 it becomes criminal and is a felony.

[deepportage01]

F,Y,I, If you write a check for over $500.00 in MN and it is bad that is a felony.5 years in jail[not likely but worth the breath to point out]and with a felony on your record you can kiss hunting with a fire arm in MN away.Oh and you can't buy them ether with a felony.So write me a bad check it is your ---

[TiredOfWorking]

While money orders are often treated as cash, banks consider money orders the same as checks and, as such, they can place the same holds as federal regulations allow on local or nonlocal checks. Regulations call for U.S. Postal Service money orders to be treated as cash under certain circumstances, but a Federal Reserve spokeswoman says they, too, can be treated the same as checks for hold purposes when necessary. Also, there has been a huge increase in the forgery of money orders recently.

Go to library.findlawdotcom and serch for "money order" There is an informative article entitled "How Safe is a Money Order?"

http://library.findlaw.com/1997/Dec/1/131519.html

Regarding cashiers checks:

The average bank draft or cashier's check can take 2 weeks to clear, not 2 days. Yet everyone thinks cashier's checks are as good as cash, and clear the next day. Bottom line, scammers know the banking system better than the average American citizen. The banks make the funds available in your bank account within 48 hours of your deposit, days before the cashiers check clears- or bounces. When that bogus cashier's check bounces 10 days after your deposit, you may be in trouble now: you've already spent the money after the bank made the funds available to you the next day after the deposit. You must wait 2 weeks after depositing a bank draft before you can use the money, even if the bank makes the funds available in your account. When that $11,000 check bounces, the bank will subtract $11,000 out of your account! You could be left with a negative balance, and your credit file could be damaged by this. This would negatively affect your ability to get credit in the future. People end up owing money to the bank because of this.

[Down Deep]

Either cash or BANK CHECK. The buyer knows that they are buying the boat and it is a cash deal so they either have the money or they don't. Personally if the amount were more than than a couple thousand I would ask for a check because I wouldn't want to have that kind of money laying around. A BANK CHECK is a check that is made out from the buyers Bank on the banks account not the buyers account payable to the seller.

A few years ago I was selling a snowmobile. A guy showed up looked at the sled and said he would take it with him. He tried to give me one of those credit card checks that come in the mail. I told him to come back with the cash or bank check. He never did.

[PierBridge]

Quote:

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"Straight Cash Baby!"

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Actually it was "straight Cash homie"...

I take cash and cash only and I have a pen to check if the bills a real also.

[TSCTSC]

So would the safest still be Cashier's order? Or is that the same as bank check? Since someone could use counterfeit bills.

[JohnMickish]

That pen used to check for fake bills is less than $10 at your favorite office store. Could be the best 10 bucks ever spent.

[WigglinMyWorm]

Technically about signing titles over.....even though it is not enforced.....The seller is suppose to have the title transfered to the buyer.....not the buyer having it transfered.....TC were you already burned on a boat sale or just curious??