Bought a boat on Ebay. How do I pay?

[Paul C]

 

Yes,

 

If both banks are part of the "Faster Payments" scheme, (and nearly all mainstream banks are), this by far the easiest way.

 

For it to be more or less instant though it needs to be at a suitable time. For example a transaction you initiate at a weekend will probably not get actioned until the Monday.

 

Some banks limit the largest online payment you can make, for example NatWest used to be £10K, but is now £20K. OK to buy a £10K boat, but not a £50K boat unless you pay over several days, which is no use for a single payment then immediate hand over of goods.

 

Personally I hate CHAPS payments, which only guarantee to happen that day if the bank initiates them by a certain time (13:00 with our bank I think). There is no guarantee about how many hours it will take to arrive, and even though it should be "that day" we have been involved in cases where it has not been. And they charge something like £25 to use an archaic batch based system that would have seemed outdated 20 years ago.

 

Misinformation

[DeanS]

Thanks all.

 

My plan is...go and see the boat.

Checkout the owner as far as possible.

Click the link in the ebay email which leads to PayPal I think.

Make the payment.

Expect the owner to get an email saying it's gone through.

Take the boat.

sound ok?

 

Failing which..an Internet payment which will leave a trail.

[Paul C]

Thanks all.

 

My plan is...go and see the boat.

Checkout the owner as far as possible.

Click the link in the ebay email which leads to PayPal I think.

Make the payment.

Expect the owner to get an email saying it's gone through.

Take the boat.

 

sound ok?

 

Failing which..an Internet payment which will leave a trail.

 

Nope, a buyer is very unlikely (unless he's an idiot) to take a Paypal payment on a collection item - I wouldn't. Since all other non-cash payments can be reversed (including a bank transfer or branker's draft) the buyer may insist on cash, which then creates issues of its own.

[biggles47]

Thanks all.

 

My plan is...go and see the boat.

Checkout the owner as far as possible.

Click the link in the ebay email which leads to PayPal I think.

Make the payment.

Expect the owner to get an email saying it's gone through.

Take the boat.

 

sound ok?

 

Failing which..an Internet payment which will leave a trail.

When you see the buyer you can discuss how they want payment. It sounds like you don't know at present. I strongly advise not taking cash with you.

[MtB]

 

Nope, a buyer is very unlikely (unless he's an idiot) to take a Paypal payment on a collection item - I wouldn't. Since all other non-cash payments can be reversed (including a bank transfer or branker's draft) the buyer may insist on cash, which then creates issues of its own.

 

Yes the trouble is, all methods of payment have problems so there is no satisfactory method of paying.

 

As a buyer, should you be amoral you could pay for the boat by paypal then raise a dispute with ebay later, saying you didn't receive the boat. Ebay rules say you will get a refund unless the seller can produce a written proof of delivery. Sellers generally don't think to ask the buyer for a receipt when goods are collected!

 

Even cleared cheques can be reversed if you can come up with a good enough reason!

[Sadelady]

Always use faster payments for private sales now. Cash is fine but a pain to count and until checked by a bank teller not really in your account. The buyer can use my laptop to check when payment goes thru to account usually within 2 hours. Any form of cheque can be fake and may even appear in your account only to be cancelled later by Bank. All car dealers now use debit cards to deal with on the day sales these are as good as cash which they no longer take.

[Paul C]

 

Yes,

 

If both banks are part of the "Faster Payments" scheme, (and nearly all mainstream banks are), this by far the easiest way.

 

For it to be more or less instant though it needs to be at a suitable time. For example a transaction you initiate at a weekend will probably not get actioned until the Monday.

 

Some banks limit the largest online payment you can make, for example NatWest used to be £10K, but is now £20K. OK to buy a £10K boat, but not a £50K boat unless you pay over several days, which is no use for a single payment then immediate hand over of goods.

 

Personally I hate CHAPS payments, which only guarantee to happen that day if the bank initiates them by a certain time (13:00 with our bank I think). There is no guarantee about how many hours it will take to arrive, and even though it should be "that day" we have been involved in cases where it has not been. And they charge something like £25 to use an archaic batch based system that would have seemed outdated 20 years ago.

 

FPS is not dependent on bank working hours.

 

CHAPS is NOT a batch system, it is a real-time service, however what happens is many banks "batch" up the process so the delay or 1pm limit is due to your bank rather than the CHAPS system. Basically, some accounts are marketed with the CHAPS facility (like most business accounts) and some aren't (like most personal accounts), so if its not then its still offered as an occasional-use thing. CHAPS is very reliable, takes 30-40 secs and despite being >20 years old, does the job so doesn't need updating etc. I think the issues you see are due to your own bank.

[David Schweizer]

We have just sold our boat through a broker, and payment and receipt of the money has been fairly drawn out because of the amount involved. The buyer transferred the money from his account into the broker's client account, which took three days, the broker then instigated payment (minus fees etc) into our account which will apparently take three days, so with the Bank Holiday getting in the way it will have taken more than a week, but it is secure.

[Dave Payne]

I did a fast payment for over £30k when i paid the balance on my boat to the broker, went through in minutes with no calls from the bank.

 

Easy.

[David Schweizer]

Thanks all.

 

My plan is...go and see the boat.

Checkout the owner as far as possible.

Click the link in the ebay email which leads to PayPal I think.

Make the payment.

Expect the owner to get an email saying it's gone through.

Take the boat.

 

sound ok?

 

Failing which..an Internet payment which will leave a trail.

 

Have you checked that with the seller. on a £10,000 transaction paypal will charge the seller 2.4% commission (plus 20p!!)

I did a fast payment for over £30k when i paid the balance on my boat to the broker, went through in minutes with no calls from the bank.

 

Easy.

 

How much (if anything) did they charge for that service? it is my experience that Banks rarely do any favours for free.

[Dave Payne]

 

 

 

How much (if anything) did they charge for that service? it is my experience that Banks rarely do any favours for free.

 

Nothing, just did it via online banking and it went through.

[Tim Lewis]

It works both ways, The police do take a interest, as in their view the only reason for using large sums of cash (untraceable) is for a criminal enterprise. Try walking in to car dealership with a large wad of cash. Some dealers refuse to take any cash at all, while others have very strict limits on how much they will accept (usually less than £1000).

 

I have just bough a £9k car from London's biggest dealer who would have taken cash up to £10,000 but also charge an additional 1%.

 

Tim

[David Schweizer]

 

Nothing, just did it via online banking and it went through.

 

You were very lucky, most banks charge a fee and have a limit on the amount they will accept or receive. My Building Society has a transaction limit of £20,000, and several of the High Street Banks have an even lower transaction limit.

[alan_fincher]

I did a fast payment for over £30k when i paid the balance on my boat to the broker, went through in minutes with no calls from the bank.

 

Easy.

As David said you were lucky.

 

For many banks the limit is less.

 

Mine used to be £10K, but is now £20K.

 

However that is an overall amount across any account, for the sum of all transactions.

 

If I do £20K to one payee, I can pay nobody else that day from any account, and nor can a partner on a joint account.

 

Despite some comments above, for my bank at least, Saturdays, Sundays and bank Holidays can't be used.

 

So even in a normal working week, the absolute limit is £100K, and this has to be over the 5 working days.

 

You are allowed to stack all these up as pending transactions, so you can log on just once and make £100K of payments, but the last will not be received until working day number 5, which unless you start on a Monday, means 7 days in total.

 

I'm not saying it is the same for all banks, though.

 

Edited August 31, 2016 by alan_fincher

[Jess--]

buying my boat we hit the 20k limit with faster payments, just switched to a second account (we have several due to different businesses) and paid the remainder.

 

of course the next day we had to shift the money from the first account to the second account to bring the account back in line with where it should be.

[Phil Ambrose]

 

 

Ah they part of the cwdf mod team?

Anything's possible.☺ Edited August 31, 2016 by Theo
Sort out quote formatting

[Nightwatch]

Bought a car privately, transferred to money via fast payment, the seller was firstly reluctant, but I convinced him it was okay, however the back stopped the payment for security reasons, which I understand, but didn't bother to let me know. The seller called me to say that the money hadn't arrived three hours later,and wanted his car back I called my bank and was to,d what they had done. It was all sorted, but I reckon the seller must have thought I was a great dodgy geezer.

 

Stress levels went up a bit. The money had gone from my account!!

[Thorfast]

When we bought a new house in May I went to the bank with my passport and paid £25 for a CHAPS payment from my account. The money, £242,000, went from my account to the solicitors account in about 18 hours. Simple fast and very secure.

Why would a payment for a boat, car or whatever, be any different.

[gazza]

We paid for our i10 with a debit card, £2200 deposit was enhanced scrappage scheme, 5k balance was done on the card, no issues till I went to get some fuel for my van, went to paid with the card I had used a couple of hours earlier to buy the car and got declined, the £50 of diesel looked suspicious to them! I wish it had been the other way round, a query at the dealer's would have been better than stopping me buy fuel in a busy forecourt!

Quick call to the card provider cleared it up and allowed the transaction to complete.

Lots of tutting from the rest of the queue though!

[pete harrison]

£10,000 in cash without a survey (?) You can't be serious,

 

Nick

 

Really?

 

No survey?

Although it would not have been a cash sale (unless the seller particularly wanted it that way) I have recently considered a boat at almost 4 x £10,000 - and I would have bought it without a survey. Having said this it will not be the case for every boat I might show an interest in

[Catnip King]

Cash or bank transfer neither is really safe. If they are fraudsters they will have setup an account with someone else;s identity and withdrawn the funds instantly so you can't recover. So its just a matter of doing your research on who your buying from. The safest method would be through some form of escrow company.

[Jess--]

Cash or bank transfer neither is really safe. If they are fraudsters they will have setup an account with someone else;s identity and withdrawn the funds instantly so you can't recover. So its just a matter of doing your research on who your buying from. The safest method would be through some form of escrow company.

I can strongly recommend Bloggs Escrow, we they won't run off with your money..... honest

[Robbo]

I used a bank transfer last time I bought a boat, was around £15k. Usually takes a few seconds to around 2 hours to transfer to be in the other persons account. You may get a call from the bank to confirm so it may be wise to phone first to advise of the transfer, etc.

[Rickent]

I paid the balance for my boat by debit card, £18500 went straight through , no bother.

[ditchcrawler]

I just hope the boat exists