I'm selling my brother's GTI. How should I take payment for the car, in order to reduce the risk of getting scammed?

We are talking about $16,000. (2003)

 

Have the buyer give you a certified check. Go to your bank (with them), bring a bill of sale. Deposit the check and have the bill of sale notarized by the teller.

Thats what I did when I sold the cls.

 

yea, ask for a bank's check or cashier's check. you have to have sufficient funds before the bank will issue those checks.

 

If you get a certified check try to have the buyer have it made by a national/reputable bank. When I used to work at a bank people would bring in certified checks from small hometown banks and credit unions and we were usually more wary of those checks than certified checks from banks like Citi, B of A, Wachovia, Washington Mutual etc.

 

Certified check. You give him a bill of sale (you can find a generic sample on the internet) and the title to the car, and the car / keys. Don't forget to send in the change of owner form on the back of most registrations to the DMV. You probably have to wait for the bank check to clear and pay off the car before the bank will give you the title to give to the buyer.

 

Thanks for all your recommendations. I already paid off the car, but I'm with-holding the title for a couple of weeks regardless of the method of payment until I'm sure the funds are in.

 

Can you do that?
How is he going to get plates, insurance and registration on a car without the title?

 

They can get temporary registration. I sold my car 2 months ago and I still haven't given them the title (took a month after I paid off the loan for the bank to mail it, since then just haven't been able to meet up).

 

There are a lot of scams with fake certfied checks, etc.. I think it would be fairly easy to catch the person if you get proper ID with the transaction, however if it is an out of state transaction things can get tricky. Just use a money wire, its around $25 from most banks the money get transfered the same day and all is well. If all else fails my best friends call me cash.