How can I be sure the check will be good?

[cdaigle430]

This is a great question, always protect yourself. As for me I would ask cash only or go with the buyer to the bank and cash the check.

 

[Midniteoyl]

"hold the check until it clears" doesn't work the way you think. This is a common scam method. A check will appear in the balance of your bank account before it has ever been validated.
I have received lots bad checks and only avoided being taking by paranoia. Just say no. Have them write a check to Walmart and get a money order.

'until it clears' means clear their bank, not yours. Yours will credit you the cash up front unless they put a hold on the check, until, you know, it clears.

 

[hube2]

'until it clears' means clear their bank, not yours. Yours will credit you the cash up front unless they put a hold on the check, until, you know, it clears.

This was my meaning. Hold the check until I'm sure that it does not bounce when my bank confirms that the money has been transferred to my account. For a check this size from a private account my back would most likely put a 10 day hold on the funds and they my online statement will tell me when the other bank transfers the funds to my bank. You can't put a stop payment on a check that has already be paid. To reverse the check you'd have to prove fraud of some kind, which is kinda hard if the check was signed by the right person.

 

[Tony H]

Yup, wire transfer.
My cousin got a fake cashiers check. She caught it on time but, it appears nothing is safe anymore.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

I just got off the phone with my banker. I asked him what is the safest way to accept payment from a stranger?

He said this is the order of safest to least safe.
1. CASH
2. Wire transfer
3. Cashier's check made at his bank to me with me as a witness
4. Certified check
5. Personal check.

He is going to email me the instructions to do a wire transfer.

He also cautioned me about buying something and paying cash. A customer of his paid cash for a small tractor, and soon found out the tractor was stolen and was confiscated and his customer was out the cash he had paid for the tractor.

 

[sixdogs]

This is a great question, always protect yourself. As for me I would ask cash only or go with the buyer to the bank and cash the check.

It's been a few years for me but I recall they wouldn't cash ithe check for me. That's why I have people open an account at a branch of the same bank I use. Then we go into my branch together and the teller can switch cash, without counting it out, from his account to mine and it's a done deal.

The teller will often want to write you a cashier's check instead but I don't want that. I'm the seller of the item and not the guarantor of the buyers funds so it's not my problem.

Now, if you're desperate for the sale, you may want to bend the rules and that's OK but know that's the situation some con people try to get you into. You drop your guard and that's how it works. Most people are honest but some are not and that's life. Trust, but verify.


I turn down sales every now and then and that momentarily annoys the buyer but in a way makes them want the item even more. Kind of like in high school where the more you don't want to go out with someone the more they want to go out with you. And the reverse.

 

[Sigarms]

Wrap in foil and hide it. Should be fine.

I'm really not a tin foil kind of guy.

LEO pulls you over with 10k in cash on you, there are a number of reasons why the LEO can take that money from you and at that point, it's up to you to file the lawsuit to get the money back.

You can find numerous cases if you look.

The reality is online shopping for used stuff has opened a whole other world to many for a face to face deal.

 

[Sigarms]

Yup, wire transfer.
My cousin got a fake cashiers check. She caught it on time but, it appears nothing is safe anymore.

Sooner or later, given time, even wire transfers can be bogus. Takes times for the theives to catch up to technology.

Question becomes is the squeeze worth the juice?

Cash with the bank checking with the buyer there is as far as I know it, 100% foolproof.

 

[Cecil Manning]

Let the buyer know up front that you will hold the piece of equipment until the check clears the bank. I might even put the same restrictions on a cashiers check. I have a close friend that told his 2016 BMW 535 to a well dressed man, paying with a cashiers check. The BMW changed hands, the cashiers check was bogus. There are some very dishonest individuals out there.

 

[Fuddy1952]

I didn't read all 69 replies but was in business over 40 years.
Far and away here's your best bet:
Ask the buyer up front (on phone before he arrives) how he intends to pay. Tell him the transaction will occur at your bank (cash) or his bank (check). Cash, your bank can count and counterfeit scanned. His bank his check can immediately be cashed, again counted and scanned.
I assume as is, no warranty so that can be written up, signed and witnessed at either bank.
Where I live we're 10-15 minutes away from most major bank branches so it's easy, if it's farther out for you I'd factor that into price for your time.
For $10K I'd only transfer at a bank. My 2c.