UKH

Hi all,

I am looking at buying an item for a few hundred quid off Facebook marketplace which we are going to collect in person from their house. Usually we do cash on collection but the seller wants bank transfer. Is there any problems/scam with this? We weren't going to send the transfer until we were there.

Many thanks for any help!

I have never had a problem with using either bank transfer or PayPal for marketplace transactions. I prefer it as you don't need to go and find cashpoints or be lumbered with cash if you are selling something. Much simpler. 

I'd say it sounds more sensible than going round to a random address carrying hundreds of pounds in cash. Usual caveats, obviously, but it's marginally harder for them to kick the crap out of you and steal a bank transfer.

Hi both,

Thanks! This has put my mind at ease! I will go ahead with the bank transfer, thanks again

I'd be surprised if they let you take the item before the bank transfer has gone through, but who knows.

I sold my car by bank transfer on the spot, held onto the keys until my bank app notified me it had arrived.  Probably more secure than cash as cash could be fake.

Yeah definitely wait until you're there to send the transfer! If they ask for a deposit walk away, I got scammed out of £100 from a seemingly super solid facebook account for some parts for my Van who'd asked for a deposit then disappeared off the face of the earth!

Good luck!
 

These days that probably takes about as much time as counting out the cash, quite possibly less. Unless the amounts are very significant and exceed the Faster Payments threshold, but that is £1m so I’m assuming won’t apply to the OP. 

There are loads of scams on Facebook. Transfers and PayPal as friends and family being the usual culprits.

Provided you inspect the item to make sure it works and are in the same building as the item before sending money then these scams fall over (unless they are violent thieves but that's extremely unlikely).

What they could do is claim they haven't received the money yet and ask you to come back tomorrow. If this happens you are being scammed. But you know their address at this point so it's risky.

Don't agree to meet in a public place and transfer the money there. You have no come back this way and it's a red flag.

I prefer Paypal as a purchase transaction but a thief would never agree to this as Paypal hold the money to give you time to complain. 

Of course, an honest seller might also refuse because the buyer protections built into PayPal are risky if the person they're selling to turns out to be dishonest. Which is the whole conundrum of these things. If I was buying or selling something valuable enough that I would be significantly grumpy about losing the money, I would only do it in person or with a reputable business or friend of a friend. Trading person-to person remotely can easily become a mexican standoff where both parties have too many valid reasons to be paranoid about the possibility of being scammed. The seller has good reason to refuse payment methods that could be subject to dishonest refund requests later. The buyer has good reason to refuse to pay by any method that doesn't have those protections.

Remote online transactions between random strangers only really work where the price is low enough that people are willing to gamble a little and/or the platform offers buyer/seller reviews and the people involved are trading enough to have a reputation they don't want to lose.

Shouldn't be an issue if you transfer only once you're happy with the item. Make sure you see it working, if applicable.

For the seller, it would avoid any issues with fake notes and you would have a record of payment if there are any issues later.

I once sold a washing machine to someone who attempted to pay with Irish 20 notes - I refused to accept them and he came back later with actual Sterling.

Edit - make sure you select the "paying for goods or services" option and NOT the "paying friends/family" options.

Walk away if you have any doubts.

Banks apply their own thresholds, though, very often both per transaction and per day.  One of my banks even has a lower threshold for payments made through the Android app than for ones made through the web app running on a desktop computer.

Thanks for all the responses and advice!

We picked the item up this evening and it all went smoothly!

Yesterday evening after the first couple of replies we set the seller up as a payee and sent over a couple of pence for them to confirm the amount. Then once we had collected it and loaded it into the car we bank transferred the money over and it all went through really quick, so worked out well.

Thanks again for everyone's advice!