What safe payment method when selling a car?

I'm considering selling my car (worth over $10,000), but don't want to sell it to a con artist or squishy deadbeat that I have to take to court to get paid because their payment bounced. I've heard people say to only accept cash or a cashier's check, and never a personal check or money order check such as Western Union.
Are there any other safe ways I should consider? I guess PayPal is an option, but that would come with a $200 transaction fee.
I'm thinking that I should only accept a cashier's check and maybe do the transaction at the bank.

 

Postal money orders should be safe.

 

Paypal or Venmo would be the only other options I would accept other than cash or cashier's check.

 

I would use Paypal if was only a $200 transaction fee.
Cashiers check, Western Union and similar are not as secure as they used to be.
You would need to verify before vehicle exchange.

A cash exchange at a police department is a choice.

 

I personally only take cash when I sell something privately, no matter how much. If someone's legit and wants it bad enough, they can get the cash. Otherwise I'm with PJmax and would use Paypal if necessary. Cost of doing business. At least it's protected just in case.

 

I would only do the transaction if the buyer paid with a Cashiers check made payable to me and referencing the vehicle being purchased by the VIN..

 

Buyers are gonna be skittish about bringing $10,000 in cash. Maybe buyer and I could go to their bank as they withdraw the cash. Do banks let you do transactions inside?

 

I just bought a project truck about a month ago. A 1990 Chevy C30/3500 one ton dually... $5000.
I went to the bank, went inside & got cash. A guy at the teller right beside me was getting $7500 cash for a vehicle he was buying.
I met my seller at the title company office & paid him there while they made out the title transfer. Done & done..

 

Any large cash withdrawl must be pre-approved/pre-registered.
Banks do not have large amounts of cash on hand for disbursement.

 

How much of a chuck of $10,000 would you generally expect a dealer to take out of a sale versus selling privately?

 

Typically a dealer will give you half or less of retail.

 

AndyRooney - You didn't say what the vehicle is you'll be selling but if it is a typical used vehicle with a fair amount of buyer interest you should consider requesting a quote from Carvana. Carvana is known to offer the Kelley Blue Book (KBB) trade-in value for excellent condition used vehicles, which will probably be hard for you to equal or to beat. And selling a vehicle to Carvana is very efficient, quick, and they pick it up and give you certified check when they pick it up.

Once you receive their offer (about 2 minutes) and you agree to it They'll ask for photos of three items; your ID, your vehicle’s title, and odometer. They tailor what they need based on considerations unique to you and your vehicle and they don’t ask for anything they don’t need. Then just schedule a time and place (i.e. your house) for them to pick up the vehicle and hand deliver to you a certified check. Done!

I've known two people that sold Carvana a ~$25k+ vehicle and bought from Carvana a replacement ~$40k+ vehicle without a problem and they were very please with the whole transaction. You certainly don't have to buy a vehicle from Carvana, but many sellers do.

Now of course it the vehicle is not something you'd typically see on a major dealer's pre-owned lot or it's something like a project car I don't think they'd be interested.

 

Carvana's quote was $11,083. Seems high.
Kelly Blue Book quoted $10,205 as a private party sale value
KBB's trade-in value was $9,018

 

This method is worth trying. Arrange to meet at the buyer's bank. A day or two before, you go to that bank and open a savings account. Then when you meet the buyer you have him withdraw the funds and you have the funds deposited directly into your account. You can sign the sale paperwork there (in air conditioned comfort if applicable) before leaving if you wish.

Avoids worrying about whether the bank has that amount of cash in stock to hand to the buyer. Avoids having to inspect large dollar bills one at a time for counterfeits.Avoids your having to carry the cash in public.

 

AndyRooney - It seems to me you just got the very best offer as well as the safest method to get paid all neatly wrapped up in one package.

 

If Carvana is offering that much, I'd take them up on it, as long as it's not a mistake. If you go with them, make sure you see the check first before they take it away.

 

Carvana's offer was IF I was doing a trade-in. So, I'm sure there's a shell game going on. I'll check in with Carvana again in December when I'm ready to buy and when Honda has cash incentives.