Boat selling problem - help!

[Dave_P]

I'm selling my boat privately.  The sale was due to go through today.  The buyer was coming up by train and would do a bank transfer in person once the Bill of Sale etc were all done.

 

He's just told me that his bank puts a maximum on daily bank transfers of £10,000, which is less than a quarter of the sale price.

 

So what do we do now?  Any ideas?

[mrsmelly]

My last seller sat in my boat and did several 10k transfers within about ten minutes, he had talked to his bank who said he could do that as they were aware. Perhaps your buyer could do the same?

[Crewcut]

AFAIK the limit only applies to transfers that customers themselves can make, so he can ask the bank to do the transfer for the full amount...

[Dave_P]

I understand that he's talking to his bank now.

 

[Ewan123]

Yes we had the same when buying ours, plus I think limited to three max transfers per day or something like that. We did as much in person as we could and the seller trusted us to follow up with the remainder the next day.

[Hudds Lad]

Good luck with the sale, we fell foul of this when we bought our boat, despite having checked with the bank previously on the day we were limited on transfer amount from the account with the cash in. Luckily we had a relative who could transfer the balance.

I actually started to feel sorry for the phone banking operator who got both barrels of J's outrage on the day. Never tell porkies to a redhead 😬

[alan_fincher]

Yes,

 

Our bank places a £10K limit, and  it has in the past proved impossible to over-ride it. (The £10K hasn't been increased in very many years, so inflation is  effectively limiting the maximum payment.)

 

The next problem you may face is that the £10K can only be done on business days (weekdays) so your buyer may no be able to instigate a second £10K before Monday.

However I would have thought they could instruct their bank to do a CHAPS transfer for the full amount.  They will need to pay a fee for this, (about £30, I think, the last time we used it), but I think they could get a payment through today, if they get onto their bank immediately.

r

[IanD]

3 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

Yes,

 

Our bank places a £10K limit, and  it has in the past proved impossible to over-ride it. (The £10K hasn't been increased in very many years, so inflation is  effectively limiting the maximum payment.)

 

The next problem you may face is that the £10K can only be done on business days (weekdays) so your buyer may no be able to instigate a second £10K before Monday.

However I would have thought they could instruct their bank to do a CHAPS transfer for the full amount.  They will need to pay a fee for this, (about £30, I think, the last time we used it), but I think they could get a payment through today, if they get onto their bank immediately.

r

An example -- £25 to transfer up to £100000 on the same day:

 

https://www.santander.co.uk/personal/support/ways-to-bank/chaps-payments

[Stilllearning]

I suspect that it may be different through a broker?

When we bought our last boat, through ABNB, we transferred the total in one lump.

[Stroudwater1]

We couldn’t do that to make payment through to the  broker we bought from?  
 

It was similar to Hudds Lad for us.  I alerted my Bank to what was to happen a week before but it made no difference. Still limited and the second £10000 was declined and my account was frozen.…

After a number of calls to the Bank they did finally put it all through. It was made more difficult as phone reception can be suboptimal round  some  brokers places  too. 
 

 

[IanD]

22 minutes ago, Stroudwater1 said:

We couldn’t do that to make payment through to the  broker we bought from?  
 

It was similar to Hudds Lad for us.  I alerted my Bank to what was to happen a week before but it made no difference. Still limited and the second £10000 was declined and my account was frozen.…

After a number of calls to the Bank they did finally put it all through. It was made more difficult as phone reception can be suboptimal round  some  brokers places  too. 
 

 

There is a disadvantage to doing this in multiple £10000 chunks though, as you find out when you're told afterwards that your payments are £10000 short and you worry one might have been fraudulently (or accidentally) diverted -  when in reality you miscounted the number of transfers by one. DAMHIK... 😞

[howardang]

I once had a similar problem when buying a car. I think the limit on daily transfers was at that time £12000. I gave the bank a call and after going through the usual security checks and explaining what the payment was intended for the bank arranged for a transfer which took place within a few minutes. 

 

Howard

[Dave_P]

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

We discussed a CHAPS transfer but they were reluctant to do that as they're in Oxford and I'm in Birmingham and I'd get the money without them being here.

 

This is what's happening now:  The boat is being bought by a young couple.  His transfer limit is £10.  Hers is £25k.  He's done a CHAPS transfer to her so that all the money is in her account. Her bank (Nationwide) has told her that the £25k limit is for a single transaction but she can do more than one.

 

He's coming up tomorrow and while he's here, she will pay into my account in two installments.  Hopefully that will work, otherwise he'll have had a wasted train journey.

[IanD]

1 minute ago, Dave_P said:

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

We discussed a CHAPS transfer but they were reluctant to do that as they're in Oxford and I'm in Birmingham and I'd get the money without them being here.

 

This is what's happening now:  The boat is being bought by a young couple.  His transfer limit is £10.  Hers is £25k.  He's done a CHAPS transfer to her so that all the money is in her account. Her bank (Nationwide) has told her that the £25k limit is for a single transaction but she can do more than one.

 

He's coming up tomorrow and while he's here, she will pay into my account in two installments.  Hopefully that will work, otherwise he'll have had a wasted train journey.

 

From experience the direct (non-CHAPS) transfers go through very quickly, no more than a few minutes.

[Alan de Enfield]

 

I have always said that cash is the easiest - non of this messing about phoning banks or doing 10 transfers over 10 days.

[IanD]

2 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

I have always said that cash is the easiest - non of this messing about phoning banks or doing 10 transfers over 10 days.

 

You don't have to either phone the bank or do 10 transfers over 10 days -- just sit at your PC and do multiple £10k transfers online, they take maybe a minute or two to set up the first one and then less than this to do repeat ones -- total time under 5 minutes.

 

Much easier and quicker and safer than dealing with tens of thousands of pounds worth of cash, including counting it -- and if you have any sense, checking for counterfeits... 😉

[nicknorman]

My first direct account has a transaction limit of £50k, or £30k if using the App. So it’s by no means the case that everyone is limited to £10k. Not that this helps the OP!

[MtB]

14 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

I have always said that cash is the easiest - non of this messing about phoning banks or doing 10 transfers over 10 days.

 

Easiest at the point of sale, yes. But an utter pain in the butt for the buyer to travel to their bank branch and get say £50k in cash out. And the reverse for the seller. What is he supposed to do with £50k in used £50s? Spend it in Aldi? 

 

 

[Hudds Lad]

50 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

I have always said that cash is the easiest - non of this messing about phoning banks or doing 10 transfers over 10 days.

You have to give the bank 24hrs notice these days to withdraw over about £2k i think, we don't all sleep on cash-stuffed matresses  

 

And as the seller, don't you have the problem of Suspicious Activity Reports if depositing over a certain amount?

[IanD]

2 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

You have to give the bank 24hrs notice these days to withdraw over about £2k i think, we don't all sleep on cash-stuffed matresses  

 

And as the seller, don't you have the problem of Suspicious Activity Reports if depositing over a certain amount?

 

In his mind, Alan still seems to live in the Good Old Days before t'Internet and all those niggly restrictions to avoid money laundering... 😉

[Stilllearning]

I think that big cash transactions are automatically flagged by banks now.

[MtB]

2 hours ago, IanD said:

 

In his mind, Alan still seems to live in the Good Old Days before t'Internet and all those niggly restrictions to avoid money laundering... 😉

 

 

One wonders what the regulations are really for given money laundering seems able to continue unabated, unaffected by these anti-money laundering regulations that seem designed to make life difficult for honest people. 

 

 

 

 

 

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, MtB said:

 

 

One wonders what the regulations are really for given money laundering seems able to continue unabated, unaffected by these anti-money laundering regulations that seem designed to make life difficult for honest people. 

 

 

 

 

 

My mother left £1000 to each of her great grand kids for when they are 18 years old. I took me an hour on the phone as a trustee and a Settler to withdraw £1200 to give to my grand son this month, not only that they expect it to tale a month to  process.

[MtB]

4 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

My mother left £1000 to each of her great grand kids for when they are 18 years old. I took me an hour on the phone as a trustee and a Settler to withdraw £1200 to give to my grand son this month, not only that they expect it to tale a month to  process.

 

The regulations are easily circumvented too. Last time I needed to bank £half a mill in cash from benefits fraud, I lied to the the cashier and told her I got it from drug dealing. Worked a treat. 

[Naughty Cal]

The buyers of our boat came across this and their bank limited to £10k per day.

 

They transferred us £10k per day for 3 days and we gave them a receipt until the whole funds were paid. The boat stayed in our ownership until we had all of the funds cleared.

 

They had to trust us I suppose.

 

All worked out in the end.

5 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

I have always said that cash is the easiest - non of this messing about phoning banks or doing 10 transfers over 10 days.

£8k max for  cash sale now.

 

Doesn't buy much of a boat anymore.