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Can you trust an EFT payment?


wendym

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I was just wondering....

The person buying our bakkie will be making an EFT payment into our cheque account today. He is with the same bank so the transfer should reflect immediately. Does anyone know whether there is a chance the payment could be reversed once it has been reflected in our account?

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Hi Wendy, a friend of mine going to New Zealand had that exact experience...sold a bakkie...got and EFT payment...(which was cleared by ABSA bank)...and a couple of days later it was reversed. He eventually had to leave South Africa without resolving the whole issue.

Sorry to be a profit of doom but just letting you know. Good luck with your sale and I hope that it all turns out OK.

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Wow, interesting question. From my experience cash in hand is best.. To many scammers out there. Hope you come right.

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Thanks africancowgirl

We got the man's business card. I think I'm going to do a follow up with the company to see if he is a legit employee. Hopefully he is not a fraudster

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Wow, interesting question. From my experience cash in hand is best.. To many scammers out there. Hope you come right.

Unfortunately nobody's going to be walking around with R80k+ cash in their hands in RSA ;)

Edited by GideonVD
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It's very seldom that an EFT can be reversed... and the banks have to confirm this also with all parties involved before they can reverse AFAIK.

Or do like I do... move the money to another account ASAP so there's nothing to reverse if they try to :P

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Maybe where possible, don't let on to prospective buyers that you intend to leave SA because they then know that you won't be around to chase them if they try anything underhand!

Hope it all works out ok. I'm sure it will....

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I agree GideoVD, didn't think of the large amount.

Your way of moving the money into another account ASAP is a smart move I think. Will keep this trick for future use...

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I was just wondering....

The person buying our bakkie will be making an EFT payment into our cheque account today. He is with the same bank so the transfer should reflect immediately. Does anyone know whether there is a chance the payment could be reversed once it has been reflected in our account?

Don't trust anyone when it comes to money. Make sure that the money is in the bank before you let go of anything. Phone the bank and ask them to confirm that it was infact an EFT and not a cheque deposit. You can never be too careful.

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Or insist on a bank guaranteed cheque and meet with him when he applies for it at his bank and then go straight to your bank together. Just remember, bank guaranteed cheques also take 7 working days to clear.

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We got scammed like this when we came across. If someone deposits a cheque into your account, it appears immediately, before it is even cleared by the bank. The cheque then bounces and the money is reversed from your account. A nice extension to this scam is to deposit more than the asking price - they then ask you to pay the difference back, so in the end you lose your goods, and pay them some money.

A sure sign of this is to have a very quick pickup of the goods - you get pressured into releasing the stuff immediately before the cheque bounces.

Most banks have a hotline that you can call to cheque if a transaction ref. number is valid.

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Thank you for all the valuable replies. The buyer picked up the bakkie on Tuesday evening. I had already transferred the money to another account earlier that day. He brought along the original bank transfer slips from Nedbank. He went into the branch and did an EFT transfer in the bank. He was so prepared. He gave me the original transfer slip from the bank indicating which account the money was transferred from and to. He also gave me a copy of the statement showing that the transaction came from the specified account and there were MORE than sufficient funds. Now I wish we hadn't let him bargain us down another R5k :rolleyes: He works for a well known car dealership but bought the bakkie for him personally. Also, his girlfriend lives in our complex and she was still there this morning when I left for work :whome:

It's now 2 days later and there has been no reversal. Even if there is an attempt of a reversal there are no funds in the account.

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It seems all legit wendym, I think you can relax. Congrats on making the sale

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Thank you for all the valuable replies. The buyer picked up the bakkie on Tuesday evening. I had already transferred the money to another account earlier that day. He brought along the original bank transfer slips from Nedbank. He went into the branch and did an EFT transfer in the bank. He was so prepared. He gave me the original transfer slip from the bank indicating which account the money was transferred from and to. He also gave me a copy of the statement showing that the transaction came from the specified account and there were MORE than sufficient funds. Now I wish we hadn't let him bargain us down another R5k :rolleyes: He works for a well known car dealership but bought the bakkie for him personally. Also, his girlfriend lives in our complex and she was still there this morning when I left for work :whome:

It's now 2 days later and there has been no reversal. Even if there is an attempt of a reversal there are no funds in the account.

It's sad that people have to live in fear of having their stuff stolen in a sales transaction and that they guy buying the bakkie feels that he need to prove that he is not skelem to start with.

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Glad it al all worked out! I'm the same, I have huge trust issues. Just a side note - don't even trust a bank guaranteed cheque. I sold a car many moons ago and this man said he works for Plascon and they will be paying. Sure enough he paid with a bank guaranteed cheque from Plascon for the exact amount. 5 days later the amount was reversed and by then my car was in Zim. What they did was steal a lot of Plascon, and surely others too, cheques, lift the ink with special chemicals and printed my name and amount it. Very professionally done. This was my first encounter with crime (1997) and since then I was much more careful, cynical and distrusting

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It's now day 3 since the money was transferred and I still check every few hours that the money is still there :blush:

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Thank you for all the valuable replies. The buyer picked up the bakkie on Tuesday evening. I had already transferred the money to another account earlier that day. He brought along the original bank transfer slips from Nedbank. He went into the branch and did an EFT transfer in the bank. He was so prepared. He gave me the original transfer slip from the bank indicating which account the money was transferred from and to. He also gave me a copy of the statement showing that the transaction came from the specified account and there were MORE than sufficient funds. Now I wish we hadn't let him bargain us down another R5k :rolleyes: He works for a well known car dealership but bought the bakkie for him personally. Also, his girlfriend lives in our complex and she was still there this morning when I left for work :whome:

It's now 2 days later and there has been no reversal. Even if there is an attempt of a reversal there are no funds in the account.

Not EVERYONE is a skelm - just enough to make you lose your youthful, trusting nature. :(

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Not EVERYONE is a skelm - just enough to make you lose your youthful, trusting nature. :(

No not everyone, just about 98% are and the 2% that are left are either in Australia or desperately trying to get there.

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No not everyone, just about 98% are and the 2% that are left are either in Australia or desperately trying to get there.

Stem ;)

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It's exactly a week today and we still have the money :P

Sending our first transfer to OH's Australian account today :D

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It can also useful to make sure the vehicle has been transferred out of your name...

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It can also useful to make sure the vehicle has been transferred out of your name...

Yes, we have filled in the yellow and blue form and will be sending that in to licensing department in the next day or so

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Thankfully I work close to their buildings, so the last time I sold a car I merely walked there the next day during lunch time and deposited the form with copies into the box. :)

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We still owed the bank R16k that had to be settled last week. We had to wait 5 working days to collect the original papers before we can submit to the licensing department

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