You want to buy a private-party car, but it’s across state lines. Whether you plan to travel to finish the deal or purchase the car remotely, you can pay by check when transacting out of state. But check payments are risky, awkward, and time consuming compared to other payment methods.
We’ll guide you through using a check to purchase an out-of-state vehicle. Then, we’ll show you a better solution to long-distance car purchases that will make you want to ditch the paper and go digital.
People buy cars with cashier’s checks because they are cheap and relatively safe. The bank verifies your funds and issues you a check for the desired amount. When the recipient cashes the check, the funds are drawn from the bank’s reserves, so the seller doesn’t need to worry about a bounced check. Guaranteed funds are the main reason sellers prefer cashier’s checks.
Personal checks are a no-go. Funds are drawn directly from the buyer’s account. Sellers generally avoid personal checks because they can bounce. Once cashed, banks instantly deposit a portion or all of the funds, but later they will withdraw the amount if they process the check and discover the issuer didn’t have the necessary funds. Don’t bother trying to pay with a personal check.
Certified checks occupy a weird middle ground between personal checks and cashier’s checks. The bank certifies the buyer’s funds and issues a check that will be drawn directly from the buyer’s account. The buyer can cash the check knowing it will clear, but they might be wary to accept it since there’s no reason to use a certified check instead of a safer cashier’s check.
There’s no magic involved here. Paying for a car with a check across state lines is just like doing it in your hometown, but you might need to coordinate a little more than usual.
If you’re finishing the deal in person, meet the seller at their bank and confirm the vehicle’s condition. Then, the seller will call your bank to verify the check. Once the check is confirmed, they can cash the check and sign over the vehicle title.
If you’re finishing the deal remotely, things are a little trickier. You’ll need to hire an inspector/agent to check the vehicle, manage documentation, and coordinate with the shipping company. Once you’ve decided to buy the vehicle, you’ll mail the check and wait. After the check arrives, the seller will verify and cash it, and your agent will handle all the nuts and bolts of getting the car to you. If letting several strangers and the postal service handle your car purchase sounds slow, expensive, and insecure, that’s because it is.
To deal with low-trust situations, such as buying a car long distance, you might be inclined to use an escrow service. They hold your money until the purchase conditions have been met. This is a great way to make sure the seller lives up to their side of the bargain, but coordinating with an escrow will slow things down and drive the sale price up. They’re not cheap, and they require a lot of information and verification between parties.
Unfortunately, escrow is your best bet if you want to safely pay by check during a remote sale. But what if you saved a tree, skipped the paper, and paid for the car a better way?
Whether you’re meeting the seller in person or buying the car remotely, DealNow is faster, safer, and easier than checks. It’s a complete transactional workflow that makes buying a car at any distance a breeze. Find the car you like, then use our intuitive mobile app to cruise your way to a new(ish) car.
Checks are tied to banking hours. They can be lost, stolen, or destroyed, and sellers will insist on verifying them before completing the sale. DealNow verifies both parties so you and the seller can proceed with confidence. Then, quickly transfer your money into your FDIC-insured DealNow account and enjoy instant payments of any amount, anytime, anywhere. Sellers never need to worry about forgery or bounced checks.
We’ve got a faster, cheaper way to bring trust to the transaction. Our transactional dealflow has both parties sign a state-specific digital bill of sale before payment. A bill of sale is a legally binding document that records the transaction. Should the seller try to take your payment and disappear, a bill of sale would hold up in court (and they gave us their ID during sign-up). Your digital bill of sale is saved to the cloud and always available through your DealNow dashboard.
We make the long-distance car purchase process as easy as a local one. Use in-app messaging to coordinate with the seller. Hire an inspector directly through the app, and experience the inspection via video or phone call.
Since DealNow payments are instant, the inspector doubles as your agent. No one needs to wait for a check to arrive by mail. Send payment instantly, and let the inspector handle the transfer of ownership and shipping.
DealNow is purpose-built for car transactions. Enjoy other third-party features, such as title check, vehicle history report, mechanical inspection, shipping, insurance, and even financing. Think about how many checks you’d have to write to get all that done. Then instead of using checks, get DealNow.
We’ve told you why DealNow is great. Now let’s look at what the out-of-state car purchase process looks like:
Cashier’s checks used to be a good option, but DealNow is changing the game. Once you buy a car with DealNow, you’ll never want to do it any other way.
Most private motorcycle sellers aren’t equipped to accept credit card payments. Unless they run a business, they won’t have the necessary hardware. Even if they do, they’ll likely prefer to keep their personal and business transactions separate.
To use a credit card, you need to use a third-party payment processor. Stripe is a popular choice, but it comes with a price. Let’s say you’re buying a Harley-Davidson for $15,000. If you pay via Stripe, here’s what you’re looking at:
If you insist on using a credit card, don’t be surprised if the seller asks you to cover these fees. The cashback rewards will usually not exceed the fees, and credit cards are a terrible form of motorcycle financing. DealNow is as intuitive as swiping a credit card, without percentage-based fees.
The best form of payment when buying a car is DealNow. DealNow combines the safety and confidentiality of a bank with the speed and convenience of a mobile payment app.
Here’s why buyers love paying with DealNow:
And with so many perks for sellers, DealNow is the best way for both parties to exchange large sums of money during a car transaction.
Skilled criminals use computer software, color copiers, and high-quality printers to forge cashier’s checks. They might go so far as to print fake contact information on the check so their victim is routed to an accomplice who “verifies” the check over the phone.
In a car transaction, the seller might transfer vehicle ownership believing they’ve been paid only to discover later that they’ve lost their vehicle and never had the money.
To avoid cashier’s check fraud, car sellers should meet the buyer at the buyer’s bank during business hours and have the bank verify the check on the spot.
Cashier’s checks should always be verified before a transaction is completed.
There is no legally imposed limit for cashier’s checks; any limitations are set by the issuing institution. Small banks and credit unions often cap cashier’s checks at $10k to $20k, but large banks can usually issue cashier’s checks for $1 million or more, well exceeding the price of most private-party cars.
A money order is a prepaid financial instrument used to transfer funds, typically for smaller amounts. They’re sort of like a check that isn’t tied to a bank or the purchaser’s bank account. And they’re a bad alternative to cashier’s checks.
Unlike a cashier’s check, which is issued by a bank and drawn from the bank’s own funds, a money order can be purchased from post offices, convenience stores, and financial institutions.
Money orders generally have maximum transaction limits of $1000, and customers are often not allowed to buy more than two or three in a day. If someone wanted to buy a car for $10k, they would have to spend 4–5 days purchasing money orders to pay. Cashier’s checks have no transaction limits and are a much better option for high-dollar car sales.
Poor security has made money orders a favored tool of chargeback scammers. Since they’re not linked to identification or bank accounts, they can be hard to track. Similar to personal checks, the funds from money orders are deposited immediately, but if the money order is later discovered to be fraudulent, the funds will be withdrawn from the recipient’s account.
With cashier’s checks, as long as the recipient verifies the check, there is no doubt it is authentic and backed by the issuing bank.
Private sellers have no good reason to accept money orders in a car transaction, and buyers have no good reason to try to pay with them.
It is safe to accept checks as payment if you verify the check or wait until it clears to finish your deal.
Personal checks can bounce, so you have to wait until the check clears to complete your transaction.
Cashier’s checks are backed by the bank’s funds. Once you verify the check, you can rest assured the money will make it to your account.
If you’d like a safer way to get paid, try DealNow. Our identity verification and built-in safeguards protect against fraud and scams, so you know you’ll get your money when the deal is done.
When accepting a check you need to look out for these common signs of fraud:
Always verify the check with the issuing bank and wait for it to fully clear before releasing your vehicle. If something feels off, trust your instincts and proceed with caution.
A legitimate cashier’s check can’t have insufficient funds. Unlike personal checks, cashier’s checks are drawn directly from the bank’s reserves, not an individual’s account. When a cashier’s check is purchased, the buyer provides the funds upfront, which the bank then guarantees.
This doesn’t mean cashier’s checks are immune to fraud. While the check itself can’t “bounce” due to insufficient funds, bad actors create counterfeit checks. Always verify the check’s authenticity with the issuing bank before completing your sale.
DealNow is the easiest way to close your own vehicle deal, anytime. It’s the safe and simple way to avoid fraud, sign documents, and instantly transact, all in one app.
