Tomorrow a fella is coming by to (hopefully) drop the hammer on purchasing my truck.

I've contacted the bank which my truck is financed through, Wells Fargo Dealer Services, and asked them how to proceed should this guy hand me money. Of coarse they provided almost no help whatsoever. I told them I got online and found my payoff amount. The customer service representative told me that she couldn't provide any further information other than what's on the website. Of coarse I pried and pried but I think she was a little bit slow, lazy, or was on a huge meth deprived low. I asked her if I can go down to the local branch and pay it off there. Of coarse she said no. I have to mail them a check. Wait for the title.

This makes no sense to me. Last time I sold a vehicle I owed on I went down to the bank I had it financed through and gave them the check from the bank the buyer financed it through and they gave me cash back and sent the title to his bank. Lickaty-split. Done in 10 minutes tops, handed the dude the keys and he gave me a ride home on his new car. And I filled up his tank.

So how should I handle this?

He is financing it. If he hands me a check for xxxx do I just deposit it into my account, wait for it to clear, make the final payment on the truck, wait for the title, send him the title?

Sounds like his bank won't be super happy about that.

And it's gonna take him a while to get a title, and I won't know if his check will clear until he has the truck.

Bottom line period!! No truck until check has cleared. Better yet, a certified cheque or cash. It's the buyers responsibility to arrange the funds or take over a lease of a vehicle. If he really wants the truck, he will have to get the money.

That's what I'm thinking. Just take the check and hold onto the truck until it clears. Maybe arrange for a future meeting at his bank so funds are in hand?

It just frustrates me that my bank is making it difficult.

Our experience with Wells Fargo was not good.

As the buyer, I'm not handing money over without a signed title. .....especially if it's not local bank./branch. Even the local branch of a large chain in my town doesn't hold the titles. .....it's centrally located out of state.

Sent from my not so smart phone using Forum Runner!

we deal with well fargo all day long at work.. they are a PITA... them along with suntrust...

Wells Fargo customer service sucks, period. They don't care about you and they like collecting interest on your note. You'll just have to suffer through it like these other guys said and make sure the thing clears. You'll probably scare away certain buyers, and hopefully the guy you're dealing with doesn't care.

Debt is always dumb and inconvenient, so lesson learned. If you have to do debt, which you don't, but if you want your next vehicle so childishly bad that you can't wait to pay cash for it, use a local credit union or something. It's still crappy debt but the customer service will be better.

Ryan

O'Rattlecan said:

Wells Fargo customer service sucks, period. They don't care about you and they like collecting interest on your note. You'll just have to suffer through it like these other guys said and make sure the thing clears. You'll probably scare away certain buyers, and hopefully the guy you're dealing with doesn't care.

Debt is always dumb and inconvenient, so lesson learned. If you have to do debt, which you don't, but if you want your next vehicle so childishly bad that you can't wait to pay cash for it, use a local credit union or something. It's still crappy debt but the customer service will be better.

Ryan

Click to expand...

Pretty harsh words Ryan, but couldn't be more true......and I'm sure you already know that you are going against the majority of Americans and probably the majority on this forum......there is a better way, but most haven't been explained what really happens, most don't want to know what really happens, and then there are those that somewhat know, but don't care as emotions will win out more often than not against practicality and prudence.

To quote a really cool local when the wife and I were in St.Martin, "You got the money, you got the honey"

O'Rattlecan said:

If you have to do debt, which you don't, but if you want your next vehicle so childishly bad that you can't wait to pay cash for it, use a local credit union or something. It's still crappy debt but the customer service will be better.

Ryan

Click to expand...

I'd like to know your secret.

Because for the majority of my lifetime I have been unable to purchase a vehicle that actually idled without financing it...and I am not a frivolous spender by any means.

That's not even taking into consideration my house.

Yeah, I could try and save money to buy a house, but that would take 50 years of saving while paying rent. By the time I saved up enough, houses would cost 10 times what they do now.

I'm not saying you are wrong, but saying that going into debt is just pure childish, no freaking way.

No normal people this day in age can live without debt. It's how the man keeps us down. It how .gov enslaves us.
And there ain't shit you can do about it.

Of coarse you could be one of those people who rent and leave everything. Then I suppose you wouldn't be in debt, but you also wouldn't own a pot to piss in.


Back to the original question.

How to I make a secure transaction when I am finance through wells fargo?

I for one wouldn't give money without a title either....


Has to be a way to do this where it's safe for both parties.

I'm sorry if that was harsh, I re read it, and maybe I shouldn't have used the word childish, I was just lacking for a word that described buying something you can't afford at the moment. To me, it's impatient. I've always bought used cars, and probably will till my personal balance sheet is closer to a half a million bucks or more. I just save up, buy a cheap car, save up, move up in car 4-5 grand, then drive it for 5 years. Save up that whole time, sell the old, add 5 grand, start the cycle over again.

Sorry for lecturing, I hate getting lectured. I was trying to be helpful, not a nagging mom.

Basically you have to get the guy's cash in hand to get the title. That's reality, and the guy has to understand that. I believe this is the order of events that needs to occur.

Sale: Exchange check/cashier's check/money order
Receipt: Give him a bill of sale as collateral with VIN, mileage, make, model
Cash: Wait for money to clear
Pay Lein
Receive title
Send title to buyer

Ryan

jebadiah04 said:

Has to be a way to do this where it's safe for both parties.

Click to expand...

I think it's called escrow, though I don't know the details of how it would work in this case.

Basically a trusted third party to hold onto everything until all the paperwork sorts out on all sides.

O'Rattlecan said:

Sorry for lecturing, I hate getting lectured. I was trying to be helpful, not a nagging mom.

Basically you have to get the guy's cash in hand to get the title. That's reality, and the guy has to understand that. I believe this is the order of events that needs to occur.

Sale: Exchange check/cashier's check/money order
Receipt: Give him a bill of sale as collateral with VIN, mileage, make, model
Cash: Wait for money to clear
Give him Truck
Pay Lein
Receive title
Send title to buyer

Ryan

Click to expand...

No problem ryan. Sometimes putting thought on paper comes out all wrong.

I added a step. I think the list of steps should be sufficient if I explain why to the buyer. Hopefully he wants the truck bad enough to wait...or brings cash

amkatt1 said:

To quote a really cool local when the wife and I were in St.Martin, "You got the money, you got the honey"

Click to expand...

YUP!

O'Rattlecan said:

I'm sorry if that was harsh, I re read it, and maybe I shouldn't have used the word childish, I was just lacking for a word that described buying something you can't afford at the moment. To me, it's impatient. I've always bought used cars, and probably will till my personal balance sheet is closer to a half a million bucks or more. I just save up, buy a cheap car, save up, move up in car 4-5 grand, then drive it for 5 years. Save up that whole time, sell the old, add 5 grand, start the cycle over again.

Sorry for lecturing, I hate getting lectured. I was trying to be helpful, not a nagging mom.

Basically you have to get the guy's cash in hand to get the title. That's reality, and the guy has to understand that. I believe this is the order of events that needs to occur.

Sale: Exchange check/cashier's check/money order
Receipt: Give him a bill of sale as collateral with VIN, mileage, make, model
Cash: Wait for money to clear
Pay Lein
Receive title
Send title to buyer

Ryan

Click to expand...

Transportation can be treated like any other purchase.....buy only what you can afford and I won't ever buy those arguments about reliability and such.....I've run $500 cars longer with no maintenance then a $50k car.......they are all going to require maintenance, some more than others, but if you're smart about it, you can get a decent car for a little bit of cash and do what Ryan said about saving.

Regardless of what my balance sheet says, I doubt I'll ever buy something right off the lot just because of the immediate depreciation that hits the moment you add 1 mile to the odometer, but that's just me......those savings add up over the years to 10's if not 100's of thousands if you buy and sell as often as someone like Austin does. A car with 10 or 20k miles on it is just as new and reliable to me as a car rolling off the factory floor.

I've done the math thousands of times over the years and the math ALWAYS wins when it comes to financing versus NOT financing.

Buy a $500 car, save your monthly payment and extra insurance that you'd be paying on a car loan and after 3, 6, or 12, or whatever amount you can continue using your $500 beater for safely and economically, buy a $2000 car, cash.....continue putting the money you'd normally be paying the bank and after another 3, 6, or 12 months.....well, you should get the picture here.

The problem is SOMETHING else always comes up and the discipline of NOT touching the CAR account isn't there....yet those that finance somehow has the discipline to send the bank the money every month, but can't send it to themselves without saying some emergency has come up, when in reality, that emergency will come up whether you're paying the bank or yourself, and you won't have the money if you were financing and somehow get through the emergency.

john112deere said:

I think it's called escrow, though I don't know the details of how it would work in this case.

Basically a trusted third party to hold onto everything until all the paperwork sorts out on all sides.

Click to expand...

jebadiah04 said:

No problem ryan. Sometimes putting thought on paper comes out all wrong.

I added a step. I think the list of steps should be sufficient if I explain why to the buyer. Hopefully he wants the truck bad enough to wait...or brings cash

Click to expand...

There are ways to help protect the buyer and the seller, but going the route of not having a clear title only opens doors to fraud and abuse and trouble, which is why you see many, many times in classifieds, these words: "CLEAR TITLE IN HAND".....not having a title makes the purchase unattractive to buyers just as not having the money is unattractive to the seller.

jebadiah04 said:

I'd like to know your secret.

Because for the majority of my lifetime I have been unable to purchase a vehicle that actually idled without financing it...and I am not a frivolous spender by any means.

That's not even taking into consideration my house.

Yeah, I could try and save money to buy a house, but that would take 50 years of saving while paying rent. By the time I saved up enough, houses would cost 10 times what they do now.

I'm not saying you are wrong, but saying that going into debt is just pure childish, no freaking way.

No normal people this day in age can live without debt. It's how the man keeps us down. It how .gov enslaves us.
And there ain't shit you can do about it.

Of coarse you could be one of those people who rent and leave everything. Then I suppose you wouldn't be in debt, but you also wouldn't own a pot to piss in.


Back to the original question.

How to I make a secure transaction when I am finance through wells fargo?

I for one wouldn't give money without a title either....


Has to be a way to do this where it's safe for both parties.

Click to expand...

There's a lot of what I call "NORMAL" America in this post and your arguments for financing a home, car, or renting will not fly with me.....I have not only had personal experience in the area, but it really comes down to basic math, discipline, and a little bit of patience.

The secret is out there....read Ryan's response and my previous response....heck, google this "how to buy a car without financing it" and this "is it possible to buy a nice car without financing it on low income?"......I don't think the problem is information or "how to".....in my humble opinion, it's not having the patience or having to have it now versus later.

Even though someone can truly afford to finance a vehicle because they want it now versus later, it's still costing them SOMETHING and that's ok, they end up paying more for the same vehicle I'm driving, that's all........but you will not convince me that ANYONE can buy a house or a car in a fashion other than traditional financing. A calculator doesn't lie.....and it will almost always come down to emotions or some other reason that has nothing to do with fiscal matters.

OK- let's take a step back for a minute.

1. Most likely scenerio- customer buying truck is financing, we know you've got it financed. His bank/credit union shuffles the paper (P of A, Auth for payoff, Bill of Sale, etc) and cuts two checks. One to the lender holding the title, the other to the seller for the difference between payoff and selling price. They will also handle the title transfer.

2. Customer is paying cash. He wire transfers funds to Worst Fargo (they'll give instructions as to what account, etc), they overnight the buyer the title. Buyer is responsible for inspection, title transfer, sales taxes if any.

What about cashiers checks, you ask? I'm hesitant with those things- they're forged as/more frequently than personal checks. You can deposit a personal check and have it clear within hours. Wire transfer is faster and more secure.

Titles are rarely kept at local branches anymore- that's why the extra hoops to jump through. That being said, Worst Fargo does suck. US Bank is slightly better, but it really depends on which Branch you use. Chase seems slightly better, but that's subjective.

cash vs finance vs. lease, new vs. used

I'm going to strongly disagree with the cash/used only posts prior in this thread, only because they're painting with too broad a brush. The real answer is... it depends.

Example- last December, I drove a Nissan Altima to Bend and back. 41 mpg, according to the DIC. Now let's think about that for a minute- over 40 mpg, (I wasn't driving for mileage) in a full-size 4 dr, 5 pass sedan. Lets say you own a decade old full-size, like a Taurus or an Impala. You're getting 17-19 mpg, and have an upkeep and maintenance factor to consider (I'm assuming it'd be paid for). The Altima can be leased for about $180/mo with $1500 down- excluding sales tax. That's $7980 total cost of driving it for 3 yrs. Deduct $2500 for fuel savings over the 36000 mile term. That leaves $5480. Figure a couple thousand for depreciation on the old car over the next three years and 36K miles (that's conservative), and $1500/yr in upkeep and maintenance costs. Keep in mind the leased car has a warranty through the lease term and routine servicing is paid for. That's another $7000.

Sound like a lot of expense for an old car? Gentlemen, that's only .25/mi. The cheapest new car you can own, from the last fleet survey I saw, was a Corolla or a Prius @ .73 and .75 mile respectively- that's assuming a cash purchase and a 150,000 mile life cycle. Back to our comparison, it'd still cost more to drive a 10 yr old pd for car than a brand new one on a manufacturer supported lease.

Some cars are cheaper yet. A New Jetta can be leased for about $100/mo with $1500 down on a 30 month/30,000 mile lease. At any rate, you get the idea.

Where this doesn't work is if you're stuck on a particular make/model. If you have to have a new Expedition or Suburban, plan to pay around $75K for it. Used one's aren't cheap either- a certified few year old version will still bring north of $50K. Newsflash- you're gonna finance, or have deep pockets. Pickup? With a typical new 1/2T pickup running north of $40K, and loaded diesels running almost double that, same story.\

If we run older, there's the risk of upkeep and maintenance. Major components on the newer vehicles are spendy. Doesn't have to be German anymore to incur a $6000 transmission replacement.

Sooo... Cliffs Notes, you really have to look at each individual deal on it's own merits before you can definitely determine which option is the most economical.

How true Ryan and Ken ! Another thing I like to do is when I take out a loan is go to a local credit union, and another thing I like to do too is when I make my payments I always pay a little extra, and tell them to put the extra towards the principal to reduce the length of the note and also to save money on interest and finance charges.

polarbear said:

I'm going to strongly disagree with the cash/used only posts prior in this thread, only because they're painting with too broad a brush. The real answer is... it depends.

Example- last December, I drove a Nissan Altima to Bend and back. 41 mpg, according to the DIC. Now let's think about that for a minute- over 40 mpg, (I wasn't driving for mileage) in a full-size 4 dr, 5 pass sedan. Lets say you own a decade old full-size, like a Taurus or an Impala. You're getting 17-19 mpg, and have an upkeep and maintenance factor to consider (I'm assuming it'd be paid for). The Altima can be leased for about $180/mo with $1500 down- excluding sales tax. That's $7980 total cost of driving it for 3 yrs. Deduct $2500 for fuel savings over the 36000 mile term. That leaves $5480. Figure a couple thousand for depreciation on the old car over the next three years and 36K miles (that's conservative), and $1500/yr in upkeep and maintenance costs. Keep in mind the leased car has a warranty through the lease term and routine servicing is paid for. That's another $7000.

Sound like a lot of expense for an old car? Gentlemen, that's only .25/mi. The cheapest new car you can own, from the last fleet survey I saw, was a Corolla or a Prius @ .73 and .75 mile respectively- that's assuming a cash purchase and a 150,000 mile life cycle. Back to our comparison, it'd still cost more to drive a 10 yr old pd for car than a brand new one on a manufacturer supported lease.

Some cars are cheaper yet. A New Jetta can be leased for about $100/mo with $1500 down on a 30 month/30,000 mile lease. At any rate, you get the idea.

Where this doesn't work is if you're stuck on a particular make/model. If you have to have a new Expedition or Suburban, plan to pay around $75K for it. Used one's aren't cheap either- a certified few year old version will still bring north of $50K. Newsflash- you're gonna finance, or have deep pockets. Pickup? With a typical new 1/2T pickup running north of $40K, and loaded diesels running almost double that, same story.\

If we run older, there's the risk of upkeep and maintenance. Major components on the newer vehicles are spendy. Doesn't have to be German anymore to incur a $6000 transmission replacement.

Sooo... Cliffs Notes, you really have to look at each individual deal on it's own merits before you can definitely determine which option is the most economical.

Click to expand...

Still not buying it....not even in this example.....stretch it out to 10 years or 15 years.....plus, I didn't see that you'd factor in the resale of the Taurus or Impala.....you also didn't factor in the increased cost of insurance on the newer vehicle versus owning one which can be several thousands of dollars per year depending on your driving record, type of car, etc.

The math still doesn't work out......but I do get the leasing part for certain types of consumers and/or businesses, but my math still says it costs more in the end.

polarbear said:

OK- let's take a step back for a minute.

1. Most likely scenerio- customer buying truck is financing, we know you've got it financed. His bank/credit union shuffles the paper (P of A, Auth for payoff, Bill of Sale, etc) and cuts two checks. One to the lender holding the title, the other to the seller for the difference between payoff and selling price. They will also handle the title transfer.

2. Customer is paying cash. He wire transfers funds to Worst Fargo (they'll give instructions as to what account, etc), they overnight the buyer the title. Buyer is responsible for inspection, title transfer, sales taxes if any.

What about cashiers checks, you ask? I'm hesitant with those things- they're forged as/more frequently than personal checks. You can deposit a personal check and have it clear within hours. Wire transfer is faster and more secure.

Titles are rarely kept at local branches anymore- that's why the extra hoops to jump through. That being said, Worst Fargo does suck. US Bank is slightly better, but it really depends on which Branch you use. Chase seems slightly better, but that's subjective.

Click to expand...

A lot of our local smaller banks (and all our local credit unions) always keep the titles on hand.....they don't have larger corporate offices like the bigger chains, if you will.

Big Jim F150 said:

How true Ryan and Ken ! Another thing I like to do is when I take out a loan is go to a local credit union, and another thing I like to do too is when I make my payments I always pay a little extra, and tell them to put the extra towards the principal to reduce the length of the note and also to save money on interest and finance charges.

Click to expand...

Yup....that helps when you do finance for sure.