Protect Yourself when Selling your Car Online : 8 Essential Tips
Are you planning to sell a car? Not just any car, but yours?
With the Coronavirus (COVID-19) spreading virulently, many car owners have chosen not to continue their car’s financial maintenance. Accompanied by the current work-from-home lifestyle, it has dramatically affected the usage of cars across the world. Thus, causing the car selling market to grow steadily.
According to The Straits Times, a total of 461 online car scams were reported during May this year and resulting in RM5.4 million in losses. Like the saying, “Desperate times call for desperate measures.” Without a doubt, that includes tossing one’s moral conscience and choosing to commit a crime.
For this purpose, we’ve prepared a list of things to protect yourself from falling prey to such scams:
Keep your Loved Ones Informed
It’s important to tell your friends or family that you’re selling your car. If anything happens during the car selling period, they will know where to look first.
Repair & PUSPAKOM
Nobody likes the idea of being short-changed. As a seller, you’ll need to do extra work to improve your car’s resale value. With that said, go to your trusted mechanic and ensure to enact the necessary repairs your car needs. Once you believe it’s in tip-top condition, you can head to PUSPAKOM to have it thoroughly inspected.
Is it necessary to have a PUSPAKOM inspection? Well, it is. You can’t run away from it. The report will determine whether your car is safe to sell. At the same time, act as proof that your car was legally bought from the market, safe from illegal modifications, and safe to drive.
Determine Car’s Worth & Advertise
Once PUSPAKOM thoroughly inspects your car, it’s time for you to research on what’s your car’s current worth in the market. It would be best to look into a few pricing aspects: trade-in, dealer prices, retail, and private party sellers. Not to forget, you should also understand your car’s depreciation value. These five (5) aspects will help you set the ideal price you can sell your car. Subsequently, having more power over your buyer when it comes to negotiating the final price.
There are many ways to sell your car. You could go for the traditional route through word-of-mouth amongst your friends or family members. Although this method is safer, it may take a longer time for you to get a buyer. Given that, you can opt to put your car up on different digital platforms and sell your car as a second-hand item.
Personal Information
Since you’ll be using the digital platform to advertise your car, you must make sure during any exchanged conversation between potential buyers either through text or call. You must not share your personal information, such as your Identification Card (I.C.) number or bank account details. If shared, you best hope your identity won’t get stolen or your bank account emptied out!
Buyer Profiling
The scammers’ community is growing on social media. You’ll need to put your investigator cap on and prepare a set of questions to ask the list of potential buyers. It’s best to get to know them better and weigh their seriousness in buying your car. You want to have at least a good outcome from the face-to-face meetings. Nevertheless, you must request their car licenses to identify them as genuine buyers without ulterior motives. If they’re reluctant, you must stop any further engagements with them.
Test Drive
Bring a close friend with you upon meeting the buyer face-to-face, as there is a possibility a test drive may take place. For safety measures, it’s good to have someone you’re familiar with during the test drive. In addition to that, it’s advisable to have the meeting in a public space. If anything were to happen, there would be witnesses.
Payment Methods
Getting a buyer for your car is great news! Now the critical part lies ahead – payment! It’s always great to discuss the payment terms at the early stage of the conversation. To avoid misunderstanding the payment terms when both parties are near to closing the deal.
It’s advisable to expect the payment to be in cash or transferred in total. Payment via installments is a risky method – it may stop midway. To make things worse, the buyer may not be contactable. The same goes for payment via cheque. It may get rejected or bounced by the bank. Even if the buyer is a friend or a family member, never take the payment terms lightly.
Documentation
From the very beginning, you must compile the necessary documents for the potential buyer: your maintenance & accident records (if any), your car insurance, PUSPAKOM report, ownership transfer and payment receipts. These are crucial documents for both parties, especially for you. If anything happens after the car is sold, you’ll have solid proof that it doesn’t belong to you anymore.
Used Cars Made Easy, Go for myTukar!
The process of selling your car can be pretty intimidating, especially the high possibility of getting scammed. This is when you should keep an optimistic mind! Get yourself excited by the thought of getting it sold. If you’re not confident in selling your car, there is an easier option for you. Go for myTukar! We’ll take any car off your hands. Most importantly, you’ll get paid within one (1) hour.
