Shopping for a used car can be a lot of fun, especially if you are looking for a collectable or vintage vehicle. Sadly, there are a number of scammers waiting to take advantage of shoppers looking for a unique vehicle. Gone are the days when you can take an envelope of cash to meet a seller, negotiate a good deal with the cash in hand and drive away in your new car.
Before the pandemic, I was buying and selling my fun cars priced from $6,000 – 10,000. Today, those same cars are selling for $10,000 – 16,000, thanks to the disruptions in the new vehicle supply chain. My bank used to get weird when I sought $6,000 in cash to go buy a car, often telling me to give them a few days’ notice. They are even less inclined to provide over $16,000 in cash.
Related Articles: Buying A Used Car, My Cheap And Fun Vehicles
When you are hot on the trail of a cool car, a few days can be an eternity. As cars get costlier, obtaining cash from the bank gets more troublesome and carrying all that cash is dangerous. Cashiers Checks are a safe alternative, but even those are subject to counterfeit and fraud. Add to that the trouble with identity fraud, title transfer, etc., and the fun of buying that cool car quickly evaporates.
Someone seems to have figured a solution to the above challenges, and now there is an app for that!
New App For Buying And Selling
PrivateAuto is the first self-service, peer-to-peer payment app for private vehicle sales that allows users to verify a driver’s license, eSign the bill of sale, and instantly transfer funds anytime, anyplace. The website and app are now live and available nationwide. Check out their website HERE.
PrivateAuto’s transactional marketplace is the only one of its kind, incorporating unique listing options, integrated banking features, and automated workflows to provide users with a complete listing to payment solution.
PrivateAuto App Features
Some of the app’s features include the following:
- Driver license verification with facial recognition technology
- Test drive scheduler
- Accept/reject/counter offer functionality
- eSignable bill of sale, and integrated vehicle financing options
- Electronic funds transfer with no transaction limits
Users can even generate unique window-sticker QR codes for their vehicles and advertise without sharing personal contact information.
In a video released on April 1, 2022, the CEO of PrivateAuto completed what was once impossible: Using the PrivateAuto app, he purchased a Porsche 911 Carrera, transferring over $100,000 in the parking lot. While most payment apps allow users to transfer up to $5,000, PrivateAuto is the first fintech solution to provide instant and secure payment processing for private party vehicle transactions over $5,000.
Final Thoughts and Questions
The vehicle seller pays a $90 fee to list their car on the app. No other fees are charged to the seller or buyer. That seems like a small price to pay to remove a lot of friction from the buying and selling process.
I created a PrivateAuto account this week, but have not seen any vehicles listed that catch my interest. As I learn more, I will share my experiences. Let me know your thoughts if you try their app. Please email me at wct.billtaylor@gmail.com, or message me through the Vehicle Nanny Instagram or Facebook pages.
Want to learn more about me? Go to this article: Who’s Your Nanny?
How do you feel about opening an external bank account and providing your SSN to exchange payment? Somehow nobody talks about that.
That’s a fair question, and is what you are doing when transacting through PrivateAuto. According to PrivateAuto:
When creating a PrivateAuto Pay account, you are opening a new Bank Account with our licensed and insured banking partner, USALLIANCE Financial, in the process. This technology is what allows you to send and receive funds instantly between 2 parties. When both parties have a PrivateAuto Pay account, it becomes an interbank transfer making it fast, secure, and seamless.
Anytime you open a bank account with any Financial Institution, you are required to provide a Social Security Number. This is why it is needed to create a PrivateAuto Pay account. PrivateAuto does NOT save or view your Social Security Number at any time.
A fair question indeed! Landon from PrivateAuto here. One thing to point out with this is even Venmo will require you to enter your SSN when you initiate a payment of over $300, but then you’re also capped at $5,000 per transfer. Cash App and Zelle are no different when it comes to having to provide your SSN.
What’s cool about PrivateAuto is that it’s the only platform where two private parties can avoid scammers, sign the bill of sale, and securely transfer any amount of money right from the parking lot. Yes, when using the PrivateAuto Pay feature, you are opening a bank account in your name behind the scenes like Bill mentioned, but once the transaction is done you can request to delete your PrivateAuto account entirely. We also close bank accounts after a certain amount of inactivity as well.
We have a lot of help articles you can read through as well at support.privateauto.com. Come check us out!