Private Online Gun Sales?

[Mot45acp]

Most of us that do private online sales deal with USPS money orders. The problem I am having is finding a Post Office with enough money to cash the money orders. Can these be deposited into checking accounts? How long do they take to clear?

Thanks
Mot

 

[fireside44]

My USPS money orders clear my account within 24 hours just about every time.

 

[loadedround]

100% in agreement with Fireside.

 

[Mot45acp]

Cool Thanks

 

[rha600]

I've only deposited a money order once or twice and I belive the money was avaiable "instantly". I guess they have to be sure the money order is real so that takes a little bit of time but the money order has already been paid for, like a chashiers check so there is nothing to really "clear" like on a personal check.

 

[gym]

First time last week in Bank of America, I heard a teller tell the young fellow in front of me, "we don't have enough cash on hand to cash this check". He was a young blue collar kid, How much could it have been for, he sold his car. She wouldn't tell me. "I had to ask". Back to the question, if you have the cash in your account, you can take it out while it clears over night. Sometimes it's a time like 2 or 3 pm, but good rule of thumb is overnight. I just got one from a guy and it was pending, "that night" and cleared the following morning. That's the cool thing about online banking.

 

[dogtown tom]

Be aware....

While the bank is required to credit your account within a certain time frame, there is still the possibility that they may reverse the deposit or freeze your account if that money order comes back as stolen, forged or counterfeit. And that may take a week or more.

Everyone thinks they are safest when they require a USPS money order as payment on a firearm sale. The USPS money order is a very popular item to counterfeit or alter (turn a $5 m.o. into a $500).

It is not uncommon to have the seller deposit a money order or even a cashiers check on Monday, get "credited" on Tuesday or Wednesday and then a week later the bank tells you the money order was fake.

Never rely on your bank "clearing" a deposit as proof that the check or money order is good.

To verify a postal money order, call the Money Order Verification System at 1-866-459-7822.
To verify a cashiers check you will need to contact the issuing bank.

***and it should go without saying...but never accept a money order for MORE than the agreed on price if the buyer asks you to cash it and send him back the difference. This is a classic scam.

 

[BullfrogKen]

Very good advice.

 

[oneounceload]

An attorney friend of mine who uses MO's for an unrelated business warned me about how MO's can be retracted even after 24 hours. He has the MO go into one account, and then immediately transferred to another to prevent anything from happening.

Just a FWIW, YMMV

 

[dogtown tom]

oneounceload:...He has the MO go into one account, and then immediately transferred to another to prevent anything from happening.

Sounds like money laundering doesn't it?

And it won't prevent anything. If that money order was bad the first bank will still come after him for the $$$ he transferred to bank #2.

 

[c5_nc]

MO scam usually involves bank MOs. Everything with post office is federal level and they are very aggressive. If your into faking stuff I would think they would pick a bank MO. Never had a problem with them here, it is usually pretty nice to cash the MO and ship the buyer's item at the same place.

 

[kingpin008]

Everything with post office is federal level

Banks are Federally regulated as well.

 

[dogtown tom]

c5_nc: MO scam usually involves bank MOs. Everything with post office is federal level...

It doesn't matter if it's a money order from USPS, American Express, Western Union, Bank of Bob, a personal check or wrinkled one dollar bills. Use of the USPS to perpetrate a crime is mail fraud. It's not the payment method inside the envelope as much as the fact it has a stamp on the outside.

 

[gym]

Good catch Tom, I saw the same thing immediatelly, if it's bad it's bad. This is going on a lot lately. If you deal with ebay of other auction sites, you already know this. It's what those Nigerian emails do also, they give you a MO for five hundred thousand, and ask for a fifty grand "fee". You send the "fee" and the MO goes bad in a week.