How exactly do money orders work? Trying to sell van on Craigslist.

I'm trying to help my parents sell their van on Craigslist, and we were thinking about putting in that we would only take money orders. From what I've heard, it's more safe than taking cash. How exactly does it work? 

Why?  USPS money order only goes up to $1,000 and you might as well take a check

You want a Cashier's Check from a known bank.  Preferably if you accompany them to pick it up at their bank.  A Cashiers Check is from the bank to you, they've already secured the $$ from the buyer.  That is how I've sold cars/motorcycles on Craigslist.

How is a money order better than cash? I sold my parents old suv on Craigslist for $3k cash. No issues.

Money orders and cashier's checks can be forged pretty easily by crooks. And believe it or not, you can still put a "stop payment" on a cashier's check.

Why don't you make the people take cash into your bank? Most banks have a notary public on the premises, and thus you can endorse over the title right as the money is being deposited.

Just have them meet you at your bank with cash and bring the title with you and you can sign it over after they have given you the cash.  

The way I did it was the guy gave my teller at the bank the cash with my deposit slip, I didn't even touch it, by then we had met at my place, he tested the car, verified the title and the VIN on the car and we went to my bank and made the deposit.  Then I gave him the keys and title and took off my license plates and had someone follow us for my safety and to give me a ride back home.  

A cashier's check is an official check covered by the funding source.  It's more reliable because there's essentially no risk of getting hit with an insufficient funds charge from your bank.  

Smart move selling your car on Craigslist.  Much better return than selling it to a dealership that's for sure.  Unlike the marginal difference of selling/trading games on CL, selling a used car can equate to the difference of hundreds to even thousands of dollars.  

I sold my wife's old Toyota for over $2K over CL and we just did it as a cash transaction.  We didn't meet at the bank but banks are totally fine with helping conduct cash transactions between two parties.  You can use a counterfeit pen if you opt the way I did it.  In actuality, it's pretty rare to get counterfeit cash.  It would be incredibly stupid to give anybody any counterfeit money that would end up getting verified and trace it back to you.  You'd probably be in federal prison over a bunch of fake $100 bills. 

Ehh well we just sold it. The guy, who was a mechanic, and his friend gave us cash. Met at a crowded gas station with cameras around. I feel that it was a legit transaction. Snuck some pics with my phone of the license plate on their car, and the plate they put on our van just in case. I'm surprised they didn't test drive it lol.

If it's a cashier check meet during banking hours. Google the issuing banks name and call them. Explain you need to verify the validity of the check. I do this for work and have never been denied

I actually got a counterfeit $100 bill from some guy off Craigslist. And the way my luck works i went to the casino with it and almost got arrested by security and they called the cops. Lesson learned to only take smaller bills and make sure to check each one against a real bill or use a counterfeit pen.

Fluffy177 said:

I actually got a counterfeit $100 bill from some guy off Craigslist. And the way my luck works i went to the casino with it and almost got arrested by security and they called the cops. Lesson learned to only take smaller bills and make sure to check each one against a real bill or use a counterfeit pen.

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Wow. You should report the guy that gave it to you. I'm sure the cops would look into him.

Donut2922 said:

Wow. You should report the guy that gave it to you. I'm sure the cops would look into him.

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Yeah, the Secret Service would be quite interested too!

Funny enough a guy was trying to buy a PC off of me with a cashier check. Sadly i held off to not feeling right about the whole thing. Especially since the guy was txting me from a IL area code when i live in Indianapolis. Who does that?

[quote name="GreyFoxx2002" post="12196419" timestamp="1414677294"]Funny enough a guy was trying to buy a PC off of me with a cashier check. Sadly i held off to not feeling right about the whole thing. Especially since the guy was txting me from a IL area code when i live in Indianapolis. Who does that?[/quote]

I know, right? Who would ever move and keep their same cell number? /s

GreyFoxx2002 said:

Funny enough a guy was trying to buy a PC off of me with a cashier check. Sadly i held off to not feeling right about the whole thing. Especially since the guy was txting me from a IL area code when i live in Indianapolis. Who does that?

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Indy is the closest major city to a lot of small, central IL towns.

Like many have said, these things can easily be forged/faked/whatever and it's especially risky if you've never handled or done one of these kind of checks before so it's best to go to a bank and sort it out there.