tokyo_james

I would normally but I will be away skiing this weekend

MarkB

It's money laundering pure and simple. It happened to a chap I know in December, he was selling his TVR and was offered 20% over what he was asking for the car in Italian Lira, asked a detective friend of his who told him that European organised crime is doing this on a wide scale, they cant put the money in the bank, can't exchange it without questions being asked and it's safer doing it in a non-euro country (not sure why though) so the UK is seeing a lot of it.

Tempting though isn't it?

Frenchie

There is some truth and some myth in this statement.

The money offered in this case is definitely illegal, hence the tone of my previous post. If it wasn't, an exchange would be made through legitimate sources. The best place to do this with "funny money" until recently was via a Bureau de Change as they were not subject to Money Laundering regulations. This is now not the case - hence these people are in a panic; they have cash they shouldn't have and they have nowhere left to offload it.

The Deutschmark is now designated as a legacy currency and facilities for the exchange of legacy currency at banks after the legal tender deadline (31/12/01 in Germany) will be available until at least 28th February 2002. Redemption at any of the 12 countries National Central Banks (in this case, the Deutsche Bundesbank) will be indefinite. There is therefore absolutely no need for anyone to want to buy a UK car in DMs for any reason other than money laundering.

If you accept DMs in payment for the car, what answers are you going to have when the bank you take them to calls the police on suspicion that YOU are the one trying to launder the money?

Think about it.

Sorry for the tone guys, but this is my profession and, trust me, this is serious stuff we're talking about here.

Pete

Kobe

It might get a bit suspicious if you have to make a regular trip to Frankfurt every time you sell a car! (assuming that's the home of the German bank thing)

JMUK

Phew!

Thanks again guys - and I thought selling an S2000 would be straightforward! All this Euro thing and the comment about Spanish Pesetas (and extraneous cash) probably has some truth - we're getting all sorts of silly (cash) offers for our pad in Mallorca too.

Maybe I should just keep the car!

With reference to the Bureau de Change regulations - does this mean that we cannot change our (legit) eurocash (ptas, dms, francs etc) without some form of ID?

I agree that there is little point in me being stuck with DMs that I would have to spend in Germany within the space of a month or two.

James

Frenchie

Correct, as I understand it. But, not being a BDC ourselves, I haven't seen the data re any limits. It may be that below a given amount, say