The essentials
- Meet by day in a public place and bring someone.
- Ask for the licence before the drive and ride along.
- Payment comes before the keys: by bank once the money is in your account, or counted cash.
Where to meet and who to bring
- Meet by day in a public place you know — not outside your home, not at night.
- Bring someone. Two people change the tone of every conversation.
Test drive, keys and payment
- Before the drive: ask for the licence and photograph it. Whoever refuses does not drive.
- Ride along on the test drive.
- Never leave the car alone with the key in it, not for a minute.
- Payment comes before the keys. By bank only once the money shows as credited in your banking app, not on a photo of the transfer order; between two banks this can take until the next working day. Cash: count and check it, for large sums ideally together at the bank. Never “tomorrow”.
- If the buyer is a business, such as a dealership, and the amount is over €2,000, payment must go through a bank or electronically since 1 June 2026.
- Do not click links “to receive the payment” that a buyer sends you on Viber or WhatsApp, and never enter card details, CVV or text-message codes. Your account number is enough to receive money. MerrVetura does not process payments between buyer and seller.
Sign the contract before you hand over the keys, not after, and have it certified by a notary: without that the owner does not change. Once the keys are gone nobody signs gladly.