A private sale finishes in an odd little scene. Two people stand on a pavement, one holding a set of keys and the other holding a phone, and one of them has to move first. Most of the bad stories about selling a car in this country come out of that single minute.
What protects you there is not a document. It is an order of events, settled by message days before anyone drives over, and then followed even when the buyer turns out to be likeable and in a hurry. For the procedure around it, from the first enquiry to the collection, read the guide to selling to a car buyer. This article is about the money alone.
The order that keeps you out of trouble
Money confirmed, then the transfer at the RDW, then the keys. Three steps, always in that sequence, and never two at once.
The RDW is unusually direct on the last part. Its page on selling a vehicle tells a seller to pass over the registration card (kentekencard) and the registration code (tenaamstellingscode), let the buyer put the vehicle into their own name, and collect the proof of transfer (vrijwaringsbewijs). Once you have that certificate, says the RDW, you may let the vehicle go. The certificate is the thing that proves you are no longer liable for the car, and you can see the same change reflected in Mijn RDW or the public number plate check.
Money comes before all of it because money is the only part you cannot undo by writing an email. The registration can be corrected. A car that has already been driven away cannot.
Cash, and what the law actually restricts
Cash is legal between two private people, and the Dutch ban on large cash payments does not apply to you.
That surprises most sellers, so read it from the source. The ban described on the Rijksoverheid page about the prohibition on cash payments covers transactions with or between dealers in goods. The page says plainly that private individuals selling something to another private individual, for example through Marktplaats, do not fall under the prohibition. It does not currently cover services either, and a European rule arriving in 2027 widens the picture, so check the page again if you are reading this later.
So the law is not your problem with cash. The practical side is. A thick envelope at the kerb has to be counted somewhere, and counted by somebody who would recognise a bad note, and then carried home. Banks ask questions about large cash deposits because they are obliged to, and the answer “I sold my car” lands much better with a dated sale agreement, a copy of the vrijwaringsbewijs and the buyer’s name attached to it. Keep all three.
If you do take cash, count it indoors. A bank lobby is a reasonable place to meet. So is your own kitchen table. A dark industrial estate at the buyer’s suggestion is not, and the Consumentenbond ran into exactly that offer when it put a car on Marktplaats for its own test of the ways to sell a car, a garage proposing a handover on a trading estate with payment in cash.
A screenshot is not a payment
A buyer showing you a transfer confirmation on their screen has shown you a picture. Nothing more.
Payment confirmations are trivial to fake, and the honest ones are misleading anyway, because a transfer can be entered, scheduled, cancelled or recalled by a bank in the hours after the screen looks finished. What counts is your own account, opened in your own banking app, on your own phone, showing the money as settled and available. If the amount is not in there, the car does not move. There is no version of this where you accept a screenshot because the buyer seems embarrassed about the delay.
The same applies to anything sent by email: a receipt from a payment provider you have never heard of, a message that says the funds are held pending delivery, a notice that an escrow agent is waiting for the car. Those are all written by whoever wants your car.
Timing matters too, and this is where sellers get caught out honestly. The Consumentenbond notes that bank transfers can take a day at higher amounts, which means a Friday evening handover can leave you with a car gone and a payment that will not land until Monday. Agree the method in advance and you avoid the whole question.
The instant payment request, and where it stops
For most private sales the workable answer is an instant payment request, because it clears while the two of you are still standing there. A plain transfer may not.
In its test, the Consumentenbond was paid by iDEAL payment requests created through the Marktplaats chat, which it reports are processed straight away for a small charge per request. There is a ceiling on each request, so a car usually needs more than one, and you can create several for the same buyer. The same article says Tikkie is unsuitable here, because its limit is too low for a car.
Two warnings. The request has to be created by you, in your own account, so that the money is pulled into your account and not into something that merely looks like it. And an instant payment request is not a licence to skip the final check: open your banking app and look at the balance.
What happens at a webuycar handover
We pay at the handover, before the car is loaded.
The sequence on the day is the same one this article argues for, and we do not ask you to trust us on any of it. The car is checked against the description you gave. The registration leaves your name at the RDW while we are with you. You are paid before the car is loaded, and the vrijwaringsbewijs stays in your hand when we leave. If the money is not where it should be, nothing goes on the transporter.
The person who collects the car speaks English, which matters more than it sounds like it should when the conversation turns to payment and paperwork at the same time. Collection is free anywhere in the Netherlands.
If you would rather not stand on a pavement working out whether a screenshot is real, ask us for an offer.
Frequently asked questions
Is it legal to be paid in cash for a car in the Netherlands?
Between two private individuals, yes. The Rijksoverheid page on the cash payment prohibition states that the ban applies to transactions with or between dealers in goods, and that private sellers selling to another private person are not covered by it. A trade buyer is in a different position, which is why most of them pay by transfer.
Can I give the keys once I have seen the money in my app?
Not quite yet. Confirm the money, complete the transfer at the RDW, collect the vrijwaringsbewijs, and hand over the keys last. The RDW ties your liability for the car to that certificate.
The buyer wants to pay a deposit and the rest later. Is that sensible?
Only if the car stays with you until the rest arrives. A part payment is a reservation, and nothing else. Write down what happens to the deposit if the sale falls through, and keep the registration card and the code in your own drawer.
What if the money arrives but the transfer at the RDW fails?
Then you still own a car you have been paid for, and you should not release it. A transfer can fail for dull reasons, a buyer without a Dutch address or without an entry in the municipal records, so fix the cause before anything else happens. The money sitting in your account is not the end of the sale.
Do I need a written sale agreement to be paid safely?
It does not make the payment safer by itself, but it makes everything after the payment easier: the bank asking about a cash deposit, a dispute about what was agreed, or a fine that arrives later. Two copies, both signed, names and number plate on each.