Cash for cars

Traditionally, selling your car for cash was a popular way to sell a vehicle for physical bank notes. This could be to a dealer or private buyer and was certainly a norm until the turn of the century. This is the “cash for cars” typically advertised with signs at car dealerships, but it can also mean money in the bank too.

In recent years, and more so since the COVID-19 pandemic, most professional buyers, including the majority of car dealers in the UK have stopped buying in cash, instead buying cars via direct transfers directly into seller’s bank accounts.

All the dealers on Motorway who buy cars will pay for your car with a bank transfer. This is not cash in the form of notes and coins, but it is definitely cash in the bank!

You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone closer than Motorway, after all, we let you sell your car from home, totally online and 100% for free. When you have agreed a sale with a dealer, they come to you to collect your car, and money is paid right to your UK bank account — no wasted petrol or bus journeys home from the dealership needed!

If your car is in a particularly bad way, maybe written off as a Cat N vehicle or just too much trouble to maintain, then selling your car for scrap can be a great option. Motorway works with a scrap partner who buys even unroadworthy vehicles, and the process is just as quick and easy, free collection included.

Motorway work with dealers who will pay you via a bank transfer, usually within 24 hours of your car being collected. They will not pay you with cash.

Always sell your car to trustworthy dealers. Motorway’s nationwide network of 5,000+ dealers have all been carefully vetted, and will only ever pay you through bank transfer, so you can be sure you’re in safe hands.

Plenty of car buyers will be happy to take your vehicle off your hands for the right price, including:

• Instant car-buying sites — be prepared for potentially lower offers than with other options
• Private sellers — you might get a higher price, but at the cost of far more admin
• Motorway — free, quick, easy and all online!

Just remember that if you’re hoping for cold, hard cash in your hands, then selling privately (not receiving money through a limited company) may be the best route for this, as most companies will look to pay via bank transfer.

Whether selling for cash is right for you will depend on multiple factors. If you are receiving bank notes from an individual on your doorstep or at a drop-off, or collection location, you need to be certain the cash is real and not counterfeit. This is a factor that may make selling via bank transfer more appealing as this risk is eliminated if the payment is digital.

You may also be taking on the risk of holding cash at your residential or work address, and the potential danger that can bring in terms of burglary or robbery.

However, if you wish to hold money in your hand, cash will always be more appealing, but it’s worth being aware that payment into your bank account will always be more secure! All the dealers who buy cars on Motorway will pay via a secure, safe bank transfer to ensure cash in the bank, not cash in your home.

Selling your car with Motorway means not having to compromise between getting your best price, and enjoying an easy experience. Verified dealers will buy your car, collect it for free, and send money straight into your bank account. To get started, enter your reg and mileage on Motorway’s homepage for an instant, free valuation – to see how much cash your car can fetch.

Yes, since 2013 it has been illegal for scrapyards to offer cash for cars in the UK. Instead, like most car buyers, they pay via instant bank transfer. However, you may see adverts for businesses out there who will buy, or apparently ‘scrap’ your car for physical cash. If they are performing this service, they are not a licensed scrap yard (or Authorised Treatment Facility/ATF) and you should be wary. 

When you scrap your car, there are legal steps to take in order to transfer ownership and inform the DVLA. Any ATF will know exactly what they’re doing, to make sure your scrapping is legal. They will then pay you the agreed price via bank transfer.

If you have a vehicle that’s in need of costly repairs, you have to decide whether it’s worth getting those repairs done, or just selling or scrapping your car. These days, it’s rare that you’ll find a legitimate, verified buyer who will be willing to pay you in cash. Due to business and financial regulations, it’s much more likely that you’ll sell or scrap your vehicle for an instant bank transfer. 

It could be worth making your repairs if this either means that your car will continue to run for several more years at an affordable running cost, or that you’ll be able to sell your vehicle in the near to mid-future for a good price that covers the cost of repairs. If neither of these options is likely, you’ll do best to sell your car with Motorway, or scrap it with our partner.

Even if you think your car will only be worth a cash or scrap offer, it’s worth double-checking what it could fetch with Motorway. Just enter your reg and mileage on the homepage to get a free and instant valuation based on real-time data from the Motorway marketplace and the wider used-car industry at large. Car depreciation is hard to predict, and there could be more value in even an older or high-mileage vehicle than you assume.

Another trick is to consider stripping valuable parts from your car and selling these separately on a specialist site such as eBay Motors, before scrapping. It will likely not impact the level of your scrap offer, so you will make more money this way than by scrapping alone.

Finally, if you live in an urban area or somewhere running a Clean Air Zone or Low Emission Zone, you may be able to make the most of a scrappage scheme and get money in exchange for your non-compliant vehicle, to put towards the purchase of a vehicle with lower emissions.