Add a deposit amount when you make an official offer to the seller through our carsales payment service. You can edit your offer later to include a deposit if you don’t add one initially.
If your offer is accepted by the seller, you can pay the deposit directly through our platform.
You can transfer the deposit to carsales using PayTo, Pay ID or bank transfer, and we’ll hold it securely in your Pay through carsales wallet. We’ll also let the seller know that your deposit is with us.
PayTo usually arrives within seconds.
PayID can take up to 24 hours.
A bank transfer can take up to 3 business days.
Make sure to leave enough time to add your funds*. If you have any transfer limits, you may be able to change them online. Contacting your bank and letting them know you are buying a car through carsales can also speed up the process.
You decide when the seller gets your deposit. Once the seller has accepted your offer and verified their identity, you can release your deposit to them at any time before pick-up. Or you can wait and release it at pick-up, along with the rest of your funds. Either way, it usually reaches the seller's bank account within seconds*.
Your deposit is fully refundable until you release it. If you cancel your offer before then, you'll get the full amount back to the account it came from. Once you've released it, the deposit is not recoverable through carsales, even if the sale doesn't go ahead.
There are no fees for paying a deposit through carsales.
You can also arrange a deposit with the seller outside of carsales, for example by paying cash in person or transferring it directly from your bank to the seller's account.
If you paid the seller a deposit outside of carsales before using our payment service, you can still enter that amount in the deposit field. We'll adjust the remaining amount for you automatically.
*Transfer times can be affected by a range of factors. See Annexure C of T&Cs for details.
PayTo is a registered trademark of NPP Australia Limited and PayID is a registered trademark of NPP Australia Limited.
Any information on this page is provided as a guide only. It is not professional or expert advice and is not a substitute for such advice. The content may not be appropriate, correct or sufficient for your circumstances and should not be relied on as the only reason you do or don’t do anything.