The process of selling a foreign car abroad

The whole sales process is based on mutual trust. The buyer trusts the seller that everything is fine with the car and it will be like this until the date of the scheduled meeting. The seller trusts the buyer that he will not jump off and he will receive the money when the documents are already in the buyer’s name.

In early December, we reached Panama. From here, I mailed the documents to Alex for re-registration.
The cost of this procedure is $ 600,
including fees, taxes — $ 350
and Alex’s work — $ 250.

In some States, you can easily register a car in your own name, even without being in the United States and being a citizen of another state.

When you enter another country, a temporary import permit is issued. In Panama and Honduras, an additional stamp is placed in the passport that you arrived with a car. If you suddenly try to leave without your iron horse, nothing will work.

We met Denis’s family at the airport and went straight to customs. They changed the temporary permit in his name. For this procedure, I wrote an application, we presented a new PTC, insurance, our passports and a CompraVenta (purchase and sale agreement in Spanish) notarized for $ 10. In Panama, to certify a document, you need to put not only a signature, but also your index finger print!

Denis was given papers in his name, we changed the numbers and everything was ready. Everything except money.

Surprisingly, the Swiss don’t carry bags of cash but keep their money in savings institutions. We tried to figure out how to make international transfers easier and cheaper—and found the perfect option: TransferWise (https://transferwise.com/u/evgeniib12).

We’ve set up borderless accounts—a multi-currency wallet where you can send/receive money from 40 countries worldwide. Everything is free. Exchange rates are super competitive—no Russian bank even comes close. Denis paid only 0.3% in fees for the transfer!!! PayPal is nervously smoking cigarettes on the sidelines.

Oh, and most importantly—the money arrived instantly! The transfer from the wallet to my bank account took just one day.

Honestly, I don’t know how they do it, but I’m thrilled! Highly recommend to anyone using international payments.

It feels like during these two months of preparing the deal, I took courses in customs law and international trade. So if you need advice, please contact us!