Most Australians change cars by selling one and buying another. That sounds simple — until you add up dealer margins, double stamp duty, trade-in loss, and the weeks of listing, messaging, test drives, and settlement chasing. Don't sell for a loss and then buy at a premium — swap and save.
SwapU does one thing differently: we don't sell your car, and we don't buy theirs. We help two private owners swap directly, with a plain-English agreement, PPSR checks on both cars, and the balance sitting in Stripe escrow until handover. You paste the listing details from any platform — Facebook Marketplace, Carsales, Gumtree — and Nicholas, our AI coordinator, does the rest.
What a swap actually looks like
A SwapU swap moves through five steps, and most take 5–7 days end to end. You stay in control of every one — Nicholas handles the admin, never the pricing.
- Paste a listing. The text from any Facebook Marketplace, Carsales, or Gumtree listing — or a photo of a dealer sign — works.
- Confirm the details. We pull rego, make, km, and suburb. You check it matches before the agreement is drafted.
- Review and sign. A plain-English agreement drafted from your chat. Both owners sign with an SMS code.
- Escrow holds the balance. Any cash balance sits with Stripe until you both tick off the handover. No early release — ever.
- Handover, then done. Keys, rego papers, inspection, balance. When you both confirm, funds release automatically.
Why Brisbane first
SwapU charges a flat $100 coordination fee, paid by the instigating party only, captured the moment both parties commit to coordinate. No commission, no percentage, no trail. The dealer margin and trade-in friction that the sell-then-buy path quietly eats — that stays with the two owners.
We're starting with Brisbane because that's where our team lives, and because the PPSR and Queensland rego-transfer process is something we've walked hundreds of owners through already. If you're in Brisbane and you've been putting off changing cars because the maths felt awful — paste a listing and let's see what's possible.