Buying and Selling Payments. What are the alternatives?

MasterClass

MasterClass

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I use paypal to pay for or receive payment for everything I buy or sell. Usually buy. But since my paypal is kind of stuck for a while, i was thinking what are the alternatives?

Is there an exorbitant bank charge for direct bank transfer? Is there a minimum? making small payments not worth it.

What do you use that is not paypal that serves you well?

Does check work? I know that if i issue a check from my country, you might not be able to cash it in in the USA, or could i go to a bank and ask them to issue a usd check to the sellers name and such.
 
MasterClass said:
I use paypal to pay for or receive payment for everything I buy or sell. Usually buy. But since my paypal is kind of stuck for a while, i was thinking what are the alternatives?

Is there an exorbitant bank charge for direct bank transfer? Is there a minimum? making small payments not worth it.

What do you use that is not paypal that serves you well?

Does check work? I know that if i issue a check from my country, you might not be able to cash it in in the USA, or could i go to a bank and ask them to issue a usd check to the sellers name and such.
Click to expand...

International bank direct wire transfer is easy from overseas. It does not cost too much, but would not be practical for small purchases...takes a few days to clear.

Western Union direct payments are good, also, but only deal with folks that you know and trust, because when they pick up the money at Western Union, you have no recourse if they don't deliver.

Joe
 
That or if I'm dealing with someone who doesn't have Pay Pal, I get a cashiers cheque from my bank and pay a bit extra from the PO to expedite it.
I'm in Canada and never had a problem with a US bank cashing a cashiers cheque drawn on a Canadian account.
 
Think it was a wire transfer I did. Cost me $45 to wire funds from my bank to Ukrania fellas bank. F me, $45 for just a transfer. Don't think I will be doing that again.
 
Payment

Postal money orders are also a good alternative when neccesary but i too like to use pay-pal as often as possible
 
SPRINGFIELDFATS said:
Postal money orders are also a good alternative when neccesary but i too like to use pay-pal as often as possible
Click to expand...

MasterClass in located in Singapore. He is asking what the best way for him to buy/sell internationally would be while his paypal is "held up" as paypal sometimes does.

Foreign postal money orders are not a good idea. The banks that I deal with don't like them...not even Canadian. Seems that they are too easily counterfeited.

$45US for a wire transfer equates to the same fee that you would pay paypal for a $1200US purchase, so, depending on the cue, it could easily be an affordable option...it is by far the safest for both parties, IMO.
Joe
 
I received a western union payment here before that i could not cash in. I think the western union here is some sort of franchise or something.

I have never made payment other then using paypal. I did send cash before wrap in a greeting card!
 
agree with Joe, bank transfer is the way to go.

i think the bank charges $25sgd per transaction, but the exchange rate is better than paypal. takes 2-3 days max for other party to receive, if you do the transaction before 1-2pm, sometimes 1 day is enough. usually i add another $20-25usd to pay for bank transfer on the other side as well though..thus small payments are not worth a bank transfer.

otherwise international bank draft is also ok (buy at post office) but need to pay for postage and $8 surcharge (if i remember correctly). and you will have to pray hard it reaches the other side. can buy from bank too, but will still need to go to post office to post. so far i have sent a few out so far, and thank God all have reached the desired parties.

there are a few other online sites that work similar to paypal, but i cant comment on their security and usefulness as i have not used them. maybe you can try them after researching them thoroughly?
 
paypal is the fastest and easiest method of payment. higher exchange rate

bank transfer: better exchange rate. bank commission for both party and cable charges (at most $30SGD for sender) time taken: 2 to 4 working days.

bank draft/cheque: better exchange rate. bank charges(SGD$10 if i am not wrong)
time taken: one to two weeks(need to mail cheque over)
it will take a few days for the cheque to clear too.

i tried all three methods before... for me, bank transfer and bank draft is preferred if the amount is more than $1kusd. if not paypal will be better.
 
I've heard good things about gpal.net. It's a paypal alternative that "does not discriminate based on the nature of your transaction". there have been threads on here in the past with people talking it up. Search threads for Gpal and you'll find some stuff.
 
Don't know if any of these will work for you but here are some PayPal Alternatives:

paysimple.com
obopay.com
ikobo.com
alertpay.com
payments.amazon.com
googlecheckout.com
 
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