Paying for EBAY purchases

[vickybear]

Hi all,

For any of you who buy from Ebay, I am wondering how you pay for purchases made in Germany or Belgium. I have seen a few items I like but the sellers do not accept Paypal. They are asking for bank transfers. Is this easy to do? I have a Credit Agricole French account. If you have paid vis bank transfer for items outside France coulf you let me know how you arranged it and if there are any extra charges.

Many thanks!

Shelagh

[Dick Smith]

An envelope with €uro notes in it - but only for a small amount. For small purchases the transfer costs are prohibitive. I'd be a bit concerned about a seller who doesn't accept Paypal.

[Ron Avery]

Sheelagh

I replied to your E mail about E bay payments this morning, did you not get it?   As Dick says try euros for a small amount but as far as electronic interrnational transfers go I think you will have to wait until Tuesday now to ask youir bank., there is nothing I have seen on the CA internet banking site that will let you do this and in the UK I cannot do it from my HSBC account either, it has to be done through worldpay.

If  they will accept a CA cheque in Berlguim, at least you wll not lose on the exchange rate, but again as Dick says be wary of sellers who won't  use Paypal, usually its because they are careful with their money shall we say[:)]  So watch their P&P charges!!

[daryl-et-elaine]

[quote user="Ron Avery"]

 be wary of sellers who won't  use Paypal, usually its because they are careful with their money shall we say[:)]  So watch their P&P charges!!

[/quote]

Ron

For anyone who has done their homework, PayPal is far from the ideal with regard to financial transactions. It is not a bank, it is not bound by banking law and, when things are going well - fine. But when things go wrong PayPal's whole safeguard policy which they proudly boast about, is worth nothing. Pay via PayPal with a credit card and you instantly give away your rights to make any claim via your credit card issuer if things go wrong. As a seller, you can part with the goods as PayPal informs you the buyer has paid, only to find weeks later that PayPal has withdrawn funds from your account on the grounds that the purchaser made a "fraudulent purchase" and the transaction is invalid.

At least if you accept a cheque drawn on a British or European bank, you have sufficient time to ensure the funds are in place prior to despatching the goods.

As a seller I had a pretty raw deal with PayPal, and 1. I'm still out of pocket and 2. still awaiting the written apology PayPal were going to send.

Have a look at http://www.paypalsucks.com/ 

Daryl

[Sunday Driver]

CA will do you an international bank transfer (virement Europe). They'll require the BIC (SWIFT bank identification code) and IBAN (international bank account number) of the destination account.  They charge 3,40 euros for amounts under 50,000 euros.

[vickybear]

Thank Sunday Driver, just the info I was looking for!!

[Will]

Most French banks are regionally-based, and Credit Agricole is probably the most diverse example of this, in that each region (or even town) will do things in a different way, with its own set of charges. Things are becoming more nationalised, but there is still a long way to go. Our CA will do international transfers, like SD's, but the charge is slightly different at 3.9€ plus TVA, with another 3.05€ to tell you that they have made the transfer. Others may have different charges, or not do it at all.

The advice about PayPal above is worth bearing in mind, and the same advice applies to other non-regulated banking transactions, including Moneybookers and most currency exchange brokers. The vast majority of these transactions, including PayPal, seem to go through without difficulty, but when things do go wrong it's often a case of caveat emptor.

[Ron Avery]

Daryl

Getting a bit off topic , but I do sympathise in relation to Paypal and perhaps I was generalising a bit and I do look at Paypal from a buyers point of view having only just started selling, I do accept paypal by the way.[:D]  The reason I do is because I know from a buyers point of view it is so easy to use and of course free to buyers.  I also believe that sellers get more and higher bids on their items than non paypal users and can quote examples of the same items having sold or not sold and at different prices with paypal and non paypal sellers.  I actually prefer to do internet bank transfers but with all the misleading publicity about ID theft, few non paypal users will do it, insisting on a cheque, pointing out that the cheque I send them has far more info about me than I am asking for from them cuts no ice. 

[Miki]

The reason we only use Nochex for our British guests, is beacuse PayPal

can be a pain plus Nochex are cheaper and better to work with.

My opinion perhaps but do look at the website suggested to see what I

mean. Having said that, I do acccept PayPal (and indeed use it to pay

for some items) from abroad as Nochex works for those persons with UK

credit cards only but I certainly prefer it.

For many international guests, we have long used Swift/Iban, something

many prefer to use, rather than give us credit card details..

PayPal is big for two reasons on ebay, one it is universal and two, well as we all know, it is owned by ebay.

[Bastet]

A couple of times I have used PayPal to pay money to, for example, a friend in the U.S. for some jeans she sent me, nothing to do with Ebay.  You can do this directly to anyone's e-mail address from your PayPal account. I'm sure someone will tell me that's a bad idea, but it seemed to be the best way at the time.

[Quillan]

The French don't have such a 'grasp' of internet trading as the rest of  us although they are getting there. Many French do not like PayPal although they are getting used to it a bit now.

Euro Land has a rule, it cannot cost anymore to do a bank transfer to another Euro Land country than it would to the person next door. It's actually illegal to do so. However that is not the case with Euro cheques. I have heard a person say they have been charged loads of money for putting a Irish Euro cheque in to their French Euro bank account.

You can, as I have recently discovered, pay your Barclaycard and American Express card with a French Euro cheque.

[andyh4]

and as a final point on eurochques Quillan, some countries have discontinued their use - UK and Germany for example.

[Quillan]

[quote user="andyh4"]and as a final point on eurochques Quillan, some countries have discontinued their use - UK and Germany for example.[/quote]

Sorry by this I ment a normal personal cheque drawn on a French bank or even German who's currency is the Euro and as such don't need "Euro Cheques" in they way to which you refer.

The UK doing away with Euro Cheques, does this mean they are creeping ever so slowly towards joining Euro Land?

[Oldie]

I use Ebay quite a lot and only use PayPal (or a cheque) for the

payment. It's quick and far less complicated than going to the bank

(15Km each way) to arrange cash transfer.

I ahve found that sellers in Germany/Holland/belgium will not accept

cheques drawn on a french account as it cost them too much in

administration.

[andyh4]

Quillan,

I understood what you were implying.  In Germany there were only ever Eurocheques, and now there are no cheques whatsoever.  Payment by debit card or bank transfer is the norm.

I once cashed  French cheque at my bank and the costs were pretty horrible,  Now I don't believe they would accept it at all.

 

[vickybear]

Hi All,

Made my interbank transfer today and it cost me 4,70E so that's not too bad ( although CA on-line advised me it would be 15,55 ?? )

Thanks for everyones help. Out of interest I have been buying and selling on Ebay UK for 3 years and have over 500 postitive feedback. Most of the transactions have been via Paypal, buying and selling, and I have never had a bad experience. I know some people have, but this would always be my preferred route.

Thanks again

Shelagh

[Brilec]

[quote user="Will "]

The advice about PayPal above is worth bearing in mind, and the same advice applies to other non-regulated banking transactions, including Moneybookers and most currency exchange brokers. The vast majority of these transactions, including PayPal, seem to go through without difficulty, but when things do go wrong it's often a case of caveat emptor.

[/quote]

Just to correct you on this, a quote from the Moneybookers home page

Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority of the United Kingdom (FSA)

[Will]

That's encouraging then, I remember a little while ago a lot of people on here were having big problems with transfers via some of those companies so it's good to know that at least one of them claims to offer some security.

[fulcrum]

Did anyone else see the Watchdog program last night regarding PayPal? I saw part of it but got the gist of what it was about.

I use PayPal for Ebay transactions but didn't think about the scenario that was the subject of last nights program.

It was about an Ebay purchaser who received and paid for the goods from a seller but due to some sort of illegal activity on the part of the purchaser Ebay decided to lock both parties PayPal acounts. This meant that any funds still in the sellers account were locked.

This very thing could have happened to me recently as one of my purchasers had their Ebay account shut. Fortunately I had transferred any money in PayPal to my bank prior to this happening.

I suppose the bottom line is to check out carefully any Ebay users feedback, purchasers or sellers, carefully before doing any transactions. Also make sure you empty your PayPay account into your bank account to avoid funds being seized..

[Brilec]

[quote user="fulcrum"]Also make sure you empty your PayPay account into your bank account to avoid funds being seized..
[/quote]

I usually spend it too quickly.

[Iceni]

I think PayPal is bril. I just bought an item from Germany - from a German site that has a lot of the items you see on SKY and think - that would be great. It was a Genius veggy chopper and for anyone with arthritis is a dream. They a have French site (very little on it), German, Belgian and European where they will send anywhere.

I use PayPal to accept money for urgent work for my business and have done so for years. I lose 4% but it is better than the work going to someone else. I also use it for Ebay purchases. I will not buy from Ebay if I cannot pay via PayPal.

In all honesty I have had more problems with 'real' banks than PayPal. The best was when I put a cheque into my bank, and when I thought it had cleared (enough time for it to clear and become invisible) went and booked a last minute holiday with Thomas Cook (and paid with a cheque). The Thomas Cook cheque bounced and they tried to throw me out of the hotel in Italy. I spent a lot of time on the phone to the bank who had no knowledge of the cheque but admited I had paid it in but would not budge and when I got back to the UK after a very unhappy and fraught holiday they said they had found the cheque - it had fallen behind something. They still charged me for a bounced cheque. I left - and left a small overdraft representing their charges. I then went and explained what had happened to Thomas Cook. I had left plenty of time for the cheque to clear.

PayPal like any bank will freeze an account if they fear money laundering - and I do make a point of taking the money out as soon as I know it is in there.