Accepting Postal Order as payment.

emby

I've just been asked by a potential buyer if i would accept a Postal order for an item i'm selling. I've never accepted one before so i'm pretty much a novice when it comes to them. If i'm right are there two options to have a Postal Order issued, crossed and uncrossed? Can they be paid directly into your bank account?

lexuslass

I think if it is crossed you can only pay it into your bank account... uncrossed, you can cash it at the post office.

HTH

epm-84

lexuslass is correct. You may also find the buyer has to overpay you by a small amount to bring the amount up to a round number.

There's many advantages to accepting Postal Order:
* You don't have to wait for it to clear, like a cheque.
* You don't get charged a PayPal fee when a buyer pays you using Postal Order.
* If it's uncrossed you can use it to pay for the postage either part or full in a Post Office. I think you may even be able to do that if it's crossed and you take a passport or driving licence along with you.

soolin

POs can be made out for any amount, they are no longer limited to fixed amounts . Even in the old days stamps could be added for odd amounts anyway.

martindow

epm-84 wrote: »

lThere's many advantages to accepting Postal Order:
* You don't have to wait for it to clear, like a cheque.

If it is crossed it is treated like a cheque and it is best to let it clear before you post the item.

macfly

Not so Martin. Postal orders are crossed so the sender can be covered in case of fraud. The recipient can't then claim non receipt. Tracing uncrossed ones for encashment takes months. It is treated by the bank as a cheque in that it takes five days to clear, but only because they have no other mechanism to deal with them.
In short - safe as houses. (did I just write that?)

martindow

macfly wrote: »

Not so Martin. Postal orders are crossed so the sender can be covered in case of fraud. The recipient can't then claim non receipt. Tracing uncrossed ones for encashment takes months. It is treated by the bank as a cheque in that it takes five days to clear, but only because they have no other mechanism to deal with them.
In short - safe as houses. (did I just write that?)

That makes sense. But this link

http://reviews.ebay.co.uk/crossed-amp-Uncrossed-Postal-Orders-What-apos-s-The-Difference_W0QQugidZ10000000003919447

suggests that they can be stopped like a cheque between issue and clearance. Is that incorrect?

soolin

martindow wrote: »

That makes sense. But this link

http://reviews.ebay.co.uk/crossed-amp-Uncrossed-Postal-Orders-What-apos-s-The-Difference_W0QQugidZ10000000003919447

suggests that they can be stopped like a cheque between issue and clearance. Is that incorrect?

I always thought they could be stopped as well, in fact many years ago I had one of the old style POs cancelled on me, I don't know if it is the same for the new style POs.

I'd certainly treat as a cheque, cleared for funds on day 4 cleared against fraud on day 6.

macfly

That link is more or less correct, especially the "very rare" bit. The part about no come back is not. POltd would want a very good reason to do this, such as a police report of theft. A simple "I made a mistake" would not suffice. In ten years I had no alerts for stopped postal orders, only stolen in bulk ones. Such an alert would go to every office in the country. If the person making the claim was found to be committing fraud, the penalties are more severe as it is a fraud involving a crown office.
Having said all that, I have always accepted cheques and posted quickly. You can usually suss out a scammer.
If this particular item is for a large amount of money, I would ask the buyer to attend a branch of my bank and pay cash in though. Cheaper and cleaner all round.