Money order from thailand??? Safe??

greeneye

Thai buyer wants to send me a "money order" for £250 (says he has no paypal) anyone knows if he's referring to western union which I seem to remember can be dodgy and we all stopped taking it years ago.
I'm inclined to trust him the item isn't exactly in a category that fraudsters target and he has 2500 feedback buying similar items over the years.
Any advice appreciated.
Also am I right in thinking that ebay actually banned western union payments (if that's what he means by money order) a few years ago?

theonlywayisup

Can he not do a bank transfer into your account? There may be a fee.

soolin

If you are a business do you actually have a facility for dealing with non UK money orders? They can be a nightmare even from more 'usual' countries, and can cost a fortune to deal with in the UK even if they are sent in sterling.

Western Union is banned on ebay because it does have a potential for mis use.

greeneye

Talked to my bank a Natwest personal account. And they assure me if the money order is in sterling there will be no fees at all. Was a bit dubious about this so rang them a further 2 times asking the operator if they could confirm this with their manager and both came back with the same answer. So maybe money orders aren't as scary for ebayers as they used to be. Anyway we'll see.

forgotmyname

Is this money order something that can be purchased by a CC or cheque and withdrawn weeks or months later though?

martindow

greeneye wrote: »

Talked to my bank a Natwest personal account. And they assure me if the money order is in sterling there will be no fees at all. Was a bit dubious about this so rang them a further 2 times asking the operator if they could confirm this with their manager and both came back with the same answer. So maybe money orders aren't as scary for ebayers as they used to be. Anyway we'll see.

I think it needs to be in sterling and drawn on a UK bank. A sterling money order from a Thai bank is very unlikely to be free or easy for you to clear.

happybiker

It is buyers that need to be wary of sending money by Western Union. It can be very unsafe to send this way. It is dead safe for sellers if they do not post until the cash is in their hands.

The person sending money sends an email to the person recieving it. This email will contain a unique Western Union transaction code.The reciever simply takes this code and photographic ID into their nearest Western Union office and collects the cash. The item can then be sent/collected etc.

There is nothing to go wrong for sellers unless they post before the cash is in their hands. That's why scamming sellers like it, the money is guaranteed and they can collect cash with a fake identity.
Scamming buyers never use Western union without pushing for the item to be sent before the money is recieved. This is fatal to the seller.

greeneye

Now I'm really confused.
But hey I suppose that's the beauty of internet forums. If we had the money we'd just send a minion to go find a definitive answer to our troublesome questions on pain of death.

But in response to an above post I'll ring Natwest again in the morning and grill them about money orders that come from Thailand but aren't drawn on a a UK bank which I didn't specifically ask for an answer on. I'm assuming that a money order drawn on a Thai branch of a UK bank will be OK.

But hey I'm sure someone will be along shortly to warn me of......??? well we'll see:+)

Anyway I'll update this thread and see if we can't figure out if it's possible to take these or not.

I've actually lost 5 sales this year all high value items low risk categories/buyers by turning down money orders so might let this one run just to see what the pitfalls are.

martindow

greeneye wrote: »

I'm assuming that a money order drawn on a Thai branch of a UK bank will be OK.

I wouldn't assume anything. You don't want to end up with a piece of paper that will be expensive and slow to clear. For a small value it could end up being not worth cashing it.

There is some info here that may be relevant

http://www.natwest.com/personal/travel-international/g2/international-payments/receiving-money-from-abroad/handling-drafts.ashx

soolin

It was a long while ago but I got a money order from the States, drawn in UK sterling. Barclays at the time wanted £12 to put it through the system and stated it was not fully clear for approx 12 weeks.