how to pay or receive payments safely

paul2louise

this may be a dumb question. I am used to using ebay and paypal obviously fits with the transaction. i have been using facebook and other sites. if you are local then cash on collection works. But i am finding more that posting needs to happen. So my question is.....
is paypal the only way to pay or receive safe payments. Gone is day when you send a cheque. obviously you dont disclose bank details to strangers. i had really thought about it until i wanted to buy some lego off facebook. The seller wanted to think about payment options.
Are there options. Thanks

MattSt89

If I buy off Facebook, gumtree or anything like that I stick to local so I can collect and deal in cash.

paul2louise

MattSt89 wrote: »

If I buy off Facebook, gumtree or anything like that I stick to local so I can collect and deal in cash.

yes i do normally, as most things are big and cost quite a bit to post. These lego bits are small and will go in small parcel or even large letter. i have ended up using paypal -me so all fine.

soolin

If you are the buyer then only use a proper PayPal payment . Any other payment method (unless seller can take cards) is not safe.

GabbaGabbaHey

paul2louise wrote: »

obviously you dont disclose bank details to strangers.

While bank transfers are not recommended when you are buying (you have no safeguards), if you are selling then it is perfectly safe to provide your account number and sort code to anybody. The only thing that can bee done with those details is to pay money into the account.

soolin

GabbaGabbaHey wrote: »

While bank transfers are not recommended when you are buying (you have no safeguards), if you are selling then it is perfectly safe to provide your account number and sort code to anybody. The only thing that can bee done with those details is to pay money into the account.

sorry , yes, I forgot to answer from a selling point of view. I am currently selling a lot on facebook marketplace and quite a bit of it is sold via a bank transfer with buyer saying they prefer that to paypal- goodness knows why but I do save the paypal fees.

paul2louise

soolin wrote: »

sorry , yes, I forgot to answer from a selling point of view. I am currently selling a lot on facebook marketplace and quite a bit of it is sold via a bank transfer with buyer saying they prefer that to paypal- goodness knows why but I do save the paypal fees.

So as a buyer you should choose I suppose but as a seller bank transfer is preferred to avoid costs. The buyer has no protection. Is that the same as paying "a friend " on PayPal.

soolin

paul2louise wrote: »

So as a buyer you should choose I suppose but as a seller bank transfer is preferred to avoid costs. The buyer has no protection. Is that the same as paying "a friend " on PayPal.

Yes it is, no,protection at all for the buyer.

However, be careful if using Facebook groups as some admin will ban you as a scammer if you only take a bank transfer. Peronsally I offer PayPal first but also bank transfer if buyer requests it . I even belong to a couple of selling groups (mainly for vintage/ antique items) that will only allow trade via PayPal .