Safest way to receive payment from overseas.

sidneyyoungblood

Looking to sell an item on facebook but the buyer is in the States.. What would be the safest way to receive payment for the item without any chance of it being reversed or cancelled . Had bad experiences with Paypal in the past  ( she said she would be willing to pay friends and family ) .. Can a bank transfer be cancelled ? Thanks

soolin

Realistically you might have to bite the bullet and accept PayPal, but follow seller protection guidance. Cheques etc are out due to the massive costs in depositing them within the UK, I’m not sure how feasible, or how cheap it would be to accept any form of transfer.

Also, be careful of course to account for all the duty and taxes and ensure you complete your declare on and customs forms correctly. 

sidneyyoungblood

soolin said:

Realistically you might have to bite the bullet and accept PayPal, but follow seller protection guidance. Cheques etc are out due to the massive costs in depositing them within the UK, I’m not sure how feasible, or how cheap it would be to accept any form of transfer.

Also, be careful of course to account for all the duty and taxes and ensure you complete your declare on and customs forms correctly. 

Thanks ,   due to issues in the past not willing to take the risk on paypal  with buyers refusing to pay custom charges or contacting paypal and cancelling payment while the item is in transit... The buyer is willing to cover the costs of transfer so it is more to do with them not being able to "cancel " the payment either while in transit or when they receive the item.. 

soolin

sidneyyoungblood said:

soolin said:

Realistically you might have to bite the bullet and accept PayPal, but follow seller protection guidance. Cheques etc are out due to the massive costs in depositing them within the UK, I’m not sure how feasible, or how cheap it would be to accept any form of transfer.

Also, be careful of course to account for all the duty and taxes and ensure you complete your declare on and customs forms correctly. 

Thanks ,   due to issues in the past not willing to take the risk on paypal  with buyers refusing to pay custom charges or contacting paypal and cancelling payment while the item is in transit... The buyer is willing to cover the costs of transfer so it is more to do with them not being able to "cancel " the payment either while in transit or when they receive the item.. 

In that case you are looking for some sort of bank transfer or online payment basis, and that's going to be expensive and may be slow. Even if you can find an online bank to bank process, the banking rules in the US differ from ours, so you would need to investigate whether they have any sort of chargeback or complaint system to recovering payments made.

martindow

International bank transfers from the UK have a fee (£25 with Santander for instance) and it may well be that US banks will charge similar amounts.  You mentioned PayPal friends and family in your OP, so if the buyer is offering that I would accept it.  F&F offers little protection for the buyer, but if they are happy with that ...

soolin

martindow said:

International bank transfers from the UK have a fee (£25 with Santander for instance) and it may well be that US banks will charge similar amounts.  You mentioned PayPal friends and family in your OP, so if the buyer is offering that I would accept it.  F&F offers little protection for the buyer, but if they are happy with that ...

Probably best to check if the chargeback for fraud provisions apply to paypal US as I've started to see more mentions of this in various groups recently. Whilst  F and F can't be used for a claim of SNAD or INR  in the UK it is still possible to chargeback for fraud, obviously the bar is high and banks as well as paypal make it difficult, but it is possible. The issue for any seller is that whilst an INR and SNAD can be defended with appropriate proof, a claim against a F and F payment cannot be defended at all.

It may need a good read of the rules around paypal US payments.