I also agree with Frank; I have found that the best bethods of paying for
US auctions from Denmark are Bidpay and Billpoint (cheapest), but not many
sellers use Billpoint unfortunately. A cheque from my bank in Denmark would
also be OK, as they are always drawn on an account with a major US bank (in
dollars of course). I have never managed to get accepted by Paypal, as
their code that they add to a 1 dollar transaction never comes through to
me in Denmark.
Regarding electronic funds transfer ('SWIFT' system is the best known in
Europe), I have found SWIFT to be slow and expensive. My first experience
was in sending 1000SEK (Swedish krona) to Sweden; I agreed to accept all
costs, and that turned out to be 180kr., as the Swedish bank involved got
120kr. to pay into a bank account. My next experience was in sending GBP
(British pounds) from my account in Denmark to my account in England. That
cost me 70kr. ($8.50) from my Danish bank, and 6GBP ($8.50) from my UK
bank; electronic transfer took 4-5 days (!) between my two accounts.
Nowadays I order a GBP check (drawn on a UK bank - my own in fact) from my
Danish Bank, and post it with a letter to my UK bank asking them to pay it
in. That only takes 3-4 days until the funds are deposited in my account.
That check costs me 70kr. ($8.50), half the price of a SWIFT (!) transfer.
I then make *Bay payments in the UK with my own UK personal cheque (free).
Regarding shipping from the US and the UK, I have never lost a package yet,
even uninsured.
Roger Key, Copenhagen
Chris Barker wrote:
I agree with Frank vL (I don't often agree with Met men though :-)).
But there is also the direct transfer of funds from bank to bank.
Surely even US banks could not charge for receiving funds by
electronic transfer?
At the risk of boring people, do be careful of receiving money by
PayPal; it costs you to do so and it costs you to withdraw the funds
from your "account" that you have had to set up. Yes, paying them to
receive money from a Floridan who could not think of any other way to
pay in UKP still galls <pg> (pained grin).
OM content: I have just been outbid on a Mint 65-200 and I am very
glad that I have been. I really didn't need it unless it had been
really cheap and I managed to induce myself into bidding more than I
wished - I was trying out the "bid up until the reserve price
appears" trick and I felt really stupid within 5 minutes because ...
I don't need it, I really don't!
Chris
At 09:36 +0100 20/11/01, Frank van Lindert wrote:
>Being a non-USA eBayer I may add a few things.
>
>Many of the sellers are not aware when listing their items on eBay
>that the 'USA buyer only' option is the default. I have learned from
>many communications with sellers that they didn't know about that
>limitation, and who were happy to sell abroad. After all, like Tom
>says, it isn't really much more trouble for private sellers. It may be
>different with corporate sllers, though.
>I must admit that I even sometimes 'forget' about it and just bid,
>especialy in BIN auctions, even when it says 'USA only'. I will never
>do that when the seller in his description says the same - as
>obviously he must deliberately have put it there in that case.
>
>The bidpay option is indeed a good advice to do business with people
>who do not want to use PayPal or BillPoint. It costs a few dollars
>(4-5%) to the buyer, and I don't know what USA sellers have to pay
>when cashing those MO's. Here in Europe it is expensive to have them
>cashed.
>
>I can only advise eBayers, worldwide, to make their items available
>worldwide as well. I think that this should be default in the eBay
>entry forms.
>
>Frank van Lindert
>Utrecht NL.
>
--
<|_:-)_|>
C M I Barker
Cambridgeshire, England.
+44 (0)7092 251126
mailto:imagopus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
... a nascent photo library.
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