At 9:05 AM -0700 2/9/02, Garth Wood wrote:
At 10:16 AM 09/02/2002 -0500, George S. wrote:
[snip]
For the non- US members, here's how it works. We go to our local
PO, pay the amount of the M.O. and fees (which are high) and we
fill out an 'application'. We then actually have to mail this
application (another fee for postage) to a mysterious central US
facility (in St Louis, Missouri) and then no one knowws what goes
on from there, but we're told it gets issued and sent out from
there.. Shrouded in as much secrecy as Olympus' Wyoming facility.
What a Byzantine system. In Canada, you ask for either a Canadian
or International money order, what currency it's denominated in, and
the Canada Post person behind the counter whips one up for you on
the spot. You pays your money, you takes your M.O. ;-)
Similar situation in banks. I've been able to get immediate M.O.'s
or bank drafts in over a dozen major world currencies without a
problem, and immediately. Imagine my surprise when, during one
evilBay transaction, a guy in San Jose who was buying stuff from me
told me he was "unable" to get a M.O. or other negotiable instrument
in Canadian dollars. Now *that* wasn't something I expected to hear
from a beneficiary of what is possibly the world's most
sophisticated financial system...
ROFL!!
I'm a Canadian who moved to the USA in 1993. Imagine my surprise the
first time I walked into a US bank and saw the tellers calculating
deposits, withdrawals and balances with adding machines! Everything
had been computerized in Canada since the late '70s. The Canadian
banking system is far more advanced than the American one.
I can also attest to the difficulty of getting money orders in
foreign currencies here. I needed to send payments to my Canadian
Visa account in Canadian funds from here, and only one bank at one
branch in the area was capable of generating a Canadian funds money
order. After a few years that was no longer necessary, as TD Visa
began accepting payments in US funds anyway...and gave a better
exchange rate than I could get here as well.
My current employer, one of the largest credit card issuers in
America, will only accept payments in US funds. If you send a cheque,
it had better be drawn on a US bank as well.
Regarding Paypal, I know that my employer sent out a change in terms
last year to its cardholders advising that such transactions are
considered "quasicash" or "cash equivilents", and are subject to a 3%
transaction fee. They have not yet started charging this fee, but the
mechanism is there.
OTOH, you can dispute Paypal charges through your credit card issuer
just like you can any merchant charge. That should provide a measure
of reassurance.
--
Steve
sbsharpe@xxxxxxx
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