Bank Transfer as a buyer?

[Stormtrooper37]

There is an item from a seller in Europe that I am possibly interested in, however they will only accept bank transfer or cheque, no paypal - they have stipulated this as well. Seller has 100% feedback for 71 transactions.

If I win the auction there is no way I am posting a cheque as it might never get there so the only option will be a bank transfer.

I assume with a bank transfer there is no buyer protection, but what is actually involved with a bank transfer? Do they have to give me there account details ie bank ID, account no, sort code so I can pay the money into their account? Will they give me their details? will they have my bank details? Is this safe and secure for both parties?

Sorry for all the questions just want to know if anyone has every paid this way before?

Thanks
Paul

 

[mr_palitoy]

If it's an ebay auction, don't they have to accept paypal as a payment option?

Jason

 

[Frunkstar]

What Jason said, plus the fact that banks rip you blind for these, I just sent a chunk to the US as part of my long term payment plan, I knew I would be charged £10 by my bank for this & the seller is also charged but $10, when the payment got there it was a further $45 down on the total minus the 2 other deductions, I am looking in to this at the moment, but as with all official channels, the official bit stands for screw you & legally :x & thats without considering if the seller wants to try it on 2 :|

 

[PGowdy]

If it's an ebay auction, don't they have to accept paypal as a payment option?

Jason

No. Most German sellers and a significant percentage of French ebay sellers don't accept paypal.

 

[mr_palitoy]

If it's an ebay auction, don't they have to accept paypal as a payment option?

Jason

No. Most German sellers and a significant percentage of French ebay sellers don't accept paypal.

Only applies to UK and Ireland by the looks of it:-

"All sellers on eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie must offer PayPal as a payment method."

Jason

 

[mr_palitoy]

Funnily enough, the 2 times I've bought items which had bank transfer as payment type (I hadn't looked at the accepted payment methods or I'd have not purchased), they were both in Germany/Europe and both transactions were a pain in the arse to complete. One was a scam where a star wars collectors little brother listed his stuff on ebay and then took bank transfer payments directly to his own account so his older brother wouldn't find out and then didn't send the items out. Both transactions had exorbitant banking fees for the money transfer exchanging currencies between GBP/EUR. Ebay should extend the paypal must be accepted policy world wide to cut out on crap like this.



Jason

 

[PGowdy]

If it's an ebay auction, don't they have to accept paypal as a payment option?

Jason

No. Most German sellers and a significant percentage of French ebay sellers don't accept paypal.

Only applies to UK and Ireland by the looks of it:-

"All sellers on eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie must offer PayPal as a payment method."

Jason

Yeah i guess so.
And yeah, it's a bloody nightmare buying from Germany. You can't even transfer them money via a bank from here as you get a huge charge from the bank. Anywhere from £20-£40. It must cost them a lot of money in trade. Half my sales are from outside the UK. They really need to catch up with the rest of the world.

 

[tundra9]

I remember when I started buying on ebay, was sending money orders all around the world for toys...
God I'm glad I didn't get scammed.....

 

[weasel]

What's wrong with posting a cheque?
When I first started, way back before the prevalence of PP, and before I had a Credit card, I used to pay by cheque. Takes a bit longer but I'd go for it ahead of a bank transfer.

 

[PGowdy]

What's a cheque? :?

 

[Capetown]

Yeah i guess so.
And yeah, it's a bloody nightmare buying from Germany. You can't even transfer them money via a bank from here as you get a huge charge from the bank. Anywhere from £20-£40. It must cost them a lot of money in trade. Half my sales are from outside the UK. They really need to catch up with the rest of the world.

I disagree Pete. The IBAN/BIC system is a very advanced type of money transfer. It's totally free and easy to do if you live in the countries that support it (which is most of the EU) and have an internet banking system in place. In all fairness it's actually the UK that needs to catch up. The fees the UK banks charge are criminal.

Guys, if you need to transfer money to a country on the continent I'd be happy to be the middle man for you.

 

[weasel]

Emiel,

Are you willing to act as a middle man for Todd in this deal?

http://www.starwarsforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=12575

:lol:

 

[Capetown]

Yes, yes of course. It's a good deal!

 

[PGowdy]

Yeah i guess so.
And yeah, it's a bloody nightmare buying from Germany. You can't even transfer them money via a bank from here as you get a huge charge from the bank. Anywhere from £20-£40. It must cost them a lot of money in trade. Half my sales are from outside the UK. They really need to catch up with the rest of the world.

I disagree Pete. The IBAN/BIC system is a very advanced type of money transfer. It's totally free and easy to do if you live in the countries that support it (which is most of the EU) and have an internet banking system in place. In all fairness it's actually the UK that needs to catch up. The fees the UK banks charge are criminal.

Guys, if you need to transfer money to a country on the continent I'd be happy to be the middle man for you.

But this is to do with accessibility and convenience, the most important elements in on-line commerce these days. These methods aren't accessible to most buyers around the world so it leaves Germany and a few other places isolated. Perhaps not outdated but certainly not in sinc with the rest of the world. Having the IBAN/BIC as an option is certainly a good thing for all your local european sales but not having paypal as an option is just not in-line with how the rest of the world is doing it.
OUr banks are always gonna charge huge fees to send money out of the country cos they're thieving c***s and it's the same if a buyer from the US tried to transfer money to me in the UK. So, we need a way around banks so that we can all buy and sell to each other. So far Paypal is the best, most convenient system we have available and almost everyone is using it for those reasons. It's such an essential part of modern e-commerce that many trading/selling sites like ebay make it compulsory that you have it in order to do your business with them. Not having paypal as an option as a seller, wherever you are in the world, just doesn't come across and particularly wise or forward thinking to me.

 

[Stormtrooper37]

Thanks for all the information

The seller is based in France and after looking at several other French auctions this does seem to be quite a common practice in mainland Europe and no they don't have to offer Paypal as an option unlike the mandatory requirement here in the UK. This just makes it awkward when the UK seems to have a different policy than the rest of it's European neighbours and the only winners appear to be the UK banks again :evil:

Thanks for your offer as a middleman Capetown I may well take your offer up if I'm successful in winning the auction. :wink:

 

[Capetown]

I agree with you on that Pete, but it's just a question of ebay policy and not about catching up. If you're going to give people the possibility to choose an option that costs them no money and their business is usually local, what do you think they'll do? eBay should make paypal (or a similar service like google wallet or IDEAL(which we have in the Netherlands and works like a charm)) obligatory for cross border transactions.

Stormtrooper, just let me know.