Mark:
I sold a camera to a man in Italy a few years ago and I insisted on an international money order. He reluctantly agreed but told me not to hold my breath because of the postal treaty between Italy and the USA.
He had to pay for one at a post office in Italy, they in turn notified the US Post Office in St Louis, who then created a US postal money order to send to me here in New England... THREE months later.
If either one of you can find a bank in Italy with an affiliation to a US bank, then a money order made out to you in US dollars from that bank should be okay. The Bank of America began life in San Francisco as the Bank of Italy... perhaps there's still an affiliation of some sort.
International money orders are different between the US and other countries. I accept them from buyers in Japan, but the US doesn't have the same arrangement with Hong Kong. So from those buyers I receive a money order an affiliated bank.
I don't think that there's any arrangement between the US and UK for international money orders. So far I've only been sent cash from UK buyers.
The only problem which I've experienced with wire transfers is that each USA bank along the route deducts about $5.00 from the amount that you receive. I've lost up to $25.00 per transaction that way.
If you do go with wire transfer, he'll probably have to also get a routing number from you, which your bank will provide to you.
Jim
Mark Cassino wrote:
I recently completed an auction ni which I sold a bit of Pentax gear to a buyer in Italy. For a variety of reasons, each of which sounds legit, he cannot PayPal the funds and cannot use BidPay. He's asked for my bank account number so he can do a wire transfer, but that sounds suspiscious to me and I'm not inclined ot give it out (as if my wife would tell me what it is anyhow...)
I told him to just send me an international money order, but that concept seems to be foriegn to him. I do know that it seems to be difficult to transfer money from Europe to the US ((I once had a guy send several hundred dollars in cash in a greeting card to pay for a camera lens, rather than deal with paypal or send a money order. He was willing to do that at his risk and to trust that I wouldn't just pocket the cash and claim it didn't arrive (which of course, I did not do) - so it must of been a major hassel to otherwise transfer the funds.)
So what's the deal? I can go to any post office here and buy an international money order for a reasonable fee. Can't that be done in Europe as well?
At this point I've told the guy that the auction terms are clear (PayPal, money order, or cashier check) so he needs to come up with one or be NPB. But I wonder if he is having legit problems or if this is some sort of ruse.
Any comments from folks in the EU?
- MCC - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mark Cassino Photography Kalamazoo, MI www.markcassino.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
