posted on November 3, 2000 02:58:04 PM
Okay, so PayPal has gone International. Sounds great, right?
Not if you are a seller it isn't.
I'm a Canadian seller. We sell alot of stuff on EBAY. I received over $10,000.00 worth of payments from BillPoint during October. I imagine we'd probably do similar business if we signed up for PayPal.
However, BillPoint does us the courtesy of depositing our money directly into our bank account in Canada.
What is PayPal offering as an option for us to gain access to our money? We can have it credited to our Credit Card!
Why on earth do I need $10,000.00 a month credited to my credit card? In addition, credit cards provide lousy rates of exchange when converting money from other currencies. Even if I did want to accept this method I would lose another 2-3% on the transaction.
I have called customer service and explained the situation to them. Their response was, "I guess this service won't work very well for you." I wholeheartedly agreed and asked when they expected to have direct bank transfers available or if they were going to offer the option of having a check mailed to us in the amount requested. They had no idea if any of these options were going to happen any time soon.
Considering how easy BillPoint has been to deal with since they started accepting Canadian Sellers, I'm not sure why I'd even start accepting PayPal if they ever do get their problems fixed.
Now I get to explain to my customers why I can't accept PayPal even though they have "Gone International". IMHO, they should have kept it at home if they weren't going to do it right.
posted on November 3, 2000 03:48:54 PM
I agree it would be silly to credit huge ammounts to your credit card. Would a debit card be an option for a Canadian seller?
"You can withdraw funds from your PayPal account at any time by requesting a withdrawal to your credit or debit card and PayPal will directly credit the funds to your card. If you have a U.S. bank account, you can also withdraw to this account using electronic funds transfer. At this time, PayPal does not support non-U.S. bank accounts"
posted on November 3, 2000 09:44:01 PM
Well...Billpoint really smacks you around with the fees and stuff. I think Paypal has lower fees, which can add up in cost savings. As for paying it to my credit card -- whenever I have a credit on my card, I always call my credit card company and ask them to issue me a check. Yes, it's a little bit of a time, but I think it's still a pretty good deal.
posted on November 3, 2000 09:57:07 PM
You might look into the Royal Bank or more specifically their US bank Security First Network Bank of Atlanta. (www.sfnb.com0 They cater to the snowbirds that come down to Florida for the winter and are supposed to offer easy dual currency banking for them. I use them as a US only bank and they offer easy web banking with no resident software and free bill pay for 20 payments a month. The only trouble I have is their e-mails never reach me in a timely fashion and I have never got an answer why they hang for days before delivery.
[ edited by macandjan on Nov 3, 2000 09:58 PM ]
posted on November 4, 2000 07:20:18 AM
I am amazed you found any buyers who use BillPoint. In 8 months I have had one buyer use BillPoint, and 100's use PayPal - of course I am a USA seller, and don't have the problem of conversion of currency. I don't want my funds automatically sent to the bank until I am ready - to me that would be silly.....and difficult to keep up with - I normally transfer funds every time the balance reaches about $1,000 - and with PayPal's money market interest, I just leave the funds till I have some reason to transfer them.
I'd be dead in the water if I used BillPoint as none of my customer do, and I don't like having to send one of their stupid invoices. I tried it once with an international shipment and it kept refusing the shipping costs (I presume it thought it was too high) I am not sure why, but I don't have time to waste going in and sending invoices via their system.
I STRONGLY encourage my buyers to use PAYPAL or call us direct with their credit card information since we have a Merchant's Account.
posted on November 4, 2000 08:38:27 AMI'd be dead in the water if I used BillPoint as none of my customer do
I doubt that very much. Most customers that want to use a CC to pay will be more than happy to use Billpoint. 80% of my buyers still send MO's or checks, the rest pay via Billpoint.
posted on November 4, 2000 08:44:46 AM
I agree w/reddeer. BillPoint's been great for my international customers. I'd say atleast 90% of my international payments are through them.
Wonder how PayPal international is going to do? I'll offer them both but really prefer the BP to the PP.
BTW, Paul, BillPoint IS more of a headache since customer's seemingly don't use their own initative to pay & do a lot of requesting of invoices, despite the new "on-line payment" feature.
To me, those who use PayPal are seemingly more sophisticated in the ways of on-line payments as opposed to the BillPoint payers. No scientific data, just an observation based upon my own customers.
