posted on December 14, 2000 05:42:12 PM
Whatever happened to the story us Canucks were given when we signed up? I thought
Billpoint dealt in such large volumes of $$$ that we would always get a better/higher
rate than what the banks up here pay out?
In the last 24 hrs I've had Billpoint pay me at an exchange rate of 1.492, which is the same as what my bank gave me?
No biggie as I'm dropping them after Xmas, but was just curious if anyone else has noticed this?
I checked my deposits from the last 2 months and Billpoint exchange rate is always around 98.8% of the Official Bank of Canada exchange rate. This has not changed over time. If you look at today's rate, from the Bank of Canada, it is 1,5169. Then 98.8% of this amount is 1,4987, very close to what your amount is.
I also checked the exchange from my bank over the last 2 months (Bank of Montreal) and the exchange rate is around 98.5% of the Bank of canada official rate. Billpoint rate is always better than my bank's rate, although not by much.
(Edited to add that) you are right reddeer, 1.492 is 98.5% of 1.5169, the same rate as the bank!
I said it is close, but it is not better anymore than the bank rate. What's next?
By the way reddeer, if you go and look at the "Canada Post, I'm impressed!" thread, you will see that you live in hell after all
[ edited by cimfra on Dec 14, 2000 07:05 PM ]
posted on December 14, 2000 07:00:59 PM
I never knew that billpoint counld do that...sure hope that my customers like my product would hate to get a charge back in the summer
posted on December 14, 2000 09:29:18 PM
The Bank of Canada noon rate is a wholesale rate - an indicative rate for transactions of $100,000 or more. (In the company I work for, for example, we could be buying or selling $30 million or more in U.S. currency in any one day). The rate is half way between the bid and the ask price (the difference between the bid and ask price is how a currency dealer would make its profit).
It should also be noted that the noon rate is the estimated market rate for one second of time - 12 noon on a particular day. Like stock prices, the exchange rate fluctuates quite a bit during the course of any day.
posted on December 14, 2000 10:45:11 PM
I'm happy with the rate even though it is no better than what I get at the bank.
I get my money faster and the accounting is easier to track.
We've processed $25,000 US in BillPoint transactions this month. We do not have to deal with the PayPal people anymore because they are all willing to use BillPoint.
As for chargebacks, they will happen. It is the cost of doing business. However, I get more bad checks in the mail in 1 month than I have ever had chargebacks placed against me.
Give me BillPoint any day of the week. It is the best thing that has happened to EBAY in a long time.
posted on December 14, 2000 11:01:04 PMAs for chargebacks, they will happen. It is the cost of doing business.
Not if you don't accept CC's.
That's swell if you do 25K per month via Billpoint, but for those of us that only do a few K in total each month, 1 itty bitty charge back of $500-1,000 can be fatal.
I've had 1 check in 3 yrs bounce, and the high bidder made good on it. For high $ items I've always asked for a Postal MO, and never had a problem getting bidders to accept those terms.
I've been offering Billpoint on my auctions since it was opened up to Canucks, and still get over 80% of my high bidders sending checks, or MO's. I'd also guess that most of the bidders that opted to use Billpoint, would have sent a check or MO if that's all I offered for payment options.
Accepting CC's is no longer worth the extra hassle for me.
posted on December 14, 2000 11:08:35 PM
If you don't want to accept CC's, more power to ya.
But I gotta tell you, the worst part of selling on EBAY used to be having to tell buyers week after week that we could not take PayPal or BillPoint or Credit Cards.
Just for the record, only about 30% of our buyers are using BillPoint right now. Most still send Money Orders or (cringe) Personal Checks.
I know I missed out on same good sales when I couldn't take credit cards online. Now I can make those sales with BillPoint.
posted on December 14, 2000 11:21:43 PM
I think it depends on what you sell? Before I started accepting Billpoint, I had all of 3 bidders ask if I could/would accept PayPal. That's out of approx 300-400 auctions. I suppose I could still offer Billpoint for the lower $ items, I'm not too concerned about getting a charge back for $50 or under.
Thanks for the stats on your Billpoint users, I appreciate the info.
posted on December 14, 2000 11:28:32 PM
We sell mostly videos and DVDs. Average BillPoint payment is $20.00.
So if we get 1 chargeback, no big deal. If we get 100, we worry. I agree that a $1,000.00 chargeback would be nasty but I think I'd detail the purchase a little more if I was sending that much through.
posted on December 14, 2000 11:41:19 PM
Ok, yes, I agree in your case I would definitely be offering CC payments. 99% of what I sell falls under the antique & collectible categories.
I have plenty of sales that exceed $250 Cdn, a fair number that are over $500 Cdn , and the odd ones here & there that go over $1,000. Considering on average I only sell 3-4K US per month, even a $250 Cdn charge back can be a pretty hard pill to swallow.
Back in early Nov I had 3 sales via Billpoint, that totalled aprox. $800 US.
The thought that these 3 bidders could still dispute those charges, makes me VERY uneasy.
Just call me a nervous Nellie.
posted on December 14, 2000 11:54:02 PM
Any Credit card sale that does not include a direct signature ---the buyer has 12 months to do a chargeback-----it is not just BILLPOINT or PAYPAL
Ultimately, the greatest challenge faced by e-commerce companies is that they are doing business in a medium where it's easy to
conceal one's identity and assume someone else's. "Until there are popularly accepted ways of confirming who's who on both sides of the transaction, merchants are going to have this risk," says PocketCard's Scheurer. That's not likely to happen anytime soon.
[url]
posted on December 15, 2000 01:09:26 AM
I'm going to be more selective in the auctions where I indicate that I accept billpoint.
I have found in the last few weeks that, when combined with BIN, it is a necessity. The number of BIN/billpoint sales has been a huge percentage of my sales since that feature was introduced.
But, I'm going to drop it on a low cost product line I also sell, not because of chargebacks but because of its cost.
Unfortunately I don't have dear red's problem with very high priced items. The risk of a bounced check or a CC chargeback is too real and too significant with such items. The safe payment options are few - postal MO's, cashiers checks, certified checks - all of which have a degree of inconvenience to the Buyer.
posted on December 15, 2000 09:11:44 AM
Bill .... You make a good point, with BIN, a CC payment option is a must IMO. For those items, which will be few & far between, perhaps I'll still offer Billpoint?
As far as safe payment options, Postal MO's are the only real safe way to go. The others you mentioned can have a Stop Payment put on them without too much difficulty.
Also, there is one fairly safe CC option out there, which is BidPay, and on higher $ items I'll still offer that option, and eat the fees on most of them. I've done this a few times for some high bidders with low feedback. They were thrilled that I was willing to still let them use their CC, and cover the cost of the Western Union MO at my end.
posted on December 15, 2000 01:47:53 PM
Yes, I've paid bidpay on some of my auctions, too. But I think that I have more faith in bank guaranteed cashiers checks and certified checks than you do.
