posted on September 29, 2000 11:02:00 AM
Anyone who follows these message boards probably know that I have never claimed to know "everything"
Well, I don't know "something" again!
I just had a buyer email me and ask me to use Paypal ( which I don't want to use) because Yahoo! Pay Direct was charging her a fee! Is this correct? I have never had anyone pay me with Yahoo! Pay Direct and I have never used it myself, so I don't know. I thought that at the moment anyway, it was free to buyers and sellers. But maybe I missed something again.
Can anyone with more experience than me, please tell me how it works. Is there a fee for the buyer?
Thanks in advance!
(edited because I left out a word )
"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."---Mark Twain
[ edited by jwoodcrafts on Sep 29, 2000 04:55 PM ]
posted on September 29, 2000 01:54:48 PM
she's probably confusing PayDirect with BidPay. BidPAy defintely charges fees.
PayDirect is totally free so far. I've used it as both a seller & buyer and haven't been charged for anything. It could change in the future, they're upfront about that, but so far they haven't imposed any fees.
posted on September 29, 2000 02:27:06 PM
toomanycomics -
BidPay is still the best service around for international payments, so you may want to consider that if you do any international sales before you du.......WAIT A MINUTE! You don't have to sign up for BidPay...they just send you a money order...how are you going to dump them??
posted on September 30, 2000 03:15:30 AM
auctionee- LOL at your post! that's funny!
TooMAnyComics- they charge the buyer fees, but if the buyer is willing to pay the fees who cares? as Auctionee pointed out, they are the smooooooothest way to accept international payments.
Also the concept of being able to pay for a money order with your credit card for only $5.00 is the cat's meow! Think about it- where else can you pay for a money order with your credit card? Nowhere that I know of. I thought it was pretty much prohibited because the credit card companies all want their cash advance fees if you need cash. I have wondered how BidPay gets around that but evidently they found some loophole in the system. To me $5.00 seems like a very fair price for the service they offer.
posted on September 30, 2000 06:22:18 AM
Some of our foreign customers use BidPay, and we make mention of the service to those in other countries, but personally, I'd much rather have foreign orders charge their purchases as I hate to wait for the BidPay check to arrive, and personally I don't have a great deal of confidence in the system, not enough to ship before I receive their check.
I believe very soon we will see PayPal taking foreign charges, and I take them direct as I have a merchant's account, and I am just more comfortable with that than the BidPay check.
The last time I had a customer use BidPay it took a couple of weeks for the check to arrive...this is just too slow, but necessary at the moment - I think we will see the BidPay business fall off considerably when PayPal goes international.
posted on September 30, 2000 04:09:25 PM
I have had a couple of people use BidPay and the money order arrived within a week....no different than buyers sending checks and money orders to me. Also, after you receive the 2nd notice from BidPay, that the mo has been sent, you can go ahead and send the item, if you want to, that is. I usually do that rather than make my international customer wait until I have the mo in hand, after all, I know they paid and I know the mo is in the mail. But that's just me, and I don't sell high priced ticket items.
There is another company...about a year old, that also offers credit card payments to international people and they are "cheaper" by $2-$3, and offer something they call an "unbounceable check"...not just a choice of Western Union. They are called EnergyFlow. You might want to take a look and see what you think. I can't post the link, but just put .com after energyflow and you'll find them.
BTW, I have recommended them before, but for the record, I am just a member and have no interest in whether people sign up or not..just giving you guys some info to check on yourselves.
posted on October 1, 2000 06:40:35 AM
toomanycomics:
I understand your dislike of fees, I share it. However BidPay has it's good points. I have done a lot of business through them, checks have never taken more than a week.
A number of customers have told me that BidPay is much cheaper for them than getting a money order in US funds- some also live in remote areas where there are no banks-so they would have to drive to a major city just to get a check to pay me-
Plus, my bank has never charged me a fee to cash one of the western union money orders sent by BidPay. I've paid-reluctantly- some high fees to cash other types of international checks- usually wiping out any profit made on the sale.
I think it is well worht making this convenience available to my customers.
