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Last
month we looked at some tips on how to buy safely on Ebay. In a
continuation from last month, we will now look at some of the safe
ways to make payments for ebay purchases.
To start with, we will look at
some of the ways that you should never use to make payments with. Of
course it goes without saying that you should never pay for an ebay
item purchase with cash, unless you are picking the item up in
person and inspecting it before making payment. Sending cash through
the mail service is never a good idea, as you will have no proof
that the payment was actually made. There have been cases where an
unscrupulous seller will ask for payment in cash, and then the
seller claims to have never received the payment. With cash payments
there is no payment tracking available, and becomes one person’s
word against another’s, as to whether payment was actually made.
As a purchaser you should ALWAYS be hesitant when dealing with a
seller that requires payment in cash.
Other payment methods that
should be avoided are instant cash wire transfers such as western
union or moneygram services. These forms of payment require the
purchaser go to a local western union office and make the payment in
the name of the seller. You are then give a money control transfer
number which you then give to the seller. The seller can then take
this number to any other western union office and collect the
payment. This form of payment is quite expensive to make, but is
very quick to process and send the money. The down side is that it
is exactly like a cash payment and all someone really needs to
collect the payment is that money control transfer number. Once the
payment is made you have no recourse if you never receive the item.
Of course if the seller will let
you pay by check, that is the best methods of payment for the
purchaser. When the check is returned to you from the bank you will
have a record of where the check was cashed and into what bank
account the deposit was made to. If there is a problem with the
transaction, you will have proof of payment as well as info on how
and when the payment was cashed.
Credit card payments are also a
good way to make a payment as you will have all the protection you
would normally have with other credit card payments. Unfortunately
not many ebay sellers have a merchant account and are able to take
credit cards directly.
Probably the best form of
payment is through paypal. Paypal is an online payment processing
service that is actually owned by ebay and integrated directly into
the ebay auction site. Once you register for a paypal account, you
can then pay for items with your credit card or from your bank
account through paypal. One of the added benefits of using paypal is
that you have additional buyer protection. If there is a problem
with the transaction, then you can initiate a dispute directly with
paypal. Possible disputes, are if the item is never received or if
the item is significantly different than it was described in the
auction. Once a dispute is initiated, it will be investigated by
paypal, and could lead to various different dispute outcomes, which
may include a refund.
For very high priced items the
best form of payment is through an escrow service. An escrow service
is a third party service that acts as an intermediary between the
seller and the purchaser. Generally the escrow fees are paid by the
purchaser. When this type of service is used, the purchaser sends
the payment to the escrow service. The escrow service then notifies
the seller that the payment has been received and that they should
send the item to the purchaser. When the purchaser receives the
item, they inspect it and inform the escrow service that the payment
may be released. The escrow service then sends the payment to the
seller. On the ebay site there are recommendations for their
currently approved escrow services. You should only use those
services and never use any other services that are recommended by
the seller. There have been cases of sellers setting up fake escrow
services just to make the purchasers feel safe when in fact it was a
scam from the start.
Hopefully this information will
make you feel a bit better about making payments for your ebay
purchases. Please email me with any suggestions you may wish me to
address in future articles. Thanks for all the people who have given
me positive feedback about my past articles.
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