Bartertown.com

I've only made a couple of trades on here before and have never had to deal with payment - only trades.

What is the best way to receive payment or to pay another trader? Should I setup a paypal account for traders to pay to? I live in Canada and I know that most of the traders here are from the US - should I ask them just to mail me cash in an envelope? Is it difficult to setup a personal paypal account that can be paid into by other users?

Any suggestions are most welcome.

I'm not sure if there are any restrictions for Paypal users in Canada.

However, never ask them to send cash in the mail. There is no proof on either side, and if you get an empty envelope, you have no verification that they didn't send the money. Check and see if your bank will cash US currencies, and if so, you could ask them to send a US Postal money order made out to you, or a cashier's check or money order from their bank.

There are no restrictions on Canadian paypal users.

The only issue is that paypal charges you for both the transaction fee (.30 US + 2.9%) and a conversion fee (I don't know).

United States Postal Service (USPS) money orders work well and are accepted into Canadian banks without problems from my limited experience sending them to Canada. The USPS now has a phone service that you can verify money orders against. Its not guaranteed, but easy to use and seems to be fairly accurate.

One thing to remember, is that if you are sending a US Postal Money Order to Canada you need to have the person get the International one instead of the Domestic One. If they just go and get a Money Order it will be the Domestic One.

PayPal or Postal money order (see above, re: International Postal M.O.).
IMO, those are the only way you should go for international trades. It's all I'll do.

For trades within the US, I will occasionally accept NON postal Money Orders, but I have to know which bank before I'll okay them (I'll only accept them if there is a local branch of theirs that will cash it without a fee). You might want to consider the same.

Eric

Thanks for the feedback all. I'm starting to think that Paypal is the safest, quickest and easiest route, even though I'll lose out on a bit of money.

It's the quickest and easiest (usually), but not always the safest.

The safest way to receive money (from, say, the US) is an International Postal Money Order.
If your partner won't pay in advance, look at his/her rating. if it's a highly rated trader, you're probably okay sending before they pay. If it's a lower (or zero) rated trader, you should make your judgement accordingly.

I'm not saying unrated or low rated traders are untrustworthy, mind you. I'm saying their reputations are not as well established to make that determination.

Eric

As MM pointed out, the safest route is an International Money Order from USPS. If it gets damaged or destroyed during shipping, it'll get replaced, free of charge by USPS., even if CA post is the one to damage it.

Once he has your money; via either method [USPS IMO or paypal] he can be fraudulent and not ship. Now, with paypal, if he has money in his account you'll get yours, or part of it back. If his account is empty, because he withdrew it immediately, you're SOL. You then file a mail fraud charge and hope for the best.

If he doesn't ship after you've payed with an IMO, then you fraud charge, but, you have better proof of mailing and receipt becuase of the IMO being cahsed. Then you also now have international lmoney order fraud, a felony also.

I generally dont trust paypal because of all the stories of people getting their stuff and then canceling the payment leaving the person getting paid with empty pockets. Although, my local shop is willing to accept payments for me and give it to me in store credit.
Postal money orders are your best bet because that way, you also dont lose out on fees either. You gotta wait for it to get to you, but usually worth the loss of hassle. Careful of asking for non-postal MO. I had someone send me a MO and I did not specify postal. They got me one from a 7 11 and my local one had a fit about cashing it. My students usually had the same problem there and at Wal Mart.

EVIL INC wrote:I generally dont trust paypal because of all the stories of people getting their stuff and then canceling the payment leaving the person getting paid with empty pockets. Although, my local shop is willing to accept payments for me and give it to me in store credit.
Postal money orders are your best bet because that way, you also dont lose out on fees either. You gotta wait for it to get to you, but usually worth the loss of hassle. Careful of asking for non-postal MO. I had someone send me a MO and I did not specify postal. They got me one from a 7 11 and my local one had a fit about cashing it. My students usually had the same problem there and at Wal Mart.

Minor note: all brands/forms/types of money orders are or have been stolen; also all types of machines for embossing/printing and filling them out. So any money order could be fraudulent. At least with USPS ones you can get your money back. I can't go into the detail; they regs have changed since I was a window clerk; but tehy are still the safest and least forged.

lol, when I said "postal money order, I was talking about the usps ones.

EVIL INC wrote:lol, when I said "postal money order, I was talking about the usps ones.

I understand. I was adding to your point.