Online Payment Methods- Do you think suspicious?

Medina

Hi,
I've been looking at importing jewellery particularly from Asia and a lot of the companies payment methods are either Wire Transfer or Letter of Credit.

The Wire Transfer could be dodgy as you have to pay upfront and trust they will send the items. Does this option mean like Western Union or Bank Transfer? I know Western Union charge a heap in commission. Anyone know of better options for this type of payment?

Letter of Credit I don't even know if banks do this in Ireland but it sounds so complicated it's explained on this site ..someone else sent this to me which is why its a site about mushrooms!
http://www.sinohost.com/yunnan_pages/mushrooms/payment.html

I would be thinking though that if a company did offer this Letter of Credit they probably are legit..or am I being naive??

Also if you pay by credit card and the stuff doesn't arrive are you not still suckered then aswell?

Ruu_Old

Do not wire money to anyone you don't know, unless you want to lose it, especially to an Asian seller (not being racist or anything else). I don't know this company so I'm not sure how decent they are.
Do they even accept a credit card?

majiktripp

Given the lack of payment options....the problems with customs as detailed in your other thread...and the less than reliable / trust worthyness of the source....perhaps you should find something a little more local (Europe) or some other items to import?