Seller wants me to use IBAN transfer?

Kinetic^

Bought a wii from this guy in Germany and he wants me to use IBAN to transfer the money to him. I told him that I would not do this as I only use paypal. Is he dodge?

Ruu_Old

Its not uncommon as Paypal or CC payments didn't catch on in Germany too well. I have done it before and had no problems.

kaisersose77

thats what germans usually use, same with their online shops. There not fond of credit cards/paypal. Search ebay.de and 90% of the stuff probably wont have a paypal icon. Did the item you bought mention paypal ?

Kinetic^

Hmm, it just said payment method not specified.

I'll take the feedback hit if it comes to it, but there's no way I'm using anything but paypal.

I don't use ebay much.....a lesson learned.

The other 2 germans I bought from today used paypal :rolleyes:

FlimFlam

Are you worried about giving out your bank details? He'll need to provide his bank details too, in case you were wondering. I've made IBAN transfers twice before, with a German website, and it's been fine.

Ruu_Old

Yeah I used Interpay in Bank of Ireland it worked out well, slower than Paypal but still fine.

DubDani

Almost everything in Germany works via Bank Transfer.

I can't see what the problem is, as it is by far the safest way to send money. You don't have to provide him with your bank details.

He will send you his bank details, and you advise your bank to transfer the money to his account. As soon as he receives it (usually 2 to 3 days) he will send the stuff.

Safest way in case of any frauulant activities. I would much rather pay via bank transfer then via paypal.

KTRIC

DubDani wrote:

Almost everything in Germany works via Bank Transfer.

I can't see what the problem is, as it is by far the safest way to send money. You don't have to provide him with your bank details.

He will send you his bank details, and you advise your bank to transfer the money to his account. As soon as he receives it (usually 2 to 3 days) he will send the stuff.

Safest way in case of any frauulant activities. I would much rather pay via bank transfer then via paypal.

Good point. With PP you can't be 100% sure where the money has gone and with a bank transfer you can.

eth0_

DubDani wrote:

Almost everything in Germany works via Bank Transfer.

I can't see what the problem is, as it is by far the safest way to send money. You don't have to provide him with your bank details.
.

It's not that safe, I mean what if the seller is a con man or his account has been hijacked? If the OP doesn't receive his wii, he has no way of getting his money back. It's about as safe as sending money via Western Union, when you look at it from this POV.

DubDani

Sorry, but that is completely wrong.

If you buy something from a german seller, and pay via bank transfer you are as safe as it gets.

Opening a bank account with fake credentials is (nearly) impossible in germany. In addition to that by law every person who lives in germany has to be registered in a central register (Einwohnermeldeamt register).

If you have a german bank account number you always will get the person behind it. If the person moves, then it will always be on record. Every relocation is recorded. Police will always be able to track the person.

Kinetic^

Thanks for all the advice guys. I'm still not sure as to what I'm going to do though, will think about it later.

L5

most german websites also use bank transfers to pay them instead of credit cards. If he has decent feedback then you have nothing to worry about

A Dub in Glasgo

I would gladly do bank transfer.

OP: Don't forget the unpaid strike from ebay as well

Mr. Presentable

Bank transfer is perfectly safe. As perfectly safe as any electronic transaction can be. An IBAN is just the bank name, sort code and account number.

quazzy

Check the feedback first and then make your decision.

I paid for some item from German websites and as everyone can testify they use IBAN all the time.

Good Luck

vectra

DubDani wrote:

Sorry, but that is completely wrong.

If you buy something from a german seller, and pay via bank transfer you are as safe as it gets.

Opening a bank account with fake credentials is (nearly) impossible in germany. In addition to that by law every person who lives in germany has to be registered in a central register (Einwohnermeldeamt register).

If you have a german bank account number you always will get the person behind it. If the person moves, then it will always be on record. Every relocation is recorded. Police will always be able to track the person.

Old thread I know but what if the item never turns up after paying via Iban method ?

jor el

vectra wrote:

Old thread I know but what if the item never turns up after paying via Iban method ?

Basically you loose your money. There's no way to get it back. I suppose you could complain to the bank and they _might_ be able to do something but essentially you'd be screwed since you willingly gave away your money. Taking a civil law suit against the person for not keeping their end of the deal would probably be your only recourse, but that's a lot of hassle, especially across boarders.

vectra

jor el wrote:

Taking a civil law suit against the person for not keeping their end of the deal would probably be your only recourse, but that's a lot of hassle, especially across boarders.

But it would be a lot of hassle for him?

I am speaking from my own bad expereince.
Paid over €500 for a gift for my son for xmas on the 27th Nov last. It was posted on the 2nd Dec. Never got here and now the sender said we have to wait another 3 to 4 weeks until Deutsche post does an investigation.

maireadmarie

If I buy from Germany and they don't use Paypal, I usually send them the money by registered post, so I have a record of it. This has always worked for me; however, I never spend more than around 100 euro on anything I buy abroad. By sending the money straight, I don't have to wait until the money clears - it takes about 3-4 days for them to receive my post and then they send. No German seller has ever objected to this method of payment, and I have always found them courteous and helpful - perhaps I've just been lucky, but no, I think that's the way they are in the majority. By the way, when sending money by registered post, you can pay extra on the basic registration fee for larger sums, as a top-up to make sure you'll be compensated for the loss if anything goes wrong. If sending notes, I usually also first write in a notebook the numbers of the notes, because I'm like that as a help to the relevant authorities if anything were to go wrong. I would say, however, that this method is mostly suitable for amounts under 100 euro, as I'm sure you might have to prove to the seller and the post office that you actually put the money in the envelope if it were a pretty large sum. Maybe someone here knows better on that?

sohappy

bought a fone from holland a few months back, used iban transfer, think it cost around 60cent for the transfer,took 3 days for the money to get there,,if i remember correctly you have the option to do a same day transfer but it costs 6 or 7 euro,,,,,,,,i had no probs using it,,,,