Making a payment in another country

[aztwang]

Im buying a piece of MF equipment from a guy who lives in Turkey. I've bought tens of thousands of dollars of equipment over the last decade but find myself in a bot of a quandary as I'm spending 10K and this is a situation I've never quite been in. He's been a member here for 9 years, has under 50 posts. I spoke with him tonight, my gut says he's a stand up guy, very nice gentleman. Any suggestions on how to proceed with this purchase and keep my self protected and at the same time he needs to feel protected also.??
Sorry if this is in the wrong forum...

Don

 

[gerald.d]

Im buying a piece of MF equipment from a guy who lives in Turkey. I've bought tens of thousands of dollars of equipment over the last decade but find myself in a bot of a quandary as I'm spending 10K and this is a situation I've never quite been in. He's been a member here for 9 years, has under 50 posts. I spoke with him tonight, my gut says he's a stand up guy, very nice gentleman. Any suggestions on how to proceed with this purchase and keep my self protected and at the same time he needs to feel protected also.??
Sorry if this is in the wrong forum...

Don

Firstly, I'm a huge believer in "reputational risk".

Does he have a long-standing website where he shows his work? How about social media accounts - LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, etc etc.

What you have to ask yourself is "does this look like the kind of guy who would throw away everything in order to rip me off for $10k".

The more connected he is; the more connections he has between his own accounts/online presences; and the more of "himself" that he shows online, the more he has to lose.

The second thing to check is that he actually is who he claims to be. Again - this is much easier to do if he has multiple online presences. You will want to ask for copies of personal ID - at the very least a passport. If he has a website, get him to prove he has control of it by uploading something to the site for you to check.

If you're really paranoid, check his social media accounts. Find out when/where he has traveled overseas. Ask him to provide a copy of the visa entry stamp for that trip.

And be prepared to offer him the exact same things in return!

Kind regards,


Gerald.

 

[daf]

Ask him to put it on «direct sale» on ebay, then pay by paypal, so you can have the buyer protection.
It will cost you the paypal+ebay fees...but it might be the price for feeling secure with your money.

 

[jerome_m]

Im buying a piece of MF equipment from a guy who lives in Turkey. I've bought tens of thousands of dollars of equipment over the last decade but find myself in a bot of a quandary as I'm spending 10K and this is a situation I've never quite been in. He's been a member here for 9 years, has under 50 posts. I spoke with him tonight, my gut says he's a stand up guy, very nice gentleman. Any suggestions on how to proceed with this purchase and keep my self protected and at the same time he needs to feel protected also.??

1: Make sure he is the same guy as the guy you know. The biggest risk is that the real nice and honest guy had his account pirated.
2: Using Ebay and a direct sale as is suggested above is indeed a good idea, but check what it will cost first.
3: Your question was about payment. Sending money from a bank in one country to a bank in another country may end up to be surprisingly expensive, especially when currencies are different. It really pays to double check the fees on both ends.

 

[gerald.d]

1: Make sure he is the same guy as the guy you know. The biggest risk is that the real nice and honest guy had his account pirated.
2: Using Ebay and a direct sale as is suggested above is indeed a good idea, but check what it will cost first.
3: Your question was about payment. Sending money from a bank in one country to a bank in another country may end up to be surprisingly expensive, especially when currencies are different. It really pays to double check the fees on both ends.

Re the final point, one of the people who bought something from me this week used a service called Transferwise.

I'd not heard of them before, but their charges are by far the lowest I've ever come across. Worth checking out.

Kind regards,

Gerald

 

[FromJapan]

I've started using TransferWise to accept payments. It is certainly the cheapest option for both buyer and seller. Since there are no "protection" policies, there needs to be mutual trust.

Kumar

 

[JohnBrew]

Paying someone in an overseas transaction has always raised various problems as my bank refused to do it, until I discovered my broker will wire-transfer funds anywhere in the world at no charge to me. And this is how I handle these things now.

 

[Pemihan]

I never had a problem doing or receiving bank transfers to/from all over the world. And the fees have been moderate, in the $20-30 range per transfer. But I have no idea of US bank fees. And of course you have to trust the person you are sending money.

Peter

 

[aztwang]

Thank you everyone for your replies. After conversing with this gentleman a bit more, I am fairly comfortable with completing this transaction long distance but As it turns out he's coming to San Diego California which is a 6 hour drive for me. We will actually do this transaction in person.

Cheers

Don