Thread: Wire Transfer

You will receive confirmation emails that say you have sent payment, but it will not give you any protection at all. If your supplier is a scammer, you're SOL. If you truly trust them, you don't have anything to worry about.

If they steal your money, you could report it to your local police department, but it's doubtful that they would actually do anything. Preventative measures outweigh recovering any money loss.

If they don't have a business account then your scam alarm should be going off right now. If you are a legit business why would you not have a business account? If there is a chance of a scam going on I think there is a greater chance of tracking them down through a business account, although I am not quite sure on this fact.

You will get a print out of the wire transfer. Can you do it online? You can print it right off from the internet and use that as the back-up for the seller. I really don't think there is much you can do, besides really check out the company. Can you perhaps send a payment (wire transfer) of 50% down and the balance when you receive the product?

Originally Posted by leahw

Can you perhaps send a payment (wire transfer) of 50% down and the balance when you receive the product?

Good suggestion, share the risk between buyer and seller equally while using a low cost payment option like wire transfer. Or use a trusted escrow service if possible (escrow won't be suitable for some transactions, especially those for which margins for the seller are very low, eg mobile phones).

I don't know what an escrow service is? Care to explain it a bit here? I have used the 50% down and 50% when I get the product. It's only fair. Some smaller businesses will accept these terms if you are a first time buyer. It is more of a guarantee to you that you will get the product you ordered.

Originally Posted by leahw

I don't know what an escrow service is?

What is escrow:

Escrow - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
define:escrow - Google Search

If you can get the supplier to accept a 50-50 payment terms by all means do that. Even better, arrange some credit terms, for example pay 30% upfront and the remaining 70% within 90 days from receipt of the goods. These are all conditions that you can discuss with your supplier, however that you will only be likely to obtain once you have established a long term relationship with your supplier.

Of all options, escrow sounds like the safest available to you. They have no reason to refuse that-quite the opposite in fact because a scammer is unlikely to seek out escrow services. If they won't accept that, I would look elsewhere personally.