Questions > Help with an International ...

Hi,

I have a buyer that has never used PayPal before--she is in Germany and I am in the United States. PayPal is the only method I am set up to accept. She attempted to pay, but the only options available were Visa and MasterCard--and she states, "I have no cards like this, only the normal card from my Bank".

Is there a way she can pay? Is there anything additional I need to do for the payment to work? If you know, could you please provide step-by-step information?

Obviously I am hoping not to disappoint my buyer, or lose a sale. Thanks so much for any and all help!

Mollie

I think you can only use credit cards, not debit cards.

I just checked and this is what the Paypal site says :
"You can use Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express to fund your PayPal payments."

One solution you could suggest to your customer is that she asks someone else, someone who does hold a credit card, to pay you through Paypal. The site doesn't register when a customer pays through Paypal anyway— so it doesn't matter if someone different pays you... It is really between you and your customer.

Hi,

You could also take payment through bank transfer or cash though bank transfers can be expensive and sending cash can be risky if it's not sent registered. If possible, PayPal is the most sensible option for paying abroad.

Just let me know if I can be of any more help or if there are any problems with the sale.

Thanks!
Will

hey,

i don't have a credit card either, but have no problems with pay pal (i just recently sent money to great britain and i'm german too)?

as i understand it, she already is registered. she then has to send the money from her normal bank account to her pay pal account. that needs two days. after that, she only needs your pal pal email adress to send you the money. that's all. i hope that helped? because i don't really understand her problem ;o)

greetings!!!

you can use a debit card for paypal, mine is

I have received bank transfers via paypal. I am not sure how it is done but I know that it is possible.

Glamasaurus--does my shop need to be set up for bank transfers? It is not currently. Also, will my customer or I have additional fees?

And to all, thank you for your suggestions. I will pass them on to my buyer. I knew when I opened a shop that there would be unique challenges selling internationally. I am glad to have all of you to help.

If anyone else has suggestions, keep them coming. I will let you know the final solution.

Mollie

Hi, I know I can too accept (and send) a bank transfer through PayPal. You would list this as "PayPal" though and not "bank transfer", since that's between European banks for the most part.

To send a traditional "bank transfer" (wire) from Europe to here, I've been told it costs them about 35 euros, the same for us, to send there it costs us about 50 US dollars.

To send a PayPal bank transfer, there are no fees, other than the typical fees to the seller. I believe the buyer has to submit their bank info (bank routing or name and account number) to link it to their PayPal account.

I have a hard time conveying to buyers that are not familiar with PayPal how to do this. I don't know if the PayPal interface abroad is the same as here? I basically don't know how to walk them through it very well. Heidschnucke - your post is very helpful, it gives me confidence that it should be possible and fairly easy to do.

I am currently in the process of trying to set up a foreign bank account to accept traditional bank transfers. If I have any success, I will post the information here!

Oops, I should add I live in the US too. :)

More great information--thanks susanmariedesigns! I agree; I can look at my PayPal account and see a place to "Add Funds from Bank Account" to my PayPal account; and it makes sense that once the funds are available they could be used to make purchases. The question is whether this is the same in Europe.

Anyone know?

Mollie

hi Mollie, yes it is possible for most countries in the EU to allocate funds to their Paypal account from their bank account, Germany being one of them.

You can advise your customer to learn about Paypal and spend some time on the site and set up their account there. It may take some time for their bank account to be verified. Perhaps you could post on the German forums and ask for help from someone who has already done this. There should be someone who would offer to advise your buyer on the steps.

Just to avoid confusion, please note that bank transfers are commonplace method of payment for EU members, but not viable for EU - US transactions due to fees, length of processing time etc.

hey mollie,

yes, the button "add funds" exists in germany, it is called: "geld einzahlen" she then can see her paypal bank account to which she transferes the money from her normal german bank account. PP says it needs 3-5 days. after that, she can click the button "geld senden" from the PP website OR just uses the button from the dawanda site "open purchases".

all very easy without credit card :o)

aah and if her bank account is not verifed yet: PP transfers a few cents to her german account twice. she then has to use the button "verify bank account" and tell PP the exact amount of money that has been transferred by PP. after that: see my post above

Hi guys =) *
Heidschnucke the paypal account verification process used to be like that but it isn't anymore. I'm saying this because I'm in Europe ( I don't know if there are any differences of paypal verification process outside of europe) and to verify my paypal account ( I did this a month ago ) they charged my credit card an 1.5€ amount and then I had to see the description of this charge and see a 4 digit code followed by the word paypal. I had to enter that code in my paypal account so it could be verifyed.
I hope this helps. =)

hey bijunea, well i only opened my account a week ago and the verification process was like i described? maybe there are differences because you verified with your credit card (And i have none)? very strange :o)

This is a helpful thread - I have the same problem. Is there a thread in the German forum that I could refer my customers to?

Thanks!

Su

Hi Sue,
there is a thread in the German forum that could be very helpful for your clients: http://de.dawanda.com/topic/6/23862. It explains exactly how it works for both a bank account and a credit card.

Britta

Hi Heidschnucke =)
Maybe the verification process is different for different countries i don't really know. Anyway I think it helps to know the different ways the paypal verification process can be. =) *

Yey! Thanks, Britta!

Yes, this is a really helpful thread--thanks so much!

Mollie