question Alternatives to Escrow.com?

[discobull]

I noticed today upon logging into my escrow.com account that they are now requiring that all customers provide them with copies of government issued ID's. I'm not interested in trusting these people to securely store documents that could be used to steal my identity especially since they're now a foreign-owned company and also because they no longer seem terribly on the ball. Anyone have experience with some of the alternatives?

I know that snapnames and sedo offer escrow, but I've never tried either of them. Are they any good? Any other recommendations? Thanks.

 

[usernamex]

OMG this is going off the charts. Just submit your id. What are you afraid of? You are using escrow only when you are selling domains with big bucks, not 50$ domains. And when i say big, I say thousands+.
I submitted my id to paypal long time ago and nothing happen, it's nothing wrong to get verified.
There are laws in every country for personal character information disclosure. Escrow is a company, is not a website made by a kid during the night. They are governed by laws.

The problem is not me choosing if I would like to risk my information or not, the problem is BUYERS being forced into verification also

https://www.namepros.com/threads/escrow-com-is-now-asking-for-photos-of-personal-docs.993366/

https://www.namepros.com/threads/new-escrow-com-account-verification-process.993444/

 

[cipcip]

It's a long way until identity theft.
I will give you my example.

1. I changed my id that i used on paypal 5 years ago because that one expired;
2. I have a new id now which I will change in the next 2 months again because I bought an apartment and I will change my address...

So as you can see, my initial id that i used on paypal is no longer valid.

 

[Perceptron]

OMG this is going off the charts. Just submit your id. What are you afraid of?

The problem is not me choosing if I would like to risk my information or not, the problem is BUYERS being forced into verification also

@Brandon Abbey
Has Payoneer started providing Escrow service in India, yet?

 

[johnn]

The issue here is not just submit the ID.
The issue is your buyer may back out because of this and you will lose a sale.
If it's not broken don't fix it.

 

[Nerevar]

OMG this is going off the charts. Just submit your id. What are you afraid of? You are using escrow only when you are selling domains with big bucks, not 50$ domains. And when i say big, I say thousands+.
I submitted my id to paypal long time ago and nothing happen, it's nothing wrong to get verified.
There are laws in every country for personal character information disclosure. Escrow is a company, is not a website made by a kid during the night. They are governed by laws.

We can submit IDs, but buyers won't do that so easily. They are unfamiliar with the domaining world and afraid of scam.

 

[Cdomains]

My recent experience with Sedo external escrow service (for domains sold outside their marketplace): 3% fee, fast support, deal started on January 2nd, closed today.

I wonder what happens if the domain is listed on their marketplace but you make the sale outside their marketplace and use their escrow to do the deal.

Could this be a problem?

 

[frank-germany]

I wonder what happens if the domain is listed on their marketplace but you make the sale outside their marketplace and use their escrow to do the deal.

Could this be a problem?

you first delete the domain from their system
next you order escrow

 

[kriss05]

I wonder what happens if the domain is listed on their marketplace but you make the sale outside their marketplace and use their escrow to do the deal.

Could this be a problem?

If the domain sold outside but also is listed at Sedo then standard Sedo fees apply, not 3%.

That said, the domain indeed should not be listed at their marketplace to use external escrow service with 3% fee.

Also keep in mind that their minimum fee is $60.

 

[Kate]

It's a long way until identity theft.

Until the server is hacked... the question is not if but when. It's not a question of trusting escrow.com or not, people just don't trust IT systems and rightfully so. People wouldn't be sending money to escrow.com if trust was an issue.

..
So as you can see, my initial id that i used on paypal is no longer valid.

Your address may change, but your name, SSN etc will usually not. Identity theft can still take place.
Besides, your current address may be easy to find. Personally I would use whois to find yours

Identity theft is becoming a prevalent crime in Western countries for a reason. Every time you have to submit ID to a third party you are taking a chance. Of course, it's because of the regulations. Governments don't care about your personal security and privacy. They want to track money to better tax it.

 

[alcy]

using epik escrow for last few deals.
0% fee ... deposited into epik account for epik domaining use
or else its 5% fee to transdfer out to paypal.

secure fast and great support too.

makes you forget escrow.com real good and real fast.

gl

 

[Shimmy]

The only alternative I tried so far was Payoneer , I can tell you the set up was clumsy, and they 100% Require Photo ID. Also, FYI not a huge deal, but they don't allow business addresses, only your residential address is allowed.

 

[Brandon Abbey]

A lot of good questions here. Give me a few hours to consolidate and see if I can get all the answers in one spot.

 

[Parimal]

sedo is good

 

[Parimal]

And yes, the buyer should have a Sedo account

 

[Start]

Another option is www.Dynadot.com
(also, if you click on my link and haven't used Dynadot before, you get a $5 credit ...after you spend $10)

They have a marketplace (like Sedo), but Dynadot's fee is 5% -- and it looks like there's no minimum fee, so it is cheaper than Sedo for any sale less than $300.

One thing to note though, is that currently, after you sell a domain, you can only convert the buyer's payment into Dynadot credits.

But Dynadot does have very good rates -- as low as $8.50 for .com renewals/transfers/registration, $1/month for hosting, and sometimes they have transfer-in coupons that are like $8.15 or something. And they also have a lot of monthly deals, like some extensions right now for $1.99.

Epik is less though (financially), but depending on the buyer, I would prefer Dynadot in some cases, because some buyers might get distracted/enticed by all the other products/services Epik offers.

 

[tonyk2000]

When I checked payoneer escrow last time, I was unable to find whether they are willing to simply wire the funds to the seller (me) in transaction currency (USD) outside U.S. where I do reside and have USD-denominated bank account. I do not have a payoneer e-money account and do not need one. What I learned was that I may receive funds to payoneer account (and, consequently, transfer the funds to payoneer debit card /extra fees/ for further use /also extra fees/. It is not what I need for larger transactions at least. My country is not listed as the country where payoneer is willing to wire funds to (their wiring country list is very limited in fact). Moreover, I found no evidence that payoneer would allow me to request a wire to a bank account opened outside of my country of residence that (the country) may be supported by their system. And, even those non-US members that are eligible to receive wires from payoneer - they will receive funds converted to local currency. I understand that payoneer system is set by design to make money on currency exchange. If all the above findings are correct (I'm unsure) - then all this is not exactly what one would expect from domainsales through escrow, since the market is in fact denominated in USD in most aspects, and in many cases non-restricred USD bankwires are required by sellers

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

@tonyk2000
https://escrow.payoneer.com/escrow/escrow-payments-faq
https://escrow.payoneer.com/escrow/escrow-payments-faq

How is payment transferred to the seller?

The standard method of payout for sellers around the world is through Payoneer, which typically funds immediately to the Payoneer account of the user or within 2-3 days to the bank account specified within the Payoneer account.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

+ Payments to Sellers or refunds to Buyers requiring an international wire will be charged an additional $45.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

The same international wire from Sedo costs me no more than $20.

 

[Winfluence]

@Jackson Elsegood could you address some of the issues mentioned in this thread, to clear up any possible false information. I think you guys deserve a chance to interject, if needed. Thanks.

 

[wwwweb]

What happend to EscrowHill?

 

[Start]

I just realized that for my earlier post, I miscalculated
(did it too quickly in my head, and halved it instead of doubling)
...could a moderator update my post above, to replace $300 with $1200?

Dynadot seems to have no minimum fee (just 5%), so it is actually cheaper than Sedo for any sale less than $1200... due to the $60 minimum at Sedo.



Regarding EscrowHill, I was curious about that a few months ago by chance. It looks like they stopped operating -- the "Hill" in the name was partly a play on the CEO's last name (she was the former CEO of Escrow.com, but LinkedIn shows she now works for the Donuts Inc. registry). And they forwarded the escrowhill.com domain to www.Escrow.domains , which is a law firm that provides escrow services... so I guess that is an option too (I haven't looked at whether they require any documents).

Another option is www.Dynadot.com

(also, if you click on my link and haven't used Dynadot before, you get a $5 credit ...after you spend $10)

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Dynadot's money can't be withdrawn.

 

[Start]

Yes, that's true, but I mentioned that in my first post.


I was just looking at Sedo more closely, and realized I should have been using them instead of Escrow.com anyway... they are actually cheaper than Escrow.com for transactions under $25,000 (Escrow.com is 3.25%, Sedo is 3%)


Plus:

- They can payout in PayPal for free (Escrow.com only does within the US)
- Or they can payout via ACH for free to the US or Canada (Escrow.com is only to the US). Or wire transfer, like Escrow.com
- Sedo has the extra layer of security because you can send them the auth code, instead of to the buyer; or they can even handle the domain themselves (not sure if there's an extra charge for that, but Escrow.com charges more for it)
- And they specialize in domains


I think Sedo, Epik, and Dynadot provide good alternatives. Oh, and maybe Payoneer, but I've only learned about them from this thread.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Who wants to freeze money with some registrar - Epik is enough for that activity...
Because you can get individual rates which are significantly lower than even Dynadot's SuperBulk.