Payment Methods for Domains

[Earthian]

I thought I should post a couple of payment methods for domains in case you haven't thought about the points below (especially method No.3 and the 3% SEDO and Afternic fees for a domain not found/sold on the respective sites) or for newer domainers ...





PayPal (link)

Pos: Very fast
Pos: Credit Cards can be used by the buyer
Neg: there is the possibility that the buyer might initiate a Credit Card chargeback which (if granted) would cause the funds to be withheld or withdrawn
Fees: seller pays ~ 3% of the transaction for receiving funds (Premier/Business accounts only ... for Credit Crad payments , not PayPal balance payments)





Escrow.com (link)

Pos: Secure and known method (even for non-domainers) of payment , especially for higher amounts
Pos: Credit Cards can be used from the buyer for amounts up to $5000 at extra cost (Premier Service) ... though there is a chance for a CC scan
Pos: PayPal can be used for US to US transactions
Neg: if the seller backs out of a deal after the contracts are accepted (and fees are set for buyer to pay) , the buyer will end up paying the fees without receiving anything
Fees: $0-$5000: 3.25% (6.3% for Premier) with $25 minimum ... $5001-$25000: $162.50 + 0.26% for the amount over $5000 ... $25000+: 0.89% ... buyer or seller can pay the fees ("buyer pays fees" usually recommended so that the seller does not get stuck with the fees if the buyer backs out , after the contracts are accepted)





PayPal Mass Pay (link)

Pos: Low fees ... 2% of transaction capped at $1
Pos: No Credit Card chargeback ... funds should be only from PayPal balance (not Credit Card)
Neg: funds must be in account beforehand , either from another transaction or from bank account (not from CC which could be chargebacked)
Fees: 2% of transaction paid by the buyer (capped at $1)





SEDO Escrow (link)

Pos: Credit Cards can be used from the buyer from amounts up to $500
Pos: PayPal can be used from the buyer (theoretically a chargeback against SEDO won't be granted)
Pos: SEDO takes possession of both the funds and the domain
Pos: low fees (in the case that the domain is not listed at SEDO)
Neg: sometimes SEDO transactions take alittle time
Fees: 3% if the domain is not listed at SEDO ... 10% if it is listed ... buyer or seller pays fees ... 3% added to the buyer if the amount is larger that $500 and PayPal is used





Moniker Escrow (link)

Pos: Secure , since both the domains and the funds must go at the Moniker escrow account
Pos: Fairly good prices
Neg: the procedure asks for signing of contracts which might be time-consuming (but I think they can also be accepted online)
Neg: the procedure demands a transfer to Moniker (not a push to "the escrow company's account" in the current registrar) which might be time-consuming
Fees: starting at 10% for amounts lower than $500 the percentage lowers gradually (as the amount rises) to 0.93% for amounts $50000 or higher





Afternic Escrow (link)

Pos: known marketplace , possibilities for the transaction to complete rather fast
Pos: low fees (in the case that the domain was not sold at Afternic)
Neg: no Credit Card or PayPal (except eCheck) ... (FAQs are not very clear about payment methods though)
Fees: 3% if the domain is was not sold on Afternic ... 10% if it was sold (or buyer/seller communicated through Afternic)





Disclaimer: the above are from experience and from what I read in the respective sites

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[Devil_Dog]

Nice info.

 

[AussieDomainer]

Great info there. Thanks for the time put into providing it for everyone. Rep added

 

[doggyowner]

Nice info. Rep added, of course!

 

[sibaong]

Afternic Escrow (link)

Neg: no Credit Card or PayPal (except eCheck) ... (FAQs are not very clear about payment methods though)​

I bought 4 domains yesterday, paid by credit card *you can pay by paypal too

 

[Earthian]

thanks a lot guys ... and thanks for the reps ...






sibaong - I haven't used Afternic (though I've known it for many years now) , so I just stated what I found on the site (and also added "FAQs are not very clear about payment methods though" because it seemed strange that the did not mention CC and PP) ... I basically based what I said on this (and looking again I found this) ... I am not doubting you did pay that way , I am just saying that that info was not available on the site (or at least where I looked for it lol)

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[htmlindex]

Great info there, thanks for sharing. Rep added.

 

[NPKJB]

Great info!!! Just what I was looking for! Thanks! Rep added.

 

[Earthian]

thanks guys ... and for the reps too ... glad you found this info useful ...





small correction ... PayPal is ~ 3% for Premier/Business accounts (CCs or PayPal balance) ... while for Personal accounts it is free to receive funds from PayPal balance but ~ 5% to receive payments from CCs

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[bricio]

thanks for this nice and useful info!!!
rep added

 

[DomainExplorer]

Helpful post. Nice work.

 

[shockie]

... while for Personal accounts it is free to receive funds from PayPal balance but ~ 5% to receive payments from CCs

actually, you get 5 free ones per year.

 

[NameCharger]

thanks for the contribution, rep added :tu:

 

[weblord]

kindly also add moneybookers.com, np$, clickbank.com and e-gold.com for those outside U.S.

 

[Earthian]

guys thanks again for the kind words (and reps)







shockie - according to the fees page in PayPal ... for Personal accounts all CC transactions cost ~ 5% ... but there is a limit for 5 transactions in a 12 month period







weblord - I wanted to include only a rather small number of methods so that the post would not become too long or too complicated for newer members ... also the idea was towards different methods and not towards different companies of same/similar methods (though SEDO's and Afternic's are quite similar) ... I wanted newer domainers to see the procedure and positives/negatives of the various methods (PayPal , Escrow.com , Mass Pay , Marketplaces' Escrows) and not just different sites for transferring money


if you want , you can post a description for these services (following the same form/pattern as above might be a good idea for easy scanning through the thread) ... just try to be objective and mention only about 3-4 points so that it is easily readable and not too long ... also other NPers that want to post other services are , of course , free to do so if they want ...


thanks for the suggestions ... and even if you are not interested in posting a more detailed description , your post above alone (with its links) could be helpful for someone looking for even more options ...

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[PowerUp]

Great info. I wasn't even aware of anything else except escrow and paypal. This should be stickied in the newbies thread as well.

 

[shockie]

oops, confused it with debit payments!... i think

[edit: nope, wrong again.]

 

[john_karr]

great info

 

[Earthian]

thanks for the kind words ... again ...






a small addition ...






according to the fees page at SEDO (which can be find from the link mentioned in the OP)

if a domain is for sale on SEDO , the fee is 10% ...

if the domain is not for sale on SEDO , the fees are 3% with a $50 minimum (more for some other extensions)

but there is a ¹ footnote on the $50-minimum-TLDs ... the ¹ footnote in the selling domains fees (seen a little above in the same fees page) mentions "¹ No minimum fee if the domain is parked with Sedo; only the flat 10% rate applies." ... would that mean that if a domain is parked at SEDO but not listed for sale then for an escrow service the $50 minimum won't apply ? ... and only the 3% applies ? ... or is it a false copy/paste from the selling domains fees above ?






otherwise the $50 minimum would mean that the actual rate is way higher at SEDO , ie. 20% for a $250 sale , 10% for a $500 sale , 5% for a $1000 sale and so on ... only above $1667 the fees would actually go down to the 3% level ... eg. a $1700 sale would have $51 fees (3%)






Afternic does not seems to mention a minimum fee for escrows , so there is a chance that it is the cheaper for Marketplace/Registrar Escrows for low amount sales ... unless the thing with the parking above applies for SEDO ...






of course even cheaper seems to be PayPal Mass Pay ... but Mass Pay would require that the buyer trusts the seller so as to send the funds like that (the same "issue" with the regular PayPal)

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[cache]

nice info.

I did not know that at sedo paypal: "(theoretically a chargeback against SEDO won't be granted)"