PayPal or escrow?

[4alexia]

Good day everyone,

I am a newbie to domain business. I was wondering if someone buys a domain off me for say 1k or more privately (e.g cold calls) What’s the best method to accept payment? PayPal, escrow or some other method? We are based in Canada.

 

[NameShiba]

Hi there 4Alexia!

Paypal

• More accessible for your customers to make payments. Many more people own Paypal and prefer it to Escrow unless you are a major business or corporation making the purchase.
• Ease of interface -- and quick transaction on behalf of the buyer.
• You and the buyer are protected under Paypal purchase protection -- however Escrow.com is more secure for transactions.

Escrow

• Provides secure transactions for domain acquisitions on behalf of buyer and seller that provides a higher rate of protection.
• Charges a commission fee for brokerage.

My recommendation is to offer both avenues for payment of your domains. More people will tend to lean towards Paypal due to familiarity however you will also be able to provide Escrow services as needed when larger businesses or corporations may find the security behind the transaction more appealing.

Cheers! Best of wishes!

 

[sharastar]

I am a newbie to domain business. I was wondering if someone buys a domain off me for say 1k or more privately (e.g cold calls) What’s the best method to accept payment? PayPal, escrow or some other method? We are based in Canada.

You have more option's than this @4alexia .

First lets see the options you asked for PayPal and Escrow.com


PayPal

• If the amount is small like till 1k or max 5k or less then it's good and you can ask the buyer to cover your 4.4% fees if you want to do so or just take that fees on you as you might know in PayPal the receiver of Payment pays the PayPal fees.
• It's very easy to Pay for the Buyer and no special checking process and payment can be done easily through Card attached with PayPal Account .
• Can just use his credit or debit card Pay with PayPal.
• Payment is received instantly for you.
• If you trust that the buyer and if he is from a reputed company and if he will not raise any disputes then this is a good option.To help with this situation always please have all the details like your transfer conformation email and all the conformation stuffs of the Domains as a copy to show your part correctly if somehow he raises disputes after payment.

Escrow.com

• Trusted Escrow service for Domains and high rate of protection.
• Accredited for Escrow Payments
• You/Buyer can pay the fees fully or Split the fees 50%-50% between both
• No Disputes most of the time so no hassle because of strict checking.
• Buyer can do Bank Wire transfers to buy Domains as payments.
• Very less fees compared to Paypal.
• Payment is not received instantly to you.May take days or a week to receive your money.
  
• But buyer needs to undergo lots of verification before paying you and if he does not know how to operate the system well then it could be a challenging one to complete this step for him.

Your Other options that I know would be EPIK Escrow

EPIK Escrow

• Owned and operated by EPIK Registrar and very new as an Escrow Service
• Helpful Support System is proved if you need any help and it's very fast
• Very new to Escrow but Lightning Fast but you shall not get Instant payment like Paypal but it's fast than Escrow mostly completed in hours.
• Trusted EPIK Registrar so high protection as Escrow.com
• Commission is also low but not as low as Escrow.com
• Best Challenger as an Alternative to Escrow.com
• Buyer can Pay through PayPal to a certain amount
• Buyer can Pay through Bank Wires
• Buyer can do Crypto Payments
• You can choose to receive Payment of Escrow Proceed on your Choice (ie.If buyer pays on crypto then you can take your payments on cryptos or PayPal or Bank Wires) - USP
• Simple verification process if you are paying more amount in Escrow payment which is very fast easy to complete.

Conclusion

• If the transaction amount is less and you trust the buyer and want the money instantly then go for PayPal.
• If the transaction amount is more and you can wait for the payment to be cleared like days or week then but still need lots of Trust then go for Escrow.com.
• If the transaction amount is more and you want the money quickly like in the same day or next day and then still yet also need lots of Trust and want to accept or receive payments in crypto then your best bet is always and will always be EPIK Escrow.

BTW EPIK Escrow can be accessed from your EPIK Account
or
Through this Page even without the Account - https://escrow.epik.com/

Hope this helps you Decide for this transaction and all the Future Sales of yours incase you need Escrow transactions in Future.

All the best you get to test or decide and choose what you feel is best for you.

Cheers!

 

[NameShiba]

snip

Very valuable input and insight here -- EPIK Escrow has been a very valuable service in domain escrow.
They also have valuable and prompt customer support -- any one of my live chat queries were answered and followed up in a matter of seconds.

 

[FolioTeam]

You can go with PayPal but be wary of chargebacks.

You can go with Escrow.com but the verification process might be tedious and it's not open to all countries.

To protect yourself from chargebacks and the tedious verification process, I recommend Dan.com.

1. Open an account at Dan.com

2. Import your lead and pay only 5% commission

3.Tell your buyer to complete payment with Dan. Dan has various payment options ranging from credit cards to PayPal to Cryptocurrency. Your buyer can choose any of those options for payment.

4.Once Dan has secured the payment, you can now follow their instructions for push/transfer of the domain name.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

As well as the options mentioned here (e.g. PayPal + transfer, Escrow.com, Epik, DAN), all of which have benefits as others have outlined, remember that there are also other registrars with marketplaces that can work very well, if the buyer is willing to conclude the sale and keep, at least for 30+ days, the domain name at that registrar. This is not a comprehensive list but Dynadot, Epik, Namecheap, NameSilo, GoDaddy, etc. all have marketplaces.

In many ways I see this as the most secure way for buyer, since they know the transaction is supervised by the entity that controls the registration. Look into the payout conditions, of course, to make sure they are acceptable to the seller.

Sales at registrar marketplaces can also be super fast. I have had first contact with a potential buyers, agree on price and after giving them several options they select the registrar marketplace, I set the price for BIN there and send them link to marketplace listing, they bought the name, and it is transferred and my account credited (although funds on hold for a period of days) all within one hour.

Not sure if you plan on global sales, probably, but keep in mind that there are countries in which PayPal is not allowed, and many countries in which Escrow.com is not operational, so you really need a third option. As far as I know the main registrar places work everywhere (someone let me know if that is not right).

If the initial contact is directly to me e.g. via my website the preferred option I offer the potential client is always the registrar marketplace, if it is registered at one. I use about 10 registrars, but prefer, other things equal, those with marketplaces for this reason.

Bob

 

[FairTrial]

Don't forget the lowest cost, frequently used European escrow service Transpact.com.
Been safeguarding domain escrow payments for over 10 years.

Fast payment, and generally much lower charges than other escrow firms.
[Disclaimer - I work for Transpact.com, but it is still a great company and service]

 

[BigTree]

" Due to the sensitive nature of Transpact.com, we cannot employ normal 'What was the name of your first pet' type security authentication, as such methods are not sufficiently secure.

If you lose your password and do not have any live transaction with us, then we will take special measures to authenticate you at a charge of £14.50."
Basically you need to pay them to recover your password - I have never seen something like that with other escrow services.

 

[CraigD]

" Due to the sensitive nature of Transpact.com, we cannot employ normal 'What was the name of your first pet' type security authentication, as such methods are not sufficiently secure.

If you lose your password and do not have any live transaction with us, then we will take special measures to authenticate you at a charge of £14.50."
Basically you need to pay them to recover your password - I have never seen something like that with other escrow services.

I'm sure that deters 99% of potential thieves from trying to scam their way into your account.

 

[BigTree]

I'm sure that deters 99% of potential thieves from trying to scam their way into your account.

Every escrow and all registrars I know (where you can keep domains worth millions) allows to recover password by just clicking a link Recover Password.

They have many other extra charges
https://www.transpact.com/Additional-Charges.aspx#LossOfPassword