Quickest and Buyer friendly Escrow for under $999 sales?

[kamcreation]

Apart from Paypal what is the quickest and buyer friendly way to sell names under $999?

I can't accept payments from Paypal in my country, so can you tell what other methods that can used without much issues for less techy buyers or who are not willing to submit documents to sites they have never heard before.

I would ok with absorbing higher fees as long as the whole experience for the buyers in less painful.


Any suggestions and ideas are welcome.

 

[Jackson Elsegood]

Hi Kam,
Transactions below $3000 fall below the level where account verification through docs is required.

Cheers,
Jackson

 

[kamcreation]

Thanks @Jackson Elsegood that is good to hear.

But is it a recent change?

Cause a lot of people did complained that even smaller transactions needed docs. Another common complaint that I found about Escrow.com was about approval times for new accounts. Can you please tell whats the usual duration that it takes for new accounts to be approved and what criteria do they need to fulfill to use Credit Card and Paypal?

Hi Kam,
Transactions below $3000 fall below the level where account verification through docs is required.

Cheers,
Jackson

 

[hookbox]

Hi Kam,
Transactions below $3000 fall below the level where account verification through docs is required.

Cheers,
Jackson

Are you saying that any transaction below $3,000 doesn't require any documentation to be completed?

Many have stopped using Escrow.com becomes of all the hoops buyers have to jump through. If you have changed your requirements I would highly suggest starting a thread here stating the new policy to gain back previous sellers.

 

[SpareDomains]

https://escrow.payoneer.com

 

[Brandon Abbey]

Thanks Jay,

$3000 seems like such an arbitrary number to me. Payoneer accepts hundreds of thousands of new accounts every month, we have been doing it since 2005 and have the process down. The escrow fee for a $999 transaction when using Payoneer Escrow is $14.98. escrow.com is more than double that according to their website. No matter who you use for your transactions I strongly suggest you make sure they are licensed to legally provide the service, otherwise what's the point. Thanks to all of you who have been using Payoneer Escrow, we appreciate your business.

Best regards,

Brandon

 

[Jackson Elsegood]

Hi @kamcreation ,
No change, Account Verification only starts for transactions over $3,000 although people can choose to verify earlier if they choose. This allows us to do things like take Credit Cards and PayPal for transactions of up to $5,000.

There's some more information on the levels of Account Verification and benefits here: https://www.escrow.com/verify

Rules around customer verification can be difficult to follow if you're not familiar, so let me break down why all financial institutions are required to keep records for transactions over US$3,000. In addition to the US PATRIOT Act, the Banking Secrecy Act (BSA) helps US based companies prevent funds from flowing into the hands of bad actors, engaged in money laundering or terrorism funding. It's not something that anyone would want to take a risk on.

The BSA record keeping rules require the retention of certain information for funds transfers. Basic record keeping requirements are established in 31 CFR 103.33 and require the records on all transfers originated over $3,000. If you need to check on this rule, you should consult your BSA Manual.

To be clear, the $3,000 minimum limit for obtaining this information does not mean that transactions under this amount are not being reviewed or monitored for unusual activity. We take our obligation to keep ourselves and our customers clear of getting caught up in any transaction with bad actors incredibly seriously.

Cheers,
Jackson

 

[RJ Russell]

Escrow.com has become an excruciatingly frustrating place to conduct transactions. I have made many transactions there as both a buyer and a seller since 2004 but suddenly it has become a train wreck run by robotic customer service reps. These reps apparently have no direct line of communication with the staff approving accounts and that makes the entire exercise extraordinarily painful. Here is just one mind numbing reply I received this week from one such rep: "we apologize that you find confusing how to sing up in our page." Awesome.

Here is some more info - and a much more articulate response - about the changes in the Escrow.com verification policy as of November from another rep:

"Though this was not previously required, regulators have progressed alongside technology and are now making account verification a requirement for all Banking and Escrow companies. This is to ensure that we as an Escrow company provide our due diligence in fighting and countering against the funding of Terrorist or illegal activities/organizations.

Escrow.com has been verifying accounts since last year in November and currently has become mandatory for all accounts new or old. If you are working with an Escrow company that does not perform this procedure and claims to be providing Escrow services, then they are operating and facilitating transactions illegally."

"Illegal" is a relative term and the concept of "facilitating transactions illegally" is applicable only in select jurisdictions as we will see.

A buyer in one recent significant sale said his only problem with the transaction was Escrow.com. As a buyer myself I am now experiencing the same issue in a separate transaction. In my particular case it will be impossible for me to satisfy the identity verification requirements as they are currently constructed so I have no choice but to take my business elsewhere. As painful as it has been to do business with Escrow.com recently I don't see this as a big loss, although it is an unfortunate regression for the company and its reputation.

Brandon makes a nice point about the $3000 limit being an arbitrary number. But what is far more arbitrary is choosing to domicile a global escrow service in a country with such an aggressive attitude toward financial services. It is 2017; move the service offshore. Austria, Switzerland, Ireland, Hong Kong, Singapore, and any number of other small island countries will allow for much more flexibility with no sacrifice in security. Instead you are unwittingly complicit in your role as an unpaid spy for the US government.

PayPal has a long history of fraud and indifference but it does seem to be popular with domain sellers for transactions under $1000. I think this is simply because the risk is low at that level. Flippa and their new Flippa Escrow has a dodgy history as well. I am interested in trying out Payoneer so that might be a solid option for you. One way or another the online payment space in particular and the financial services industry in general is ripe for significant disruption.

 

[Jackson Elsegood]

Hi @ZenDomains.com
As you say the requirement to verify accounts comes from US licensing, and those same licensing standards also set standards for how your transaction and funds are handled. For instance you would want to know that the funds you have in escrow are not being invested on the stock market, or held for interest. US laws make those things certain whereas other jurisdictions may not.

Jackson

 

[kamcreation]

Thanks @Brandon Abbey for pointing the pricing difference. That makes it even more sweet of a deal. I have been using the regular payoneer service for some time so would definitely try the escrow service too in the upcoming sales, if the buyers are ok with it.

Any developer options which can enable to set prices for a large number of names in bulk?

Just a suggestion: Can you please better integrate the payoneer and armorpayments brands/domains as switching between the domains can sometimes trigger the fishiness flag for some buyers.

 

[kamcreation]

Can any one share his recent experience with Sedo and Epik escrow services?

 

[Crysis]

I have always had a good experience with Escrow.com. On the other hand, I had a horrific experience with Payoneer Escrow.com.

 

[kamcreation]

I have always had a good experience with Escrow.com. On the other hand, I had a horrific experience with Payoneer Escrow.com.

Can you share the details?

 

[Crysis]

Can you share the details?

I was unable to create a new Payoneer Escrow transaction. So, I contacted their customer support on May 22nd, 2017.

Even after sending multiple mails and reminders, there was no response from the customer support. So, I contacted Brandon Abbey. Finally, almost after a month, I received a mail from customer support saying that my account is good and verified and I can create a new escrow transaction.

Then 3 days later I received a mail saying that my account is suspended for violating their terms and conditions. WTF? So, even before using Payoneer Escrow they suspended my account ?

I asked the following three questions but I got no response from the customer support team.

1. Which activity has gone against your Terms and conditions considering the fact that I have not used Payoneer Escrow even once?
2. So, after multiple followups and emails, you just reply that I cannot use Payoneer Escrow. Fair enough but why can't this reply be earlier? Why I had to wait for more than a month to hear this kind of reply?
3. Why did then Payoneer Escrow waste my time with all the verification and stuff? I had entered my bank account details, etc and I received a mail from Payoneer Escrow that my account is verified and good to go. If I had violated your terms and conditions, what was the purpose of that email from Payoneer Customer Service?

But I did not give up and continued asking their customer support the same question. Finally, I received a "copy-paste" response.

Still, I continued asking the same question. The next response was " Please figure out a different company for your payment needs" (Great, customer service!!)

Conclusion: Of course, it is their platform. They can suspend any account. Fair enough. But, the reason I am pissed is Payoneer suspended my account without revealing the proper reason. Atleast have a courtesy to give a valid reason, rather than stupid responses like "Unfortunately, we cannot reveal the reason why your account was suspended"

 

[Brandon Abbey]

I was unable to create a new Payoneer Escrow transaction. So, I contacted their customer support on May 22nd, 2017.

Even after sending multiple mails and reminders, there was no response from the customer support. So, I contacted Brandon Abbey. Finally, almost after a month, I received a mail from customer support saying that my account is good and verified and I can create a new escrow transaction.

Then 3 days later I received a mail saying that my account is suspended for violating their terms and conditions. WTF? So, even before using Payoneer Escrow they suspended my account ?

I asked the following three questions but I got no response from the customer support team.

1. Which activity has gone against your Terms and conditions considering the fact that I have not used Payoneer Escrow even once?
2. So, after multiple followups and emails, you just reply that I cannot use Payoneer Escrow. Fair enough but why can't this reply be earlier? Why I had to wait for more than a month to hear this kind of reply?
3. Why did then Payoneer Escrow waste my time with all the verification and stuff? I had entered my bank account details, etc and I received a mail from Payoneer Escrow that my account is verified and good to go. If I had violated your terms and conditions, what was the purpose of that email from Payoneer Customer Service?

But I did not give up and continued asking their customer support the same question. Finally, I received a "copy-paste" response.


Show attachment 63111

Still, I continued asking the same question. The next response was " Please figure out a different company for your payment needs" (Great, customer service!!)

Show attachment 63112

Conclusion: Of course, it is their platform. They can suspend any account. Fair enough. But, the reason I am pissed is Payoneer suspended my account without revealing the proper reason. Atleast have a courtesy to give a valid reason, rather than stupid responses like "Unfortunately, we cannot reveal the reason why your account was suspended"

Hi Vinod,

Please expect a personal reply from corporate. I will also contact you offline.

Best regards,

Brandon

 

[Crysis]

Hi Vinod,

Please expect a personal reply from corporate. I will also contact you offline.

Best regards,

Brandon

Update: My account is approved and activated now. Thank you Brandon for your help.