Very important and bad news by Escrow.com

[AbdulBasit.com]

Hello and Assalamo Alaikum,

It looks like Escrow.com is getting worse as the time goes by… After we all heard about Payoneer Escrow getting shut down so I started again Escrow.com which I had stopped due to their poor service.

I started couple of transactions at Escrow.com in a period of one week both for different domain and buyers. One of the transaction got completed on 30th August with last status “Inspection period ended, Buyer accepts merchandise.”

On 3rd September, I receive an email from their Payments department which says the following:

“Dear Seller, Unfortunately we do not support disbursement to accounts under First Century Bank, Payoneer accounts, or any other third party payments service. Please kindly select or add a new disbursement method. Please inform us when your disbursement information has been updated.”

This came as shocking to me. First, they should have at least informed all their clients that they no longer support disbursement to accounts under First Century Bank and/or Payoneer accounts. Secondly, even if they didn’t bother sending emails to every of their concerned client, they could’ve updated somewhere in the middle of transaction whenever they got aware of this new changes at their end. But their so-called great support team didn’t bother to inform and waited for the transaction to get completed.

I’m forced to complete my second transaction with them as the buyer just said yesterday that payment have been already made so I’m waiting for this to be completed as well. I just didn’t wanted to receive funds via wire that’s why I started Escrow.com to receive funds via Payoneer.

Instead of improving their service, they’re getting worse as the time is passing. Now I shall be looking for better alternatives who not only support payment via Payoneer but also other options like PayPal.

I’m sure there are plenty of domainers who likes to receive funds via Payoneer and are using Escrow.com so please make sure to either change your funds disbursement method or start using another better escrow service.

Now I’ve sent an email today for disbursing my funds via wire option which is the only one left for me to choose.

**NOTE** In past, I've received good amount of funds in Payoneer account/card through Escrow.com several times.

It would be great to hear from fellow domainers which escrow service is very reliable, provides great customer support and offers several disbursement methods including at least Payoneer.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

SEPA is not mentioned anywhere.

It works in background between banks... and doesn't require any additional setup.
That's why SEPA mentions are absent on Sedo.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Maybe entropay
Is worth checking

According to their FAQ - only EU countries are covered by their service.

 

[poweredbyme]

Visually it is absolutely the same.
Even Beneficiary Name - YOUR name.
No any mention of Payoneer there.

I mean it's a very restricted bank account, aren't a normal bank account.

Beneficiary name has to be your name. Otherwise the recipient would be Payoneer so the money wouldn't be yours. Therefore having your name in your bank account is needed by its nature and doesn't make a bank account better. "Payoneer" must be part of your name or surname to appear together with your bank details. Payoneer is not a bank name too. So it's invisible to third parties who will send you ACH and this is quite normal as there is no place for the "Payoneer" word to appear within your bank details.

The bank accounts given by Payoneer are very restricted, aren't functional like normal bank accounts. You are not allowed to receive money from anyone in the World. This is one of the main problems on this thread. Sedo wires your money to your US bank account but Payoneer rejects wire transfers. How can this be a normal bank account? Sedo could solve the problem created by escrow.com, if Payoneer was a normal bank account.

According to the regulations after 9/11, Payooner or any other organization is not allowed to open normal US bank accounts from internet for foreign nationals. Those people have to visit a US bank building physicially to open a bank account there. Period. Payoneer is unable to give a normal US bank account to a foreigner. It's illegal according the rules in US. But this rule doesn't apply to all countries in the World. You can open bank account elsewhere as long as you are willing to send your documents for ID verification (KYC requirements apply to all countries but at slightly different levels).

Payoneer doesn't allow you to receive funds from individuals and making bank transfers to third parties including your family members and friends. Is this a normal bank account? You have to explain Payoneer if they ask questions about one of your transactions otherwise say goodbye to your monies. Normal banks don't ask for explanations about routine banking transactions of their clients. I never heard someone whose bank account was blocked or closed. But I heard hundreds of people who lost their monies in Paypal. Payoneer is just a different version of Paypal. Even their names are similar, start with "Pay"

There are better options than Payoneer on Google search. I found some sites a few years ago claiming they open normal bank accounts from internet. Some of them provide only normal internet banking. Some of them allow exchanges between variety of online wallets (e.g., Paypal, Skrill and dozens of Russia based e-wallets) and crypto currencies in addition to online banking. Those payment services are not based in the US but open bank accounts in USD, EUR or both. Bank accounts come with IBAN under your name if the company is located in Europe or around. However I can't know how reliable they are without trying. In the end they didn't look like normal banks to me. They are online payment services (I don't think they are real banks), better alternative to very limited, restricted US based online payment services. Also their fees are usually lower. I think because of lower labor costs. Some of them doesn't take $3 every month like Payoneer, some of them takes very little fee for cash withdrawals with ATM card. I didn't see 1% fee from your incoming funds or I don't remember such a fee. Their fees are lower in general and they offer less restricted payment services compared to Payoneer. It's worth to spend few hours or days on search engine results for those who need a complete solution in international payments.

 

[poweredbyme]

It works in background between banks... and doesn't require any additional setup.
That's why SEPA mentions are absent on Sedo.

Do you mean ALL bank transfers within Europe have to be SEPA by default?

 

[poweredbyme]

I think the most complete and permanent solution is e-residency of Estonia. You can open real bank accounts with it and Estonia is a EU member country. However if the OP will have to pay tax to Estonia for his domain business it's not an ideal solution for him.

BTC would be the best solution if it was more popular. Time will show. Imagine you sell domain for BTC and buy domains with your BTC, almost instantly, anytime you want, without paying currency exchange and $50 wire fees.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Do you mean ALL bank transfers within Europe have to be SEPA by default?

I already said above: this is not your problem.
Enduser should not think: SEPA or not SEPA.
This is just internal protocol between banks.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

$50 wire fees.

This is only on Epik.

$20 with escrow.com
15 EUR on Sedo.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

I think the most complete and permanent solution is e-residency of Estonia.

Offshore or just bank account in Dubai is significantly better for Abdul.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

Offshore or just bank account in Dubai is significantly better for Abdul.

It's bit hectic work for me so I'm looking for a solution I can get here locally. Although wire is the best option for making big payments but need to have a card which has good limit to make easy and quick payments.

Thanks once again Jurgen for your suggestions and help as you gave you best which is much appreciated

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Regarding Payoneer and Sedo...
I just googled this and found response from Payoneer representative - that it completely depends on Sedo... if Sedo can send - they will receive it, no any barriers on Payoneer side.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

So activate EUR or GBP with Payoneer - and try with Sedo...

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

So activate EUR or GBP with Payoneer - and try with Sedo...

But why would Sedo have any problem sending ACH to Payoneer in USD and won't have any issues sending in GBP/EUR.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Because this is own Sedo policy regarding ACH and NON-US/CA residents.
No any other policies are stated by Sedo. So should work...

To be 100% sure - contact Sedo and ask...
Is it possible to receive if you are PK resident and your account is in European bank... Sedo will process it or not?
And that's all.

 

[poweredbyme]

This is only on Epik.

$20 with escrow.com
15 EUR on Sedo.

I can set custom transaction fee with Electrum desktop wallet. Believe or not, if I pay $20 transaction fee I can make hundreds of bitcoin transactions instead of receiving or making a single bank wire. I pay less than 20 cents to send bitcoin to someone, receiving bitcoin is free.

Also you can send/receive bitcoin 24/7, 365 days a year. Bitcoin system works during weekends and holidays and completes the transaction in 1 hour or less depending on network congestion. SWIFT takes minimum 2 business days to arrive. It's almost 1 week if you add holidays in either the sender's or receiver's country. It's way too long time to make sure if you were actually paid or not. You give your domain and trust escrow service to receive your money few days later. If the money doesn't arrive for any reason, you can't get your domain back.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

I receive SWIFT to my Ukrainian bank within ~24-26h during business days.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Regarding BTC...
I don't see any buyers who are ready to pay using this method...
And for me - it is also not necessary... as almost all my expenses depend on FIAT transactions.

 

[poweredbyme]

Resellers are familiar with BTC. They know BTC and how to buy it with fiat. Most end-users don't know about BTC, where to buy BTC and how to send it to someone.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

I very very rarely sell my domains to another domainers.

 

[poweredbyme]

Me too. But there is a third category of buyers: half-reseller, half-end user. I am in this category when buying and selling. They pay higher than reseller, less than an end user. These people buy domain to develop but usually don't have lots of time to develop, end up with parking/reselling most of the domains they buy. Pure resellers never think to develop.

 

[frank-germany]

I had the best experiences using coinbase
extremly fast and cheap

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Regarding various cryptoexchanges...
Their policies are also strict...
Not all countries are served equally... many are not served at all.

 

[frank-germany]

@Jurgen Wolf
which UAE bank do you recommend?

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

@Jurgen Wolf
which UAE bank do you recommend?

Ask @Shahid7

 

[poweredbyme]

I had the best experiences using coinbase
extremly fast and cheap

Don't keep large amounts of bitcoin in online wallets. Store it in cold wallets. Use secure systems like Linux in your business computer.

 

[frank-germany]

Don't keep large amounts of bitcoin in online wallets. Store it in cold wallets. Use secure systems like Linux in your business computer.

sold domain in ETH / BTC
next day cash out to my local bank
took 1 day to show in my bank
due to a short time rise in those BTC/ ETH

no fees at all