how to transfer money safely overseas

Hi All,

i transfer about 2x8k usd per year to china for goods to Australia, i had been using PayPal to do this for buyer protection but have found it very hit and miss when it's come to refunds / security. etc reading into their fine print 1 of their new requirements is only having 1 transaction of the money essentially meaning I'd have to transfer the whole amount upfront instead of two transactions of 50/50 which is more normal.

what do most people use for money transfers for buying goods overseas more so commercial level / small business not for personal use? is there a insurance for this instead of using paypals buyer protection which states its at their discretion


Cheers, Elives

 

Paypal dont always guarantee payments. They guarantee sales that create a payment need. ie a "commercial transaction" Fees are higher based on the risk. Paypal is more secure as a transfer method as the foreign party dont access your account details. Paypal sits in the middle.
Cost is a factor. Any local bank can do a swift transfer and this is based on the account details provided but you pay for it. But Wise (former transferwise) etc is cheaper. (Fees + rate based margins)

 

I'm regularly transferring between AUD, USD and EUR and use Wise (Transferwise).
It works brilliantly between AUD and EUR, for example:
Australian Bank account -> PayID or Osko -> Wise AUD -> Wise EUR -> SEPA Instant -> European EUR account
Takes about 2 minutes max for funds to go end to end.
Anything involving US banks is much slower, they are still in the stone age as far as banking is concerned. Wire transfer is 1 banking day, ACH takes 3 days.
Can't comment on transfers involving CNY.

 

Have used wise for such transfers, also now use airwallex. Unlike credit card and PayPal no real buyers protection paying this way but usually my orders are through alibaba so I think there is a level of protection through them .
Also, sometimes I find the payment options through alibaba are cheaper than doing a direct transfer via wise or airwallex.

 

Agree with Wise as an excellent transfer platform, I send Euros to Spain from UK, Australia and Switzerland, they are very efficient and with good prices.

e.g. 4 years ago - send funds from UK bank to UK FX intermediary, they acknowledge, send funds to Spain, funds get credited after some delay, whole process took 2-4 business days.

Yesterday did the same thing with Wise with the Spanish internet banking open, funds were credited in Spain in 6 seconds.

 

HSBC

 

what do you guys use as security though? when buying goods from overseas spending higher amounts etc current order i think is like 12k aud

 

what security do you have though when buying goods from overseas? 5k+ etc