eBay and PayPal alternatives?

[B.S.Kumar]

Ive been looking at payment gateways for a web-based business I'm starting in Japan. The transaction fees at most of them are close to Paypal charges, or slightly less. Some of them want a "Reserve" account to be maintained, in addition to the regular deposit account. But, each month's sales proceeds are transferred to my bank only at the end of the next month, effectively giving the gateway 30~60 days' use of my funds!

Kleinbatavia, if you know of a better way to receive funds, I'm all ears.

Kumar

[europanorama]

In my opinion the current business-development of yahoo with alibaba( a new company shoud be established) will lead to an ebay/paypal-alternative.
arent there prepaid cards? are these made by the banks or special company. i dont have a credit card. the special maestro-card of my bank is not working like the original one. can only use it abroad on location not online.
Direct bank-expenses would be prohibitive. 20 chf per transaction, if in EU(maybe not all countries) one could pay with SEPA-paying. Which are very low costs. if the seller agrees.

[kleinbatavia]

Good day Kumar,

I'm not familiar with payment systems in Japan as I have not worked there. However, I do know a few people in financial services over there. With regards to the best way to receive payments, there are quite significant discrepancies. For retail clients and one-off transactions, there are not so many options. As a business (with registration numbers and business accounts), there are a lot more options to receive money. They range from corporate accounts with the likes of paypal to accepting direct bank payments and accepting credit cards. Depending on where in the world you are, the fees for (incoming) credit card transactions range from acceptable (some EU and Asian countries, also depending on the type of bank account that is linked) to exorbitant (particularly the US). The real question here becomes where you want to receive your funds and where you will declare your taxes. Whilst corporate taxes are quite attractive in some EU countries, personal income taxes are very high. HK and Singapore both offer attractive climates for corporate as well as personal income taxation. I do not know about Japan. In theory, you are free to establish your company where ever you want, taxation will be subject to local legislation. The US allows US tax regimes for overseas business, but the local authorities may or may not make this difficult (you will need to prevent double taxation). Anyway, plenty to consider, if in the EU, I would possible opt for The Netherlands where you can get good rates on incoming credit card payments with corporate accounts and quite a good corporate tax regime too. Particularly if you reinvest your profits. Alas, too many options and ifs and buts for an email. Careful planning, however, will potentially save you a lot of money bottom line.

Ive been looking at payment gateways for a web-based business I'm starting in Japan. The transaction fees at most of them are close to Paypal charges, or slightly less. Some of them want a "Reserve" account to be maintained, in addition to the regular deposit account. But, each month's sales proceeds are transferred to my bank only at the end of the next month, effectively giving the gateway 30~60 days' use of my funds!

Kleinbatavia, if you know of a better way to receive funds, I'm all ears.

Kumar

[B.S.Kumar]

Thanks, Kleinbatavia.
I'm talking about Japan only. The information about other countries is not really relevant for me. Japan has a vast range of payment options - for Japanese customers. For foreign sales, which would usually be based on debit or credit cards, terms aren't very appealing. One of the large processors has promised to see if they can get me better terms. Otherwise, it's Paypal for me.

Kumar

[Drew Bedo]

Oh for the "Good Old Days" when you could look a seller/buyer in the eye and shake hands across a table at The Houston Camera Show. Not to say that this was any more secure in terms of the quality of the item, but you could handle it directly first. The seller got his money and the buyer got his item, each having made some assessment, however accurate, of the other's integrity.

But yesterday is gone and each day brings a new dawn. The exchange of cash in a transaction is disappearing. In some instances it may actually become illegal if youyou believe what is written on the internet.

Yet e-Bay/PayPal really is the only alternative for not-new items. If you are looking for something and if its out there, it will probably be on e-Bay. Trying to find anything on Craig's list is a time consuming crap-shoot. If only it was searchable on a more global scale . . . . Yet the FS/WTB forum here is where I have had the best experiences selling off the bits I have accumulated though.

[HMG]

Trying to find anything on Craig's list is a time consuming crap-shoot.

Don't tell anyone who's looking for what I want in my local CL, but CL now has a pretty decent keyword-based search alert system. It would be nice if it allowed a bit more customization, and perhaps provided a bit of text around the keyword when sending an alert, but it works well enough. Certainly as well as the 3rd party ones I used to use.