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Alibaba Suppliers requesting HSBC payment?
 

Would it be safe to send payment via HSBC? I know to stay away from Western Union, and other transfers. I try to keep everything via paypal.

Paying a supplier via HSBC is new to me.

advice?

So they are requesting a Bank Wire transfer? If, yes I wouldn't send a wire unless you dealt with that person before.

Bank transfers are dangerous - no way of reclaiming if problematic. Unless you know the seller solidly, credit card or pa yp al.

Thats the way I see it, HSBC is bannk transfer. I asked for a quote from 2 different alibaba suppliers and received 15 emails from different people. Not one accepts PooPal.

Prop cause their scammers

Yes bank transfer is a gamble when you don't know with whom you are dealing. If you are really intent on ordering, do a small test order - gamble the amount you can stand to lose.

I didn't even think PayPal was ok with sketchy sites like that...

ive learned the hard way on this one.

Bank transfers - dont do it unless you can afford to lose that money

Always a gamble

If you are about to make a big purchase,and then it is not easy to do paypal,as you know,it is big fund.So you can pay a little deposit ,and pay balance upon BL copy.Or you can do L/C.

If you do small quantity order,you can insisit on paypal,it is safe for you.

For Chinese big factory , they commonly don't use paypal as payment because they don't know about paypal and complicated procedure and it's not easily withdraw in China from paypal . If you try to do business with some big company ,you can try to get sample firstly or get help with your Chinese friends and confirm this suppliers .

In this forum , few person will choose payment like LC because most of them just handle small business on ebay ..lots of person want to get cheaper price from Chinese factory so as that Chinese factory will find worst method to lower product quality ...

Dont do it would be my advice. Unless buying from a seller you trust.

Also the Pay pal fees put many distributors off when they already have small profit margins from sales.

Getting small samples is not fool proof. Some scamming companies will have the genuine merchandise ready for samples and then ship the larger quantities of ⊗⊗⊗⊗ merchandise in big orders.

The rule of thumb is really to not buy branded goods from these Chinese companies on sites like Alibaba as they are not authorized sellers and they are likely selling ⊗⊗⊗⊗.

Also if the price is too good to be true then that is because it usualy is. Especially if you hesitate and they start lowering the price further :lol:

:bolt:

:peace:

TT (Bank Wire) is a very Normal method for factories in China, most dont use paypal.

it really depends on what you are buy and how big the transaction is.

Like teedon bad ebaydropship correctly said, Paypal withdrawal is both expensive and complicated in China.

But, if you are going for smaller items (I am talking in the range of $50-1000)
then Paypal is welcomed by most, Alibaba is NOT good for small orders.

There is a website owned by Alibaba that is very similar to Ebay, except its designed for the small investor in mind, and they accept Paypal on all products, as well as a Escrow service built ON TOP of paypal. (where seller doesnt get paid until you confirm that the goods have been received and are as described)

The site is: Wholesale - Buy Products Online from China Wholesalers at Aliexpress.com
and very good for sourcing smaller items to resell on Ebay...

But if you want to go for larger amount over $1000 (maybe if 5-10K) then the easiest way is via Bank transfer, there is no complete safety method to protect your money in this, but 2 things will reduce it greatly

A) Hire an agent to verify that factory, by visiting the place, checking there business license, export license, products quality etc....atleast you know they arent outright scammers this way

B) use the 30/70 rule....meaning....you pay 30% initial deposit by TT (bank wire transfer) this starts production...and when production is complete and getting loaded onto shipping container...you can pay the balance 70% (and perhaps send your agent again to check the goods really were produced and to the specifications required...

There is a 3rd way, But i am guessing out of reach for most here and that is LC (Letter of Credit) whereby your Bank guarantees the supplier for payment "once goods have been received" on your end.....

But getting an LC is both complicated and expensive...and we are talking atleast $50,000 to $100,000 order here.

Hope that helps!
Fairgo....

^ Some helpful info to be found here :D

On Aliexpress, I love the format and and am a fan of the site overall, imo it is better than DHGate. But it is still 99.9% fa kes.

it may help if you offer them the pp fee's that they will lose.

I have conversed with many alibaba sellers and the honest ones sometimes will eventually sway to accomadate your wishes. If they are honest & professional they should understand your fears and work with you to building a lasting wholesale - seller relationship, which could indeed involve bank transfers AFTER trust is well-established.

One thing i noticed, don't rush into buying, I know it's tempting but if you hold off a bit (they assume you are collecting quotes from other sellers, which you should be and you should have told them that in your first communications with them), they will come back to you (hound you in some cases) with lower offers, lower MOQ, better conditions etc.

I wouldnt do a bank transfer with someone I had'nt done business with before. :eek:


Have you considered escrow? I have'nt used them but I was keeping it in mind if no wholesalers would accept pp - which incidently did happen to me - I looked far and wide for those rare sellers who will accept pp.

i have friend come from australia and new york who have bad and sad story about alibaba.
the point is stay away from westernunion, bank transfer, Telegraphic Transfer, money gram, Credit Card,etc.

Always use Escrow or Paypal.

Even the seller is gold supplier, sometimes they cheated too.

alibaba.com is good resource for business also very bad place too if you not smart enough. :pop2:

TT is fine as long as you know who your dealing with, have spoken to them, found some way of verifying that their business actually exists. In this case bank tansfers are the norm, but preferably make sure its going to a company and not an individual, not that this makes a difference in terms of being able to get your money back, but just to provide you with greater reassurancewhen your making the payment.

For extra reassurance you could also ask for a copy of their factory certificate if they claim to be one, or proof of company incorporation.

Even when people ask for paypal to buy wholesale this is difficult because when your trading your normally talking about receiving regular deposits of $1000USD+ which payapl for their own sadistic pleasure generally like to hold onto for 180 days...

Western union generally should especially when dealing with a seller for the first time and buying some 'questionable' items. Although some factories have been known to ask for this form of payment to cover samples.

L/C or payment against documents is fine and probably the safest way if your doing a container or a large volume of goods, but obviously not approporiate for a carton.

Another 6 month old thread gets resurrected..........