Money Transfer - Germany - EBay

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Hi everyone,

I hope someone can help me sort this out. I sell a few bits and pieces on eBay, and for the first time, someone in Germany has bought 2 things. She has no Paypal account, which I normally get paid with.
I asked her about sending me a bank draft, or a cheque. She says they don't have cheques in Germany anymore, and she wants to do a direct bank transfer from my account to her account. She says she needs my bank account number, an international bank number and bank code.

Is it secure to do this? I assume that if I ring my bank, I could get the international bank number and code needed, but does this look like a scam? I don't like the idea of handing over my bank account number to her - she could be anyone!
Do they have bank drafts in Germany??

Thanks for any help you can give me,
Grace
 
Unregistered said:
I don't like the idea of handing over my bank account number to her - she could be anyone!
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Hi Grade - I don't know much about the German system, but I think you may be over-reacting on the bank account number issue. Remember that everyone who you've ever given a cheque to has your bank account number.
 
As far as I know a German euro cheque will be no use as there is no cross border/pan euro zone cheque clearing system through which such payments can be processed. Perhaps might be of interest to you?
 
You don't have anything to worry about. I've done a number of International money transfers like this. When you give her your bank account number and IBAN number she can't take money out of your account but only transfer money into it. (In your post I think you got the direct debit transfer the wrong way around!)

If your going to do things like this in the future perhaps it might be better to set up a 2nd bank account separate to your current account. It might give you piece of mind and allow you to track money easier?

It wouldn't surprise me that cheques are not common in Germany. I think there might be plans in Ireland to phase them out as well.
 
If you give her your IBAN and BIC she can do a transfer online from her bank account to your bank account. German banks mostly offer online transfer even to foreign countries and she pays nothing for it.

I certainly understand you hesitation to give out your bank account details to a stranger. But I agree with RainyDay, your bank account details are out there anyhow.

There is no such thing as an Eurocheck anymore, that died a while ago when the EC guarantee vanished.

There is a "bankgarantierter Scheck" that she could buy from her bank, that is the same as our Drafts, however that will cost her a lot as they are not cheap.

In Germany it is quite common to give your bank account numbers for people to pay to (eBay even facilitates this in the checkout process in Germany).

If you don't want to give her your bank account details, than you always can ask her to sign up for paypal or moneybookers.

Your IBAN/BIC should be on a recent bank account statement by the way.

Good Luck with selling to Germany, remember they have strict laws about returns there to which you are bound. I hope you have marked your auction as from private to private otherwise business rules apply and she could return the goods without any reason.
 
Hi

Not many Ebay users without PayPal these days - why won't she just open an account ?

Alternatives includes:

www.NETeller.com (my personal favorite, despite their charges ... even quited on London's AIM :))

[broken link removed]

Alternatively your IBAN number should do the trick.

Cheers

G>
 
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