Cheques (checks) bite the dust

I've noticed many local businesses now refusing to honor checks... I think checks are becoming passe.

What LL should be able to do is direct deposit, if we send them our acct information. Either that, or they should be able to credit a credit/debit card.

LL uses instant money transfers, so a 2.9% fee is only calculated if you use a premier/business paypal account.

Getting a business paypal account is only useful if you want to offer credit card payments to customers, so if you're not doing that, simply stick with a personal account and don't get the 2.9% hike.

The biggest issues with paypal is the 2.5% (or more, depending on currency) fee you get when changing currency on withdrawal. (US$ to euro/UK pounds etc.), so only applicable to non US users of paypal.

For non US users, also realize paypal is not a 'nationally founded bank', so any state guarantees on your balance there aren't applicable. (Meaning if paypal would go under in the financial crisis, you can say bye bye to your cash on there... think bank of iceland...)

As an alternative to Lindex/Paypal, there are several other 3rd party currency exchanges operating in local currencies which still allow you to cash out to local checking accounts, sometimes even offering better fees. They're sometimes not able to handle the same amounts of L$ as Lindex can though. (Some have issues dealing with L$ amount larger than 1 million L$, and require you te email them in these cases.)

But you need Premier/Business if your monthly volume is greater than $500 USD/month, yeah?

No

(At least i never had any trouble with it, and i have had monthly volume well over 500US...)

Paypal wants your money... it's not going to prevent you from putting it there
As stated, business accounts are meant to offer customers the possibility to pay you in other ways then direct paypal transfers (credit cards, debit cards, money transfers, cheques etc.)
If you have no need for those services, stick with a personal account.

Plenty of retail outlets in the UK no longer accept cheques.



I don't understand why they can't do this for US citizens, this is one of the reasons cheques are going the way of the dodo, bank transfer is fast and free in the UK. International bank transfer isn't free however.

Think of the rainforests!

Only my grandma writes cheques nowadays.

In 2008 when there are other payment methods available, then it probably is. In order to cash a cheque you need a bank account anyway, surely. That being the case, there are other, arguably better, ways of making a payment.

I believe that a retail credit to a credit or debit card requires a retail transaction with their merchant code of the same amount to have occurred at some point in the past - a retail credit transaction is merely the reversal of a debit. They can't reverse a debit that never took place. It's probably physically possible, but the Visa and Mastercard regulations frown on it ( the Visa and Mastercard regulations, by the way, make interesting reading - if you are a very boring person that is). In the UK we have a fund transfer system run by Royal Bank of Scotland called BACS. Most countries have simillar domestic systems. All that is required for the payer is to have the payee's bank details.

I thought China owned it all now - or most of it, anyway.

If the Chinese government is to be believed, they invented most of it too.

You might be lucky - though I would definitely start with a personal account and not upgrade unless I was forced.

I found this in the PayPal Help FAQ:

Question:
Is there a limit to the amout of payments Personal accounts can receive?
Answer : Yes. Depending on the primary currency of the Personal account, the receiving limit is FORMAT ERROR$500.00 USD, $650.00 CAD, or €500.00 EUR. (The receiving limit is based on the primary currency of the account. If you receive payments in more than one currency, your limit will be calculated based on the total amount you receive each month – after the amount is converted into your primary currency. To view your Personal account limit, log in to your account and click the View Limits link.)

The receiving limit applies to the following payment types: eBay Items, Auction Non-eBay, and Goods-Other (Website sales). All applicable payments that exceed the monthly limit will be placed in accept/deny status until you upgrade your account to receive the payments or you choose to deny them. If no action is taken, the payment is returned to the buyer after 30 days. The limit is reset monthly.

(Note - LL falls into the 'Goods-Other' category)


Even with a Personal account, the currency exchange is where you will still get zapped. From their Fee page:

** If your transaction involves a currency conversion, it will be completed at a retail foreign exchange rate determined by PayPal, which is adjusted regularly based on market conditions. This exchange rate includes a 2.5% spread above the wholesale exchange rate at which PayPal obtains foreign currency, and the spread is retained by PayPal. The specific exchange rate that applies to your multiple currency transaction will be displayed at the time of the transaction.

That currency fee is probably going to apply to every amount that LL puts into your PayPal account because they are going to probably issue the payment in USD.


If you have to move up to Premium, every time LL pays you, that payment will be subject to the transaction fee of "https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-receiving-fees"]https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-receiving-fees[/url]"]1.9% to 2.9% + $0.30 USD[/url]"


It sounds like anyone taking cash out is going to get royally screwed and even more so if they then need the money converted to another currency.


An interesting statement on one PayPal page that might be worth exploring:
"Some non-U.S. members may have U.S. bank accounts, so make sure the bank account and delivery information for your withdrawal is complete and correct."


I would definitely do some investigating into taking the money via XstreetSL.

All except the interwebs - Al Gore invented that.

Account limits are more based on your 'status' than on the type of your account. As soon as you get 'verified' status (which requires you to send offical ID, bank account info etc.) Your limits are usually lifted.
Although the policy can be different from country to country.

I've been verified for years but my limit still shows as $500. Granted I have never used my account to receive money on any sort of regular or even semi-regular basis.

I was able to do some additional verification that lifted my limits for Sending Money, but the $500 shows as a monthly limit for Receiving Money.

Thank you everybody - and thank you Lil for all that information. Cashing out via PayPal sounds very costly - and it looks so attractive at LL's $1 fee. The reason I didn't look into the PayPal method before is because, as someone mentioned, they are not a bank and are not subject to banking regulations - and we do hear some horror stories about them.

To be honest, I don't even know what wire transfer is. I'd thought it was simply depositing money into bank accounts until Oryx mentioned direct deposit. (Google uses direct deposit, but they do send money to a hell of a lot people, so it might not be worth LL setting up a system to do it - but I don't know).

Fortunately, we get a *lot* more £ for US$ lately, which covers the cost of PayPal by a very long way, and the cost of living is coming down overall too, so it's not all doom and gloom right now, although that will change, but I still don't like the idea of having to pay someone at least $125 just to get my money from LL.

I haven't had a reply from Zee yet. Maybe I'll try IMing him or sending him a notecard.

I got a reply from Zee because of the notecard I sent him. He didn't get my email.

The reason that cheques are on the way out is because of "the checking required by banking regulations". Not issuing cheques is to keep LL safe in that respect.

I don't have any answers concerning the fee that they'll charge for wire transfers though, but he said he'll have someone get back to me about that.

Dam now we can't start any conspiracy stories lol

Of course we can. Since when did mere facts prevent us from doing that?

Wire is the original ACH transaction, except that it has a large fee of at least $20 in the usual case. I recall that LL posted the fee for wire, and the minimum amount to wire, but I'm too lazy right now to find it.

Damn, that's what I'm doing wrong. My money isn't formatted correctly.

The minimum is US$10,000 and I believe the system already exists, but I've never seen it anywhere. US$20 is a hell of a lot better than the huge amount that PayPal charges to receive a significant amount of money from LL.

US$100 I think you'll find, wire is just bank transfer.

The paypal issue is an interesting one as the fees are for business transactions, so does receiving a payment from Linden Lab count as a business transaction? You're not offering Linden Lab a payment service.

What's US$100?

US$100 is the minimum amount LL accept by payment by wire. They charge an extra $25 on top for this, which seems very expensive for American customers. I'm not familiar with bank transfer charges overseas, within the UK bank transfers are generally free.

Where did you find that information? Old info? I've just done a search and rummage in the site looking for anything about wire transfer, and I found nothing that's to do with LL transfering money out.

As of Jan 1 the only payment method for amounts under US$10,000 will be PayPal. They will have a wire transfer system in place for amounts over US$10,000. That's according to the letter dated 1st November.

[added]
I think I've got it now. You mean for a customer to wire money to LL - yes? We are talking about taking money out of SL.