At 16:44 -0500 03.03.2006, dan polito wrote:
>i know there are some folks here who do bike business with people in
>france regularly. i have mailed cash there previously, and had no
>trouble. however, i am about to send my first substantial amount of
>money to somebody there (for an appropriate on-topic item, of
>course). i am going to send an international money order, but have
>never done that before. i would like to avoid western union, as i
>have had problems with them in the past. if possible, i'd like for
>something to work similar to the way a domestic money order works
>from the USPS (i.e. i get a certified check and then can just mail
>that off, the seller then just can deposit that). i checked on the
>USPS website, and their international money orders are not accepted
>in france. any suggestions are encouraged.
im probably a bad example to follow, but i happily send well-concealed cash of *any* amount, when i cant do paypal. but then, ive been sending concealed cash for the last 25 years, and i have never, ever, lost my money or been ripped off, in hundreds, maybe thousands, of transactions.
international money orders sometimes incur substantial fees for the recipient, and sometimes arent accepted at all. bank transfers can end up costing someone at either end a good chunk of money as well.
the idea someone mentioned concerning sending travellers checks is probably the best one in terms of security and easy, cost-free cashing for the recipient, though. id probably do that myself if i ever lost faith in my obscenely good luck :)
-joel
--
joel metz : magpie@blackbirdsf.org : http://www.blackbirdsf.org/
bike messengers worldwide : ifbma : http://www.messengers.org/
portland, oregon
==
i know what innocence looks like - and it wasn't there,
after she got that bicycle...