Quote Originally Posted by geezerhood View Post
Of all the payment methods out there the absolute WORST for protecting the buyer is mailing off a Money Order. It is however the BEST for the seller of course since they risk nothing if they get cash for the MO at the post office. This sure seems to be a lopsided arrangement to me.

USPS or ANY money order mailed off for payments offers ZERO protection for the buyer in most cases. If you get ripped off and you paid with a USPS money order, get in line because there are thousands of people ahead of you and most likely none of them, including YOU will ever get their money back or the product if the "seller" gets the MO and cashes it somehow. The police are too busy to bother with your problem and the US Postal Inspectors are more concerned with significantly larger theft / fraud than your $100 barrel transaction.

Same deal with PayPal Gift - The reason there is no fee is because the sender of the money (Buyer) has no recourse what so ever if they never get the item they purchased or if it isn't as described.

As for the US Mail, I have dealt with the US Post Office on insurance claims and they never ended fairly. I will never ship anything worth more than about $50 by the US Mail as that is my comfort zone for throwing money away. Your comfort zone might be higher or lower than that. UPS/FedEx cost more but they have covered me 100% on every loss / damage over the years and they don't charge you "fees" to cover for their mistakes.

I have passed up on some really good deals on various gun selling web sites because the seller would only accept a USPS Money Order. Sorry Mr. Seller I will ONLY pay with a method that covers my six 100% or very close to it on higher dollar items. Discover, Visa/MasterCard, American Express, PayPal - in order of preference though I really don't like to use PayPal if I can help it, and if you sell a gun with it, you are 1 - being dishonest, 2 - risking having your money held and your PayPal account locked up and 3- dealing with an anti gun company, but sometimes that is the only option for me for non firearm purchases, when the seller doesn't take credit cards.
I agree with every word above. A Postal or any Money Order is useless. I was told by the bank that people are forging money orders like every other form of payments. They put a hold on a Money Order just like they do for a personal or business checks. The money order has to clear the FRB first before your account is credited.

Out of all the payments above, Credit Cards are about the safest. If you are paying for an item and state so when sending a PayPal Payment, your pretty well covered as well.

Any credit card payment I have had issues with usually is taken care of the same day, or by 9am the next morning. I haven't had an issue with PayPal yet!

Now filing a claim for a lost item, well I don't care which one your using, it's a pain to get it paid. You have to wait at least 30 days before filing a claim so they can make sure it's truly lost.

JMO, Dennis