Accepting International Payments Just Got Harder..


I deposited a Money Order from Japan today, and was met with quite a suprise. My Bank (National City Bank, Ohio) slapped a 45 day hold on the funds! Their reason, simply, it is an international Money Order/Check, and their Fraud Department decided to implement this new rule about 1 month ago (without alerting any of the banks customers), to protect their assets, because they have recently experienced a tremendous amount of fake/phony Mony Orders and Checks from international sources. This new rule (Federal Regulation "RegCC" applied to the extreme) applies to ANY non-USA source of funds (that means Canada too). Check with your bank before accepting a Non-USA Money Order, that's all I have to say. One last thing, look into "HyperWallet" for USA-Canada/Canada-USA shipping ( http://corp.hyperwallet.com/index.jsp )

Curtis
zorathustra
Elizabeth is right -- except:

Be careful about undisclosed transfer charges from intervening banks in this, or the other country, that the transfer must pass through before getting to your bank.

Each one can be $20 or more, so notify your buyer ahead of time.
In this day of wire transfers, I don't see why *any* significant hold is necessary. Perhaps we have a banker who can explain.
Man, that sucks!
Think I will stay with wire transfer... Thanks for the heads-up.