No more PAYPAL at AliExpress

When you ask to pay with paypal and the vendor accepts it as a favor, do you use Friends and Family to save the vendor on fees or it’s not worth it?

F&F used to be free but I think they added some fees, right?

As far as I know when you send money using family and friends you lose protection from any dispute. I figure that’s why its free, paypal isn’t going to lose anything.
I would ask the seller how much will the fees be or just send extra to cover it and pay as a transaction and add a brief exact discription of what your buying in the notes section.
If its Simon (convoy store) your buying from I’m pretty confident you’ll get what you order or he will make it right so family and friends maybe fine.
That’s up to you though.

Thanks again. I’ll message the Convoy Store (Simon) shortly. Happy to pay the fees too of course.

Issue I have is that I dont have a VISA card nor immediate access to any of the other payment methods. I do prefer Paypal as it’s been a reliable option in the past too.

You guys should start using fintechs like Revolut or Transferwise.
They have the best conversion rates, no fees and let you create virtual cards.
Paypal are just plain thieves and should be completely avoided. I was getting paid though Paypal and lost 8% just to fees, and on top of that transfers weren’t instant. And the sender lost a lot too because he had to do a conversion at a ridiculous rate from Paypal. They basically %^&*ed us both for more than 5 years but in the last year they went bonkers with the fees

I’ve been ok with paypal for many years but always interesting to check out other options. I’ve never come across Revolut or Transferwise but will read up on them.

I found oddly that in progressing an order if my address is blank the Paypal Option appears, however after entering and confirming my address it the dissapears leaving CC and Web Money option only. Possibly think my address isn’t legit.

Revolut doesnt work worldwide.
Paypal works in 200+ countries, in some of them you met limitations but they work even if dont have banking license in the country.
Revolut (as dangerous competitor in bank industry) have met problems with growing, many countries give acceptance for work only if they have banking license (the other option - improve laws with modern money trasfer rules, but most governments are not intrested in this).
To use revolut today, you need to be a citizen or have a working visa in:
European Union
Swizerland
Australia
Canada
Singapore
United States

I know citicard offers a virtual credit card number for 1 time orders that are connected to your main card #. I may see if that works for AliExpress. I just had 3 odd amazon charges used on the card I only use on AliExpress. We are disputing the charges and getting replacement cards, but what a hassle.

Update: Do not use friends and family even for people you trust. It is nowhere near free!!. The paypal fees are ridiculous and you will end up paying double fees what you would pay when you send money for goods and services. something like 10% vs 5% for asia. So it makes no sense at all, you loose all the “protection” and you pay double fees. :rage:

No PayPal, no sale.

PayPal isn't the only way to do business. In my experience AliPay is perfectly fine, and so does TransferWise.

Both the energy behind something and that which you add on top matter. Create consciously and responsibly.

I use a debit card when paying for items on AE. I keep a small balance on the card, just enough to cover any items I buy.
I assume that if someone tried to use the card for more than is in the account the bank will not approve the transaction.

The problem is the lack of buyers protection when NOT using paypal.

When using debit card (or any other method different from paypal…) and the item does not arrive or arrive a different item/different quantity… Who protects you?

Aliexpress buyers protection is a joke!

If you correctly back up yourself in a dispute, winning it is the only consequent result. I have always won my disputes, and there always was rationality behind them. Being reasonable and fair pays off.

I used PayPal on AliExpress on July 22. What are we talking about?

The rest of us will try that out next time.

Key points to getting a resolution on AX:

• be reasonable; don’t ask for the entire order refunded if they just screw up one item

• be polite; yelling at them doesn’t put them in any frame of mind to help you

• be tenacious; don’t give up, despite the seemingly endless running-in-circles (send video, send pix, go ask post office, you want points?, what did you want again?, etc.) designed to run you down and make you go away.

That usually always works. I don’t recall even a single dispute not going my way. Not saying any didn’t, just that I don’t recall any.

And the key is the last item, to not give up. Sometimes it’ll be like talking to your dog, that you’ll get the blank stare, cocked head, “blah blah blah Ginger” look, but if you keep on going into broken-record mode, “X is wrong, I would like Y to fix it” and just keep on repeating that, politely, as long as Y is reasonable and fair, you should (eventually) get it.

Hi Samgalax - Maybe I have been lucky but, this year, in 2 disputes for non delivery after waiting for 3 to 4 months I raised a dispute with the dealer & Aliexpress has found in my favour & I have received refunds.
Paying by debit card is just a way I use to reduce the chance of someone misusing my card.

Yes for small items that don’t get tracking you will always get a refund from Aliexpress.
But for stuff that costs hundreds of $ I heard that the situation is handled differently. If the item doesn’t work as advertised usually they ask you to ship the item back to the seller and that can be o problem because shipping cost is quite High + you don’t have any assurance that the seller will accept the package.

The most expensive item I have ever purchased on Aliexpress was 17$. There is no way I will go beyond 20$ on a foreign website.

Maybe I am just too risk averse or I don’t have any expensive hobbies.

nb: less expensive items also have the advantage of being smaller (typically), they package and ship faster and customs are less suspicious of smaller yellow envelopes.

I would say you are more risky than average.
Most items under $7 are not packed into yellow bubble mailer - they come in black/dark grey/dark blue LLDPE wrap from re-used materials.
Some time ago, my local post office have not registered untracked small parcels - all they went to the big сorrugated fiberboard box. I have spend many time searching for my orders in this box - I think now I can recognize what is inside almost any package just by look. 50% of such el-cheapo parcels have phone accessories inside - screen protection glass, covers and cases, wired earphones, small memory cards and card readers, car holders and chargers. Second most popular category - beauty stuff - cheap glasses, rings, laces, creams and even lipsticks.
Can not say exactly who is more risky - guy than have spend more than $20 in one aliexpress order, or girl that uses $1 lipstick from aliexpress.
I wonder how do they do this - cheat all national post services. If my relatives from far east Russia will send anything to my address, they will pay at least $7. But same time Russian post delivers 80000000 packages from China each year, and at least half of them are under $7.