AliExpress Cash Advance Charge

Mine was an error which they admitted and corrected. Cash advance fees are charged by the bank when you use your credit card to get cash. They should never be charged on a purchase.

For what it’s worth, when AX started adding “sales tax”, everything would show just the amount in question right up to the point where you’d pull the trigger, eg, 10.59 total, then once you click go’head, it would flash very quickly 11.whatever before clearing the screen and showing the order summary or whatever. I may have even originated the “wtf’s going on?” thread about it, forgot.

It was sneaky enough to make it look like PP was nicking you for the “sales tax”, vs AX doing it, but that brief flash was the clue-in.

Thanks for all the information. Hopefully it’s just a PayPal error, I’ll add an update once they respond to my dispute.

PayPal seems completely useless in resolving the issue but my credit card company advised that the reason why I was charged the cash advance fees was due to PayPal processing the payments to a financial institution and not a business. All 3 orders were paid to “ Alipay Singapore E-Commerce Private Limited” and not the actual merchant i.e Convoy Store. I’m not sure if this is something AliExpress is doing to process through a financial institution to get the funds quicker or is something the merchant selects as their preferred processor. Fortunately my bank refunded all the fees, but if you buy something and go to checkout in AliExpress and it says paying to Alipay Singapore E-Commerce Private Limited be aware your bank might charge you a cash advance fee. I’ll check with AliExpress next and update the post if I get additional information.

From my chat with AliExpress, all merchants have undergone the move to a 3rd party payment process where the funds are first sent to AliExpress and who pays them latter. It’s this recent change that the payment goes to the financial institution instead of the merchant that is causing my credit card company to charge the cash advance fees. Maybe it’s just my credit card provider but the next time I purchase from AliExpress I’ll have to select another method of payment besides credit card or PayPal, maybe a debit card.

I recently made an AE purchase using a CC. I just checked the statement and there was no cash advance charge. Maybe it is fixed?

Was your purchase from the Convoy store and how long ago? Mine were 10/31 & 11/7 and Chase charged the fee.

Not from Convoy. Chase card about 3 weeks ago.

They did say the change was very recent so you might have gotten yours in before it happened. I just tried again to purchase something from the Convoy store, selected PayPal payment option and when the PayPal screen opened select the drop down on the dollar amount and sure enough says pay to Alipay Singapore E-Commerce Private Limited. Closed the screen without completing the sale and canceled the order in AliExpress.

Good to know about the advance charges using PayPal. Made some purchase during the AE 11-11 sale and was going to use PayPal.

I saw I got socked for about 10% apparently by paypal seconds after ordering from FT.

Listed as “international service assessment”. Wtf??

Uhhh, I didn’t think any entity could just reach into your wallet/account without your permission. Ie, show the added “fee” and leave it to you whether you agree or cancel, not just do it on the sneak that you don’t even see it ’til your next statement!!

And that doesn’t even show up on my paypal page, either. Not even now.

Paypal is cancer.
I ditched it a few months ago after they announced they will keep their fees after a refund.
Basically if you are seller and someone buys something from you and for any reason the order is cancelled, the buyer gets their refund, and paypal will keep their fees by taking it from the sellers bank account.

What’s worse is that this affects scam victims too. Anyone can send a sum of money to you for any reason. benefit from their “protection” and take the money back after a few months. Your will be left without the money and pay the Paypal fees.
It happened to me when I bought something from Ali, seller could not send the order and asked me for my pp account to send me a refund because refunding me on Ali would damage his seller status. I accepted, and 2 months later I was left without the money and paid the pp fees for the transfer because he could clam that the transaction was for something I sold him, and I supposedly did not send the product.

So what is this new “international service assessment” ? This is something different than cash advance fee.

Cash advance fee is usually just the charge being mislabeled by either the bank or the vender.

Not sure how long that lasted but sounds illegal and they changed it to 30 cents not sale %

Made an order from Simon a week ago, and was charged a $5 cash advance fee.

What are those one-time-use “credit cards” that people can get? Ie, a new “CC number” for each transaction.

Those might be the answer, but who knows if they can it you with additional “fees” that get charged.

A prepaid card wouldn’t carry a cash advance fee if the payment was for goods. Same for credit cards, normally. The only explanation I have is that the transaction between PP and Alipay is showing up on the system as a cash transfer without the actual purchase of the goods. It is an escrow transaction to Alipay. Alipay then holds the funds until the package is shipped and remits the funds minus their fees.

On the credit card end (the funding source), the PP transaction shows up like a cash transfer. it is like using paypal to pay a casino, betting provider, or similar service where the purchased services are a cash equivalent.

cash advance is normally 2.99% plus any FX fees.

Dispute it with your credit card company. You should not be charged a cash advance fee on a purchase. It’s the way that AE is acting as the middle man that is causing the problem. Chase waived mine after I offered to send them a screen shot of the purchases I made to confirm it was for goods and not gift cards or similar.

PP is going off the wall, and I’m close to ditching PP use altogether.

Sent 20bux f&f, completely domestic, nothing international, got nicked for 20.80. No mention of the “extra” at all, ’til after I saw my card statement. Like, wtf??

I purchased from the Convoy Store on 10/29 via PayPal and do not see any additional fees on my credit card. Just the amount for the purchase thankfully.

Strange this happened to you Dohnutz and others.