Any "escrow" service in Auckland? i.e. for importing stuff

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RUKI

1402 posts

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#215349 23-Jun-2017 16:11

Do we have "escrow" service in Auckland for importing international parcels? Perhaps performed by international courier services?

The way I would like it as follows - seller from overseas sends their goods. On receiving the "signature and payment required" parcel I pay the money.

That protects me from paying in advance to unverified seller.

If goods are not requested within period - those are usually either returned back to the sender or destroyed by the courier - following sender's instructions.

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Aredwood

3885 posts

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#1805942 24-Jun-2017 01:53

Supposedly Public Trust runs some sort of escrow service. But don't know anything about it.

Handle9

11411 posts

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#1805957 24-Jun-2017 07:47

Credit cards have made escrow effectively redundant for small purchases. Charge back serves the same purpose. Coupled with markets like Aliexpress or Alibaba they are pretty good.

If you are importing on a more significant scale then you pays your money and you takes your chances.

logo

646 posts

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#1805981 24-Jun-2017 09:49

Credit cards for smaller items as you have the option for chargeback and aliexpress etc... are pretty good too.

For larger shipments you're looking at letters of credit and these are arranged through your bank. Basically your bank issues an LC to their bank. The LC is a bank guarantee that funds will be paid out once the bill of lading has been signed off. A bill of lading is a legal document between the shipper of goods and the carrier detailing the type, quantity and destination of the goods being carried. The bill of lading also serves as a receipt of shipment when the goods are delivered at the predetermined destination.

Your bank will need to have some security (either mortgage held or a hold over a deposit) as once the bill of lading is signed off the bank has to pay the funds across.

tardtasticx

3075 posts

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#1805987 24-Jun-2017 10:15

How do you plan to import these? Is this big enough for a container or are we talking about something small enough to leave in a letterbox?

At my last job I worked daily with shipping agents for containers we were bringing in. Our agreement with a lot of the factories in China was that we pay 30% deposit (sometimes more or less), they would ship the goods and then 10 business days from port we would settle the balance. And we would only do this once our shipping agent confirmed that container was on a ship to NZ etc. Some factories in this specific town/province of China won't do this however and would require full payment before shipping. I imagine some other factories in other countries may offer the same as well.