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List:       intlwiki-l
Subject:    Re: [Intlwiki-l] International donations (Was: Lars and
From:       Peter Gervai <grin () tolna ! net>
Date:       2003-08-25 10:50:46
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On Fri, Aug 22, 2003 at 11:39:01AM -0700, Ray Saintonge wrote:
> Jimmy Wales wrote:
> 
> >I'm 100% in favor of making whatever arrangements are convenient for
> >people everywhere.  I'm not a partisan of PayPal by any means -- it
> >was just easy to setup and I knew about it.  I want to expand our
> >options.

And it's basically free, only requires some time and consideration not to
foul it up. :)

> >>There are many world emoney systems, I'd prefer www.moneybookers.com
> >>(full world coverage, cheap,

> >I will look into this one.  I have never heard of them, but if
> >research turns up that they are big and reliable, and if it's easy
> >enough to setup, it will be setup by the end of the day today!

I could have made you to set it up to by sending you 2 euros, but didn't
want to waste your time without asking first. :-)

> After a quick look it seems that this one advertises sending money to 
> anyone with an email address.  With so many of these systems around it's 
> not surprising that you never heard of this one.

Fair observations after a quick look. After a little more look you may
notice some key differences though: their service is officially registered
as emoney issuer, they have local bank accounts in many dozens of countries
(money transfer bank cost between your account and them is usually zero EUR
[=0 USD on the current exchange rate]), their fees are pretty low and they
are not US based (huge plus)). 

As far as I see they were registered as official issuer on Feb 2003, you
probably don't expect them to be world known by this time. :)

I checked around for recent horror stories about them and basically found
none (except for some germans complaining that their relatives in the high
Himalaya got their money one month late due to the fact that they were not
certify their identity in any comprehensible way :)). Well, I dare not to
check around for recent paypal horror stories. :-]

But, as I mentioned, it's free, and if the sender trusts the service its his
problem. I used moneybookers and egold so far without problems, but it is
true that I read through their material and tested transfers with small
amounts before use.

> Some common sense approaches help.  Avoid excess safeguards unless the 
> amount involved is more than you can afford to lose.  If you owe less 
> than $5.00 send cash.  At just 50cents each in checking charges 10 x 50c 
> is the equivalent of one $5.00 bill lost in the mail.  The combined rate 
> at which these are lost in the mail or lied about is probably far 
> smaller than 1 in 10.

I do not want to sound rude but would you please stop to ignore the rest of
the world? Thanks.

(Sending bills could theoretically end you up in jail in some countries,
including mine. The usual result is the bills confiscated without notice.)

But apart from your sample that's just I suggested: if you send small
amounts it's acceptable risk to trust a carrier with moderate safeguards.
(at MB, for example, you can lose all your money without any refund if their
company officialy goes broke AND loses all its money in its safety funds AND
its owners lose their money. it's a risk, but doesn't really compare to
sending E100 around.)

Peter
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