International Money Orders

OK, this is related to my UK phone call question. I need to send either an international money order or international banker’s draft in pounds sterling to London. I can’t figure out where to get one. My bank is clueless (so far, I havent’ been able to get down there to talk to them), the USPS money orders aren’t accepted in the UK.

Anyone ever do this? I can’t believe, in this day and age, I’d have so much trouble purchasing something overseas. I’m trying to buy the most amazing shoes from a decent sized company but their bank doesn’t recognize the banks my credit cards are drawn on. (which includes one of the US’s largest banks).

It seems like there should be some way I can purchase an money order online and have it shipped to these guys but I haven’t found anything. Heck, I can’t even figure out anywhere I can go and physically get a money order that will work.

They don’t take credit cards? That is how most people take care of small international commerce with relative ease.

They do but they’re picky about which ones. I’ve tried two different cards and this is the response I get:

One of my cards is a Bank of America card which is a pretty big bank. So I’m kinda stuck. I didn’t think it’d be so difficult to get a money order either, but I cant’ figure out where to get one…

I ran into a similar problem buying some stuff from a store in Australia. They wanted an international money order in Australian Dollars. None of the local banks could provide such a thing or tell me where to get one. The store solved the problem by opening a PayPal account, which allowed me to send them a payment in Australian Dollars, with PayPal handling the currency conversion from U.S. Dollars to Australian Dollars.

I live in Colombia and have banks in the US. I very often have to call one of the banks to verify that I am trying to make a purchase. After that, I can charge all I want for a while, then it happens again. I think that they are just trying to be sure that I am the one making the purchase. Lots of credit card theft here. If all else fails, call your bank, the number is on the back of the card.

Their terms and conditions say they accept “Visa (except Visa Electron), Mastercard, Switch and Solo.” - is your card none of these?

If it is one in that list, the bank should be irrelevant, as the card companies are separate entities.

You know, I was wondering about that. I used both a Mastercard and a Visa (both on different banks) and got the same response. I was thinking that Visa or Mastercard would guarantee the payment somehow and that the bank wouldn’t individually have to have contacts with each bank that issues the credit card. But I’ve gotten the message I quoted in post #3.

I think I’m going to email Mastercard and Visa and ask them about this. Iv’e also emailed the British Embassy in Houston and asked them about locating an international banker’s draft in pounds sterling. I’d like to keep this order, the shoes are going for twice the asking price on eBay.

OK, if anyone is wondering about international money orders, here’s an update. There are a coupel of sites online (I used www.foreignmoney.com) that will let you buy an international banker’s draft online and ship it to your address (they will not ship to the receiver’s address for security issues) or a cooperating foreign bank. The sites seem to be primarily for larger purchases overseas (like houses, etc.) but will do smaller purchases (like my fabulous shoes).

I havent’ followed up on the credit card question. From reading the Mastercard/Visa merchant rules closely, it looks like if the merchant uses the Logo in their store or anywhere on their site but won’t take your card, it’s considered fraud. But in this case, the site does not actually display the logo but merely has the card name listed as an option. So it may not be fraud. I’m not gonna pursue that option tho’ 'cause the guy I’ve talked to has been really, really nice…

I use one of three methods to purchase stuff from other countries:

  1. Credit Card from a US credit union,
  2. Wire transfer of funds from my US credit union,
    or
  3. Western Union transfer of funds from my US credit union

For purchases in South Korea, I use my South Korean bank account. The last time I had to use an interenational money order, I got it from a credit union in the US and they advised me in the future to do one of the 3 above.