Home Forums Gear Free Classifieds USPS money order Question ?

Lots of good points on multiple views. Hopefully people that are usps mo only realize they are eliminating a few potential buyers. Im not going to pay with a MO but I don’t mind being paid with one.

lol that figures.

My only ever bounced check was from a little old lady for a load of firewood. It’s a rarity and I’m not all to worried about it.

Not at my bank. They state to wait 10 days to be safe. Been that way forever. They make a phone call and know within minutes if a postal mo is legit. I always take either form, but personal check will be waiting a while before i ship

I have gotten fake USPS MO's. I have never gotten a personal check that had problems. After they clear you are good to ship.

If it’s more than $250, Navy Fed holds a USPS MO for 1+ days before clearing. For personal checks, the same rules apply, but it’s usually two days.

I would rather take a check.

Time to change banks. I can deposit personal checks using the mobile app on my phone and have yet to have one take more than a business day to clear.

Face it, banks, like most other businesses operate and communicate in mostly electronic form where communication between companies takes milliseconds not days. I've had issues with having to wait for funds when I deposit a PO MO. They don't verify them instantly. The banks treat them like every other check in my experience. And recently I tried to cash one at the PO for a few hundred after standing in to ship a package anyway and was told they didn't have enough cash to pay it out but if I came in tje afternoon they MIGHT be able to cash it. Pass, but thanks.

I'll happily take a personal check, electronic payment or whatever the buyer wants to send. In fact, I'd rather have a check than a PO MO because I can' deposit them using my banks mobile app. But I won't take the time off of a busy day to go stand in line at the PO or a bank to bother with a getting money order. Like others have said, I'd rather walk away from a purchase that makes my life more complicated than it is already.

To each their own though.

Interesting that people talk so much about fake money orders and one guy even said he had taken a few… I call BS. What you would have to go through to even create a fake MO might be done by a cartel, mob or gangsters but not something easily obtained for fraudulent intentions. Now, I wont stand in line and pay for a MO or stand in line to cash a MO at a post office because they rarely have the cash available anyway. Send me a check and when it clears, you get your stuff. Send me a MO and when it clears, you get your stuff. My bank offers a cashiers check free to me and it is guaranteed funds and quick to obtain or just accept a personal check.

Maybe i need a new bank

Everyone’s situation is different. My po is moments away, my bank will deposit them. They are easy to verify funds. I’ll take them for payment, and if I want something bad enough I’ll go buy one too. To each his own.

[bleep] canning paypal and venmo has saved me tons of $$$$

When a buyer ......I set the rules.

There is nothing I have to buy worth futzing around with a Money order.

Yep, same deal here in our small town. We even have a P.O. box because we get so much mail, rather than get it delivered to the house, where larger packages tend to get left on the porch. The P.O.'s only a 3-minute drive away, and a block from the local grocery store, which we go to almost every day as well. A money order is no problem for me to buy if somebody wants to get paid that way, since our bank is also on the way to the P.O., and the bank accepts them just like any check.

Which is why I'll take them as payment on the Campfire Classifieds. Don't get many, but they're the best option for some buyers. (Also take cash, and some people prefer that as well. In fact once sold a $1000 scope to a guy who sent cash--though in two payments of $500 each....)

Hmm. This is very interesting hearing other perspectives. Learning what might be better for some and vice versa, and why.

USPS MO can be instantly verified. Cashiers checks from banks, can be verified, but it takes awhile. You will find that Cashiers checks are way more counterfeited than USPS MO.

No one likes PayPal, Venmo, or other payment services, no one trusts anyone, everyone has experienced fraud, and it is still easy to take a USPS MO without the failure rate that some people think exists.

Choose your poison, but if it is a $25.00 to $100.00 item, the loss can be sustained. Sell something in the thousand$ and the chance of fraud increases dramatically.

I have had failure with personal checks and cashiers checks, and still among all the dislike for USPS MO, absolutely ZERO issues…

Except there is no risk accepting a personal check if the seller is given the necessary time for the bank to verify to quality of the check. My bank routinely does this in hours, not days.

It’s a good discussion and I’m learning plenty from both view points.

This is an example of one or two, multiply that by many times and the “wait for the check to clear” becomes a real inconvenience. I have sold literally, a bunch of stuff and waiting for a check to clear is not a good solution…

I would encourage people to call their bank and ask "How do I know when a check I have deposited has actually cleared and their is no way for you (my bank) to reverse the funds?"

FYI - their is a difference between a check "clearing" and your bank "making funds available for withdrawal"

Last time I asked on this at two different banks - they essentially stated 1) they can't determine if a check has actually cleared, it is not communicated by the check writer's bank, 2) there is timeframe (don't recall if it was 5 or 10 days) that the other parties bank is required to notify them if the check is NSF, if not notified the depositing bank has no recourse against the other bank but 3) that doesn't necessarily mean your bank (the depositing bank) doesn't have recourse against you.

The above is from memory and is directionally correct best I can recall. As I said, call your bank and ask - I think you will be surprised at the response.

Just got scammed buying a $800 scope with a personal check seller was impersonating a dead guy at a fake address seller stalled on shipping scope then disappeared. Would have been safer using electronic payment.
Thread where it happened
https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/19034800/1

Would a MO have been safer?

Your bank doesn't charge fees for bounced checks?