Review these tips to help make receiving payments from buyers in other countries easier.

• Review the international abilities of your preferred payment methods so that you can highlight these to potential buyers and increase item appeal. If your preferred payment methods aren't available internationally, add new payment options that will work for the buyers you're trying to attract.

    Note: If you accept payments with a PayPal Premier or Business account, you can accept credit card payments from buyers in many countries.

• Be flexible and responsive to buyer needs. If your buyer suggests an alternative payment method that is faster/easier/safer, consider using it. Such flexibility could get you your money faster and will improve your buyer's experience.

• If you are passing shipping costs on to your buyers, review the Shipping Internationally information and use the shipping rate calculator to estimate shipping costs. Your buyers can then add this to their payment. If there are any duties, taxes, or additional fees (for example, insurance) inform buyers accordingly (see Shipping Internationally for more details).

Recognizing a counterfeit cashier's check scheme

• Often a seller of a high-priced item receives a request from a foreign bidder (often in Africa) to accept a foreign cashier's check as payment or deposit for the item.

• The cashier's check amount often far exceeds the value of the seller's item.

• The buyer asks the seller to send the overpayment amount via money wire transfer service.

The problem is that the cashier's check is most likely fraudulent and it can often take weeks or even months for the seller's bank to know if a check is real or is fraudulent. Some checks may appear to be from a US bank but upon closer inspection, could include foreign country or city names. If the cashier's check is fraudulent, the seller is held responsible. Sellers should never accept overpayments from buyers for items where the buyer is asking to be reimbursed for overpayment.