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Computer Sites that Accept International CCs?
neves asks: "I'm a student from Brazil writing this with my four year old pentium 233Mhz machine. Tired of suffering, I had decided to upgrade my machine when a golden oportunity appears: a friend of mine is comming from California to Rio de Janeiro and has offered to bring some components! Computer components in the third world are twice the price, and a generation behind ones available in the US, so now it is possible to buy an Athlon 900Mhz, an Abit motherboard and a good fan for less than US$500,00. You'd think I would just have to order what I need from a web store and have it sent to her address in California, but this hasn't been that easy. I've been trying for weeks to find a trusted store that will accept my International credit card! I've already used it to buy gifts and from Amazon to send to friends in the US (but Amazon doesn't sell motherboards). I need this information fast, as my friend's due to travel soon." I would think, with the Internet doing it's thing to erase regional barriers, that online merchants would be interested in accepting more than just "VISA, Master Card or American Express," however this seems to make this assumption invalid. So why is it that they aren't able to accept payments from International Customers?
As someone who works for a credit card processor, allow me to state that this issue is not a technical one, but rather a liability one. The credit card companies actually make it pretty easy to do international transactions, even currency convertion, as long as the settlement to the acquiring bank is in your native currency. (That is, a card from outside the US will be settled in dollars, and you'll be charged a slightly inflated convertion rate.)
However, when it comes to card-not-present transactions, and especially e-commerce transactions, merchant banks get nervous. You (and indirectly, your merchant bank) is shouldering the risk of fraud for any transactions that run through your account. The merchant banks usually respond to those that take out-of-country cards by jacking the discount rate up by a ridiculous amount. Whereas you might have been paying 2.5% before now you're paying 3% or 3.5%. And that's on ALL transactions! So even if you take one international card for every 100 transactions that you do, you're still getting charged the huge rate on ALL transactions.
Quite simply, the merchant looses money, unless they are getting a fairly substantial quantity of overseas orders. We do processing for many free software/open source related companies, and for them the US is just one small part of their customer base. But for your average hardware merchant...well, it just isn't worth it.
I'm new to the US so I don't have any credit....
:-(
But I have a 700$ debit card which is fine until I want to buy plane tickets... all my tickets home cost more than this amount
I try to use my UK card which has an adequate limit, but all the US travel webiste don't accept them. And when I go to UK sites I pay more......
Bastards
Higer stakes items like computer parts are just a crime waiting to happen...without even throwing in the international aspect of it. As a vendor, it really isn't worth it.
:-)
To be able to accept International CCs ya need to assume risk. I'm pretty sure you've probably looked at the mom and pop stores at Pricewatch and assumed you can get these pricing. Most of the times these are very small stores hoping to make enough to break even and hoping (mistakenly) that their prices are going to keep ya coming back...but most pricewatch buyers like myself never shop at the same place twice
I've had this dilemma myself. I run a music site that has a very narrow audience, but half the audience is australian and half US. We've thought about setting up shop, but the whole international thing is kicking us in the ass. If you are a US Merchant, good luck finding a company at reasonable rates that allows ya to sell internationally. Accepting CCs at all is a risky undertaking. The CC Companies want to promote the use of their cards everywhere but don't want to take any responsibility for any problems.
If you are a vendor and someone says they never got anything and you can prove that someone signed for it, its still your word against theirs. The CC Company will side with the end user every time. Someone gets their card stolen and someone buys something with it, still your problem. Someone buys something doesn't like it and returns it, its your problem and you have a mark against you for having a return.
If you have too many returns or fraudlent activity, the company that should have been checking for this crap in the first place will slap you with a fine. Great...first it never effected that company financially at all THEN they turn around and make extra proffit from you by charging you because they weren't paying attention.
Add this to the fact that when you are talking about CC Orders from a US Merchant to an address outside of the states, you are talking fraud rates in excess of 50%...there are areas where CC Companies tell you not to send products to at all because its almost 100% fraud rate. If you are shipping to a US Address, you can check up on the address where the product is going through AVS - Address Verification System. I've heard it just doesn't work in any other country because of either archaic systems or arcane laws protecting users privacy (heh! Folks think they should be able to use an insecure system to trade / barter goods with one that protects the buyer -- but they don't want to share any privacy with the ones your are buying from...if ya don't trust them why are you buying from them).
There are a lot of reasons why this probably won't happen, though someone will have probably posted a URL to a place that does by the time I'm finished typing. Good luck getting your products. Remember if you really want this crap and you've used your current crappy machine for 4 years, find what ya want, send an email to the guys selling what ya want and see if they will accept a personal check or money order. It will probably take longer and it doesn't offer you as much protection as buying with a CC, but you can get it that way...
I really shouldn't feed the troll, but...
I'd love to see you trying to write anything in Brazilian Portuguese. Anything, mr. High-and-mighty. I have never heard an American speak good Portuguese. It's always horribly broken, and generally much worse than a Brazilian speaking English.
Speaking as a Brazilian myself, I have been complimented several times on my English. My team at work can travel abroad and communicate with absolutely no problems. I'd like to see how well you'd do here in Brazil, trying to communicate in Portuguese.
I was in your situation, around 6 months ago. I made purchases in Outpost.com and Amazon.com. Both accepted my Brazilian credit card cheerfully, and sent the items to my friend's hotel room with no problems.
Maybe you won't find motherboards on them, but most other hardware (drives, sound boards, etc.) can be found at these stores.
At the risk of showing my age, "first world" was the developed democracies, "second world" was the presumably developed former Soviet bloc, "third world" was everyone else.
Over time, "third world" came to be used to mean developing countries, and "fourth world" was introduced to describe the economic and political basket cases.
Before someone jumps on my "presumably developed" description, at the time these terms were first used you couldn't travel anywhere in the Soviet bloc without an Intourist "guide." Some of the descriptions of vacations in the Breznev-era Soviet Union are as hilarious as they are sad. The spies got outside of the Potemkin villages, but they weren't talking.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
I wouldn't say that it's as bad as all that. I run KDE 2.1 on an old 486-75 laptop and it gets along just fine. Granted, everything is a lot more fun on my Athlon Desktop machine, but it's a little heavy to set on my lap.
________________________
I don't want free as in beer. I just want free beer.
Um, PayPal requires you to have a US billing address for your credit card...
And can also have problems when you have a US billing address but a card issued by a non-US bank (even if the parent bank is American). Ah, the joys I had with MBNA
Use PayPal to send your friend some money, he can pick it up with his credit card, and then get you the parts you need on his card with your money. That is, if PayPal takes credit cards. Else you could mail him an international money order, or some equivalent of an international bankers cheque. I'm sure there are a couple ways of getting him some money, so he could do the purchasing for you.
-Josh
Aren't they international? Of course I don't know how great their mb/cpu selection is (I just got a router from them). Well, anyway, good luck! Another idea, and maybe one easier to swing where you are, would be to get a K6-2/3 chip (provided your MB is one of those super7 boards (socket 7, up to 100 fsb if the term isn't familiar)), that could give you a factor of two or more increase in cpu speed.
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I know this doesn't answer the international CC question, but it may provide a solution for you in the short term. I am using a 233 P2, and I feel your pain!
Golly, it was only about two years ago that the most common Linux tagline was "and you don't even need the latest hardware to run it... a 486 is fine and a P233 is a dream come true". Shucks, these days a guy almost needs a PII/400 just to run the latest windowmanagers, desktop environments, and web browsers. *sigh*
Here are some ideas. Note: transaction fees (often based on the amount) will likely apply.
Idea #1; Get the cash: Don't have the cash (and that's why you want to use your credit card)? When in Italy, I needed some cash, went to a bank, and got a cash advance on my (USA) credit card. You may also be able to do this with an ATM (Automated Teller Machine), too.
Idea #2: Wire the cash. Have you tried to wire the money from your bank to your friend's checking account in the USA? I've wired funds several times from my USA checking account to a friend's (USA) checking account. May also be known as "Electronic Funds Transfer", "Bank Wire".
Idea #3: Send cash as Traveler's Checks. Purchase traveler's checks with the cash. (American Express is probably the most well-known provider in the USA and has offices around the world.) Then send (e.g. Federal Express) the traveler's checks to your friend who can use them like cash to deposit in her account. Then, ask her to purchase the items for you and bring them (or ship them) to you.
Idea #4: Western Union. Here, in the USA, I've needed to quickly send funds to a friend (also in the USA). I'm sure there are other such providers around, but this is the only one that comes to mind at the moment. Show up at a branch office, fill out a form designating the recipient and receiving location, provide them the cash, and then your friend can pick up the money at the designated location.
Idea #5: Have friend purchase with her CC. Then reimburse her when she gets to you with the items. (See Item #1 if cash is an issue for you.) Others have suggested this, but I included it here for completeness.
Best of luck to you, and PLEASE let us know if/how you were successful!
He is not an American, just a thick Mick (like a Polack but even more dumb)
The best book I ever read
Second world? I know Brazil was always a bit pink, but I would never have called them Soviet Bloc. It seems you are mis-using the term, "second world", which is not surprising considering the level of education of the average citizen of Brazil. Do a web search on the term and educate yourself.
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