I know many of you use AliExpress so I want to call your attention to this. Lately, purchases made on AliExpress using PayPal to charge to a Chase (and perhaps others) credit card have been getting hit with a $10 “transaction fee”. Apparently it’s something to the effect of the way AliExpress handles PayPal transactions, it’s marked as a cash advance. Some people have had success getting the fee waived by Chase, some not.
The moral seems to be, don’t use PalPal with a credit card on AliExpress.
They and other companies have been doing it for years as they sometimes have to wait months for some credit companies to pay out.
The true moral is if you have to use credit you can’t afford it… so build it or fake it.
It’s never happened to me before, on AliExpress or anywhere else. This is new.
I’ve only ever had to use a credit card with Ali express twice. Both were large volume orders for a banking project I was contracted to. Both got hit with service charges by the vendor and one with an additional transaction charge labeled credit handling. I think it may be to cover some insurance from fraud.
Perhaps they have lowered the threshold recently.
I don’t have to use credit, but my credit is free 0% and my real available funds make 4.5% …
Never noticed anything on my paypal account
Who is Chase?
Rob
Credit and credit card companies have been through several transformations in the last 30 years. Your 0% is a direct result of faster banking transactions. So the company can “add value” without it costing the credit company any money. However the world of vendors is a very fractured and regional affair. American Express is a good example. The brand is global but in Asia Pacific there is no amex company just local franchises. The financial companies who trade under the local regs do not have the same infrastructure. My Hong Kong amex card was unusable outside Asia. My Australian Amex didn’t work in the uk. And if a bought online from the Philippines I’d get charged a bundle.
Then PayPal like most banks, thanks to ever growing deregulation, added their own credit services including the buy now only pay on arrival which is a massive kick to the nackers to small businesses in Europe and the Americas but to china its a massive kick followed by a mugging.
They don’t have any guarantees in the same way we do. Every sale costs them more if they don’t get the cash up front.
Lastly, my aversion to credit may be a Scots stereotype but I find it an excellent way to keep my hobbies in check. If it makes financial sense to use a credit card at 0% then do so. I spent years smoozing my corporate credit cards at 0%, switching to a new card the 0% almost every year. But now with balance transfer rates up that’s all over.
In my day job I’ve spent over 25 years in financial publishing and services all over the world for multinationals and in that time I’ve seen horrors caused by credit. My last contract was helping Ulster Bank claw back money and houses from the thousands of Irish who bought new homes on interest only mortgages only to have the global credit crunch mean they couldn’t afford to keep them (my least favorite job ever).
So in my opinion the many faiths that don’t allow usury have it right; it’s a filthy trade the only hurts the vulnerable.
Rant over… be safe x
I only “Clicked” with Smoozing, recently… should have realised years ago and would have save £0000’s . it will help me reach my goal of paying the mortgage off by the time I am 50 (4 years I believe)
I don’t use paypl credit though.
My day job is I.T. Infrastructure for one of the top UK Mortgage lenders, So I read the Business updates. Fortunately we are a supportive organisation and seek to remediate our members issues before the escalte past the point of no return.
I have never used PayPal with AliExpress.
They seem to offer a plethora of local payment providers. So I just always use the Dutch “IDeal” system.
In Ireland the deals were so good and just a passport and a job got you a super cheap mortgage; thousands bought 2 or more, but after the crash the Irish banks had so much bad book on their plate the country was at risk. Many we got into repayment deals which saved the country but no one was unscathed. I spent time in the call centres and it made me sick to my stomach. Never again.