Best way to pay Mandarake?

aethel · Post by **aethel** » Sun Oct 11, 2009 2:31 pm

Hi guys,

Since I entered almost-dormant collecting state before Mandarake started doing online auctions, I've never bought something online from them before. But now I am bidding on something with a hefty price tag on BWA, and a few percentage points in exchange rates will matter.

I don't have a Discover card. What have people found to be the best way to pay for their yen purchases? I understand Mandarake takes paypal, but I've also read that credit card companies have started considered even USD transactions from paypal "foreign transactions" if it touches a foreign bank somewhere, and slapping their fees on them (in addition to paypal's exchange fee). I don't want to get hit with exchange fees twice.

What have people found to incur the minimum foreign currency hit?

choka162 · Post by **choka162** » Sun Oct 11, 2009 7:29 pm

I've always used my debit card. The first time it took forever to post (almost 2 months) but there was no fee. The last time I payed it posted much faster but my bank charged me an additional fee for a foreign purchase. I think it was around $6?

If you want to lock in a certain yen rate it may be better to pay with paypal and live with the fees. It seems like billing wise mandrake can be slow to run things through. Especially BWA from what I've heard.

But I've only bought a couple of things from them so someone more experienced might feel differently.

ginga123 · Post by **ginga123** » Sun Dec 27, 2009 10:44 pm

I recently used PayPal to pay Mandarake for an Everyday Web Auction in hopes that the money will be debited a bit faster out of my account than just using my debit card. It's the first time I've used PP for their auctions-- let's see how if the wait will go faster.

Sky Rat · Post by **Sky Rat** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 12:06 am

I don't recommend sending a money order. I paid for a rather small order directly from their website with one (not an auction) back before they were accepting paypal. They claimed they did not receive it and I had to file for a refund from the post office and send a new payment. Then, after I re-paid for it, they found my 'lost' money order and cashed it in anyway, even though at that point my order was already paid for. I had to pay the post office back the money they refunded me, and thus I ended up paying the Mandarake twice and there was nothing I could do about it. That experience caused me to avoid doing online business with them for several years. Now that they accept credit cards and paypal I've been considering going back to buying from them, but I would definitely not do it via money order ever again.

Iâ€™m not trying to put anyone off of buying from the Mandarake. Iâ€™ve done a lot of business with them directly from their physical shops, and theyâ€™re an awesome dealer. I just think paying by mail is too risky. Even if there is an extra charge for credit card/paypl I think it would be worth it.

ginga123 · Post by **ginga123** » Fri Jan 01, 2010 1:11 pm

Wow, I'm quite impressed with the Mandarake PayPal payment option. My PayPal payment went through on the 29th. I don't think my bank has charged me an additional fee for doing this. I only see the amount I paid.

Now, I don't have to worry about them receiving their payment a month later using the credit card option. I am happy about this and think I'll stick to this option.

ainominako · Post by **ainominako** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 10:50 pm

I haven't used my cc to pay for anything on Mandarake but I have used it to purchase from HMV. I used a Visa card and the only thing I noticed was the exchange rate underneath the transaction. Visa didn't seem to charge me anything extra...and if they did it was an incredibly small amount.