any danger to taking direct bank payment from overseas for a domain?

[Dreemer]

An overseas buyer (in Turkey, I am in the UK) wants to buy a domain name from me. We've agreed price ok. His english is not great so we have got to the stage where payment is going to be direct bank transfer. I had looked into escrow etc but no company has support in both languages and I could sense the deal dying at that stage, as it was too complicated for a non english speaker.

Is there any danger to taking direct bank transfer? I guess my nightmare would be I get full payment, transfer the domain name to his account and then days later there is some sort of issue with the payment and it is taken back etc.

Possibly I should wait "X" days between payment recieved and transfer of domain?
All thoughts as always appreciated.

[grynge]

Yes international bank transfers can be cancelled within a small period of time. You should ask you bank how long that period is. There was a scam here in australia a few years ago whereby they would deposit money into peoples accounts and then get those people to transfer a portion of that amount straight away into westernunion. Of course once the scammers had the westernunion money the originator of the transfer would cancel the transfer leaving the bank account holder out thousands of dollars.

[TheodoreK]

Since your buyer obviously operates from a location where internet exists in Turkey he probably has a lot of people around him that can speak decent English. Maybe you can suggest him to ask his son, neighbor or friend to translate for him?
That might allow him to use escrow and smooth things out.

Sadly my Turkish are probably worse than your buyer's English so I can't help you more directly

[DomainMagnate]

As far as I know international wire transfers are final and can't be reversed. I do a lot of them every month both on the receiving and sending end. It may take a couple days for the bank to confirm them, but once you see the money in your account it's final. Although I'm definitely no expert in this and that's just from my personal experience, so I'd suggest you also confirm this with your bank.

[ClaytonL]

I know craigslist always warns "FAKE CASHIER CHECKS & MONEY ORDERS ARE COMMON, and BANKS WILL CASH THEM AND THEN HOLD YOU RESPONSIBLE when the fake is discovered weeks later". Anyone know anything about it?

[Clinton]

Possibly I should wait "X" days between payment recieved and transfer of domain?

No! I recommend you don't base it on time lag. If you're UK based call your banker and confirm that the funds can't and won't be returned. Then and only then should you release the goods.

[Dreemer]

Thanks all, I will proceed warily, but optimistically

[grynge]

The more I looked into it, the less standardized it becomes, there is no set banking rule as far as I can find. So it all boils down to the recieving bank. Here in Australia our banks err on the side of caution and will honour cancellations for upto 3 working days after the transfer (some banks even 7 working days) other banks all have different rules different time periods and some won't return money. As most people have suggested contact your bank, make sure you are talking to someone who actually knows/works with international transactions and ask them. If possible get them to email/post/fax you their rules on the transfers so you have a written copy. Your average tellar will not have a clue.