email money transfer?

[lorelei]

Has anyone ever heard of this? I've got a customer in Canada trying to get a custom piece made for a wedding and she wants to use this as payment.
I see where it is fairly common in Canada, but I can't seem to find much about it in the States. (I will, of course, check with my bank on Tuesday, but was curious what people's personal experiences might be, and wanted to nip this exchange in the bud if it's some sort of scam)

thanks!

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/email-money-transfer.asp#axzz1ms1H8AGN

[MRice]

Just ask her to sign up for PayPal. How hard can that be?

[lorelei]

Just ask her to sign up for PayPal. How hard can that be?

I don't think it is, but some people have very strong reasons for not wanting to support paypal. (also, given paypal's policies and tendencies to unquestionably support the buyer, even in obvious cases of fraud, I wouldn't use them if I thought there was a viable alternative. That is why I use Square in person)

[Brandy]

you can punch numbers into square even if the card isn't present.  the charge per "swipe" is a bit higher, but it's possible.  The info can be given over the phone, punched in, and voila--financial transaction complete.   Would they be willing to do that?

[strawberrythief]

Ally Bank offers an email money transfer - It's called Popmoney...

http://community.ally.com/straight-talk/2011/06/ally-bank-announces-popmoney-an-easy-way-to-send-money/

I wish my bank had this service already. I absolutely hate Paypal, but we still use them from time to time because so many other folks do...