Forum Moderators: buckworks
I am a student from India, and would like your points of view on a certain issue.
The process for online payments is that if I am in the US and I pay through a credit card, then there is an entire process which goes through entailing the credit card issuer, the merchant bank and finally the bank account of the person who has to receive the payment.
My question is this. If I have a credit card from American Express, can I go to them and tell them to directly transfer the money into a persons bank account, say someone in China (and I am in the US). Won't this be a much more convenient setup for both me and my friend in China (who does NOT have an online system).
Theoretically, I already have a credit limit which I can use to purchase anything. Then supposing I have already decided to make a purchase from China of say $10,000, why can't I go to American express and tell them to transfer it into my Chinese friend's account. If there were an online payment system set up by him, then his merchant bank would tell American express to transfer the money into an account. Why can't I tell American express directly to do so in case the online facility is not there.
Apologies if the question seems juvenile in nature but I have limited knowledge of international credit card transactions (especially US related)
thanks
There are proper ways to move such large sums, but they aren't designed for convenience.
Welcome to WebmasterWorld
Do any of you international types see any use for the transaction he is suggesting other than for money laundering purposes? Interesting that his example involved $10,000 which is when heavy duty reporting requirements kick in (in the U.S. and some other countries).
The biggest issue that I see in rajathooda123's proposed system is the ambiguity of the person who would be receiving funds. In this example that person is outside the system - they haven't been verified, they don't have a known direct deposit account, etc., etc.
If you think fraud is a tough issue now.... imagine it with a system like this. Yikes!
If for whatever reason they don't or won't (which would raise a number of huge red flags to me, and probably AMEX as well), then your other option is to take a cash advance on your credit card and wire the money to the company.
