Recommended UK escrow service

[bernard]

Af'noon all,

Has anyone had any good recent experiences with UK based domain name escrow services? From what I can tell there aren't a huge amount of them about - the usual suspects seem to be Escrow.com, Moniker and Sedo (only Sedo of which seems to have a UK presence, and I hear they can be pretty slow...).

The main reason for using a UK based service is to avoid to £-->$ and $-->£ conversion commission, and if I can pay by debit card rather than cheque/credit card/bank transfer then that would be good too.

And I obviously want to avoid the cowboys out there!!

If I didn't use Escrow what would the legalities be if for example ownership transferred in my domains host, I make payment, then the final transfer doesn't go through? Does having the domain in my control panel give me rights to the domain?

Thanks!!

 

[Rob_F]

Af'noon all,

Has anyone had any good recent experiences with UK based domain name escrow services? From what I can tell there aren't a huge amount of them about - the usual suspects seem to be Escrow.com, Moniker and Sedo (only Sedo of which seems to have a UK presence, and I hear they can be pretty slow...).

The main reason for using a UK based service is to avoid to £-->$ and $-->£ conversion commission, and if I can pay by debit card rather than cheque/credit card/bank transfer then that would be good too.

And I obviously want to avoid the cowboys out there!!

If I didn't use Escrow what would the legalities be if for example ownership transferred in my domains host, I make payment, then the final transfer doesn't go through? Does having the domain in my control panel give me rights to the domain?

Thanks!!

Sedo is the best bet for UK domains. You can do the transaction in GBP and they have the best understanding of how the .UK transfer process works. The only way to use a debit card would be to use PayPal to pay, and have your PayPal account funds pulled from the debit card. Sedo charge a 3% fee if you use PayPal for transactions over $500 (£500?) so it's often more cost effective to go to your bank and send a wire.

- Rob

 

[bernard]

Cool thanks a lot Rob, I guess Sedo is the way to go (although it does get mentioned wuite a lot that they tend to be quite slow...).

Anyone else have any recommendations? Being as this is predominantly a UK domains forum I'm guessing most transactions are done in £'s.....

Thanks.

 

[philiporchardphiliporchard is verified member.]

Only ever used ESCROW.com once

Hi,

Only ever used Escrow.com once. for a $1000 sale!

have since spent around £30k on domains buying privately and trusting the seller.

Recently sold as well without use of Escrow to a buyer in the US for $14k.

To be honest you can do so much research on the buyer or seller it puts your mind at rest, and, during negotiations, you get e feel for people you would be happy dealing with.

Just my opinion...

 

[bernard]

Well I think I'm going to give the Sedo escrow service a try, it's only £35 (or 3%)... I'll post back once the process is complete...

 

[TinkyWinky]

Escrow.com every time.

Especially if a non-UK buyer... have sold £100k+ through and NEVER had any problems.

They even called me at 11pm one friday night cos they weren't sure about the buyers intentions....

But hey everyone may have different stories good and bad!

Good luck.

 

[bernard]

Just in case anyone's interested I did end up using Sedo's escrow service and it all went very smoothly. The only holdup was waiting for money to transfer and getting forms to Nominet, other than that everything happened same day. Ended up very impressed with the service and will use again when I buy high cost domains in the future (well, high cost for me - £1k sounds like loose change for some of you guys!!).

Only problem is that as the account isn't in the UK you have to pay to send the money abroad (adding £21 for me to the cost), although it's a Sterling account so no conversion fees.