Ever been refused business because your country is 'high risk'?

[Bing]

I ran into the exact same thing trying to get some World Cup kit sent over from the U.K. My Canadian ccard company outright refused to process the transaction until I called their fraud department and proved I was who I said I was, and got them to un-redflag my transaction. It was nuts!

In the end I had to send an international bank transfer denominated in pounds, which took a LOT longer than originally intended. I was not a happy camper.

I'll second this. I bought some stuff from an eBay seller in the UK. They didn't take PayPal but they did provide a phone # so one could call them and they would run a CC through over the phone. Umm, no thanks.

I ended up sending a CanadaPost money order payable in £. I never received my merchandise, the vendor emailed me repeatedly complaining about the MO. After 90 days I had CanadaPost run a trace and the MO had been cashed, despite the vendor's protests to the contrary. I filed an eBay complaint and I think the vendor has since been kicked off.

CanadaPost could do nothing about the MO, they would only replace it if it had gone missing and had not been cashed. I was told by the local Postmaster that they will no longer issue a MO payable in £ for mail to the UK, way too much fraud going on.

[Lallans]

I'm finding that it's increasingly rare for a US company to accept an order from Canada. It's understandable if the company doesn't want to get involved with export to here (which costs extra for shipping and which some clearly believe is illegal on the face of it), but the problem is just as bad even when the shipping destination is within the USA. This makes it really hard to send gifts to US friends and relatives, or to buy things for myself that aren't available in Canada. No one has told me that they suspect fraud but that of course has to be in play even though there are of course safety mechanisms for such things. It's ironic for us Canucks that now that the Canadian dollar is nearly at par with the US one and so many US companies are in reach (thanks to the internet) that US companies are suddenly declining our orders. I've been thinking this was some sort of legacy of 9-11 but whatever the cause, it would be great if things went back to what we thought was 'normal'. And meantime for gifts there's always LL Bean and Amazon and FTD and the other mega-humoungous companies that know and love me and money.

[Bing]

I'm finding that it's increasingly rare for a US company to accept an order from Canada. .....No one has told me that they suspect fraud but that of course has to be in play even though there are of course safety mechanisms for such things. (

I have a friend who's into vintage Ducati racing motorcycles. He found one for sale on the 'net, and after repeated email and telephone discussions with the seller they came to an agreement. And that's when the fun started.

The seller would NOT accept the following as payment:

1: a certified cheque or bank draft in US funds
2: US cash purchased at a Canadian bank
3: Anything other than US cash purchased at a US bank and accompanied with the corresponding paperwork attesting to the fact that the cash was in fact purchased in the lower 48.

This caused major hassles for my friend who had to withdraw a large sum of Canadian cash and then cross the border and find a US bank willing to complete the transaction. There are laws about carrying large sums of money across borders and these include reporting requirements to both the Canadian and US governments. Persons are warned that carrying large sums can be stopped at the borders and subsequently forfeit the cash on suspicion of illegal activity.

In the end it all worked out and when he picked up the bike the seller told him that she had been specifically warned by her bank manager about doing business with Canadians because we had an "unstable and suspicious" banking industry.

Can you believe that? Our federal government did not have to pour hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars into our banks to keep them afloat, the G8 points to our banking system as a model of stability, our banks are among the most consistently profitable publicly traded corporations in our country, yet some bank manager in a small town in Ohio decries us as "unstable and suspicious".

[CDNSushi]

... the seller told him that she had been specifically warned by her bank manager about doing business with Canadians because we had an "unstable and suspicious" banking industry...

Complete and utter bollocks! And shame on the moron who would propagate such lies and misinformation. She has NO business being a bank manager. I won't even get into the number of ways this is preposterously false, but there are even cross-border banks that operate both in the U.S. and Canada. In fact, I have an account there and I can transfer my money seamlessly across the border just by logging into EITHER my Canadian OR American Internet banking account.

http://www.rbc.com

'Nuff said.

[jeremy j starche]

That is just insane ...

I frequently ship to Canada, via standard post. Buyer is responsible for any fees on the Canadian end.

Its a bit of extra paper work for me, so I charge $10 above actual shipping costs to handle the transaction

The only real trouble I have is that my credit card machine can't take Canadian mailing addresses, so I fail the address match (which means the credit card company takes a heavier bite).

90% of my packages are under UDS$20, but still ...

[Lallans]

Very interesting Bing, and it explains a lot. I tried to order a $19 book from a small US publisher and they emailed me back with a nasty message demanding among other things a photocopy of my credit card. I thought THEY were the scheming crooks, now I know it must have been ME.

[Andy Proffitt]

Complete and utter bollocks! And shame on the moron who would propagate such lies and misinformation. She has NO business being a bank manager. I won't even get into the number of ways this is preposterously false, but there are even cross-border banks that operate both in the U.S. and Canada. In fact, I have an account there and I can transfer my money seamlessly across the border just by logging into EITHER my Canadian OR American Internet banking account.

http://www.rbc.com

'Nuff said.

I would say her quote was the result of recent activity in Canada, not really the Canadian Banking system as a whole, Recently there have been a huge rash of fraud cases coming from Canada, or rather routing through Canada and on to other countries.
At my bank we routinely have to shut down the UK (and the Isle of Man) due to huge volumes of fraud coming in on merchant and private cardholder accounts. The first time we shut the UK down the problem wasn't noted for 2 1/2 hours.....it cost in the 5 figures! The card companies are going to make the individual banks (not the cardholders, merchants or themselves) eat the fraud losse, so banks have no choice but to lock countries out, or lock their own doors for good.
Singapore, the UK, Canada, the US, the Isle of Man, Nigeria, Bosnia etcetcetc, are on the State Depts. hot list for money laundering, along with most of Eastern and Western Europe.
Don't feel slighted though, residents of Canada. Canada blocked the US last month, and caused a great amount of concern for some nice people from Ottawa who were at my motel and panicked because their card was declined at check in, and they thought they were going to have to sleep in their car (I value hospitality, so they got the room, and I told them to mail me a check so they wouldn't use up their cash for their trip home).
It's just a sad product of modern commerce.

[Lallans]

It would be easier not to feel slighted if the businesses in question didn't aggressively treat every hapless Canuck as if WE were the crooks. In that regard, a simple explanation of the concern, making it generic and not personal, would help. Anyway, the Canuckistanian governement is always looking for ways to prevent cross-border shopping and this must be a gift to those folks