Buying via the Net ?????

Sorry can't help, I refuse to use E-bay.
May I also suggest that you cannot go to Malta and expect the same levels of access to resources and services which you have become used to.
Some may be available, many will not be.
Experience and enjoy!

@Redmik ... My second sentence in the post - I can adapt if necessary but, etc.

Thanks for the suggestion anyway and I too HATE Ebay but it often helps when being an expat looking for certain things not found in another country.   

redmik wrote:

Sorry can't help, I refuse to use E-bay.
May I also suggest that you cannot go to Malta and expect the same levels of access to resources and services which you have become used to.
Some may be available, many will not be.
Experience and enjoy!

Do you already have an ebay account?

@Myrkur

I closed my old bank in the United States because of constant problems with foreign exchange rates when I got to Spain and opened a new account with a financial institution here in Barcelona. ( that fails to have a branch in Malta )

My thought was to open a new Paypal and Ebay here but then I realized the problem when it was too late because their Sub - Domains ... with the ES extension only allow you to change the language to the site by changing your country location, then requiring numbers such as the routing information that are only valid to United States, United Kingdom, etc.

The payment preferences, if I remember correctly, allow you to have two different addresses when conducting transactions with one capable of being edited at any time to alert the seller of any special instructions for mailing things but at present I found no way to open a new membership, a new Paypal or whatever if not able to find a way there because my Spanish is too limited at this point to risk making a mistake translating something with the potential to cost me money.

Myrkur wrote:

Do you already have an ebay account?

I still use the same ebay account I created when I was living in Austria (with several ebay domains like .at/.de/.co.uk/.it) and I'm also using my Paypal account. In the personal data of my accounts I only changed the address and for Paypal I also changed the credit card number.

Moneytransfer (Internetbanking) within EU works fine with my maltese and also my austrian bank account without additional costs. Same for the money transfer between my two bank accounts.

Withdrawing money from ATMs ist also possible without extra costs with bot of my debit cards.

Regarding online shopping or banking activities I faced no problems until now (*knock-on-wood).
The only negative aspect is that you have to pay for shipping, even with amazon ... but at least the delivery is quite fast

Hey,
I personally purchase a lot on Ebay. Mostly UK and Germany. The market in malta is too small for Ebay to have their own site in Malta. It's not enough people and really not profitable and very likely not worth it. I would suggest sticking to the main sites of UK, DE and US when purchasing on Ebay.

However, if you still have a bank account in a foreign country and you link a paypal account to this bank account you won't have a problem.  I have kept all my bank accounts from Germany and Uk and also have a maltese one now too. However, I only use Uk and Germany one's for Ebay, they are linked to 2 separate Paypal accounts. UK one for Ebay.uk and a Germany one for all that is Euro Zone related. You will save on conversion rates doing this. Even though not completely within their guidelines, you can have more than one paypal account. They don't check or enforce that.

Ebay itself doesn't require you to have a bank account in Malta, nor does Paypal. The paypal address needs to be linked to the bank account address. However, you can just set your paypal address to a address in the same country the account is registered in. i.e. Spanish Paypal must be registered to a spanish card with a spanish address. This address however is not relevant for Ebay purchases. You can register your Ebay account in any country. When I purchase on Ebay, I usually point out my maltese address and that they should ignore my overseas address. (I'm not registered in any of the countries any more, and neither are my bank accounts, seems perfectly legit).

One thing to keep in mind though is, that unfortunately not many sellers ship to Malta. In most cases, you'll have to write to them and ask. Some do it, most don't. However, you still have the large Chinese Market where you can order cheap stuff from. Just keep the customs in mind. I haven't had any bad experiences with ordering from China, Hong Kong, etc.

Keep in mind as well, that you always have more to pay for postage here. It's far out and many things are harder to get. Research on the Internet is often worth a lot of money though.

Happy ebaying!
Laura

My wife buys a LOT from ebay (UK/US anyways most sellers are from China) and we don't have a problem.

Now, since you are a Non EU citizen opening a bank account in Malta you will have some issues opening a Bank Account in the beginning but you will manage.... HSBC will probably be the best choice for non-EU at least in my experience.

Sorry everybody but I accidentally missed a couple of the replies some people wrote me on this thread earlier in time and thanks to @Alf007 for adding more information that I managed to receive, then notice the previous comments.

@MATM911 ...

Thanks for the advice about the postage and the other information but my problem is my home bank account ( in the United States ) was closed while abroad with no recourse because I failed to know about it at the time.

Please let me use your Austria one !!!!

Sorry because I needed to throw a joke in there but yes, I do know you can order things anywhere in the world and just change the post address with the seller, that particular transaction - just not an available option for me.

matm911 wrote:

I still use the same ebay account I created when I was living in Austria (with several ebay domains like .at/.de/.co.uk/.it) and I'm also using my Paypal account. In the personal data of my accounts I only changed the address and for Paypal I also changed the credit card number.

Moneytransfer (Internetbanking) within EU works fine with my maltese and also my austrian bank account without additional costs. Same for the money transfer between my two bank accounts.

Withdrawing money from ATMs ist also possible without extra costs with bot of my debit cards.

Regarding online shopping or banking activities I faced no problems until now (*knock-on-wood).
The only negative aspect is that you have to pay for shipping, even with amazon ... but at least the delivery is quite fast

@MIO ...

I appreciate the advice about asking the sellers if they deliver to Malta before completing a transaction and was curious if you think searching the .IT ( Italy ) domain for Ebay would be a better option ???????

Sorry about the late response BUT THANKS FOR TAKING TIME TO PROVIDE A THOROUGH EXPLANATION.

Please forgive me but I learned something else unrelated while reading your post - the appearance of the England flag, because I usually just see the United Kingdom.

mio wrote:

Hey,
I personally purchase a lot on Ebay. Mostly UK and Germany. The market in malta is too small for Ebay to have their own site in Malta. It's not enough people and really not profitable and very likely not worth it. I would suggest sticking to the main sites of UK, DE and US when purchasing on Ebay.

However, if you still have a bank account in a foreign country and you link a paypal account to this bank account you won't have a problem.  I have kept all my bank accounts from Germany and Uk and also have a maltese one now too. However, I only use Uk and Germany one's for Ebay, they are linked to 2 separate Paypal accounts. UK one for Ebay.uk and a Germany one for all that is Euro Zone related. You will save on conversion rates doing this. Even though not completely within their guidelines, you can have more than one paypal account. They don't check or enforce that.

Ebay itself doesn't require you to have a bank account in Malta, nor does Paypal. The paypal address needs to be linked to the bank account address. However, you can just set your paypal address to a address in the same country the account is registered in. i.e. Spanish Paypal must be registered to a spanish card with a spanish address. This address however is not relevant for Ebay purchases. You can register your Ebay account in any country. When I purchase on Ebay, I usually point out my maltese address and that they should ignore my overseas address. (I'm not registered in any of the countries any more, and neither are my bank accounts, seems perfectly legit).

One thing to keep in mind though is, that unfortunately not many sellers ship to Malta. In most cases, you'll have to write to them and ask. Some do it, most don't. However, you still have the large Chinese Market where you can order cheap stuff from. Just keep the customs in mind. I haven't had any bad experiences with ordering from China, Hong Kong, etc.

Keep in mind as well, that you always have more to pay for postage here. It's far out and many things are harder to get. Research on the Internet is often worth a lot of money though.

Happy ebaying!
Laura

@ALF007 ...

Thanks for reading between the lines and for the advice because I definitely think I need a Malta bank account to avoid future problems.

Alf007 wrote:

My wife buys a LOT from ebay (UK/US anyways most sellers are from China) and we don't have a problem.

Now, since you are a Non EU citizen opening a bank account in Malta you will have some issues opening a Bank Account in the beginning but you will manage.... HSBC will probably be the best choice for non-EU at least in my experience.