❓ Before you trade

How do I pay a new supplier in China without losing the deposit?

The 30% deposit to a factory you have never met is where small importers get burned. Escrow with milestones is how you pay without going first.

A 30% deposit by wire to a supplier you found online is a loan with no collateral. If the factory never ships, changes the terms mid-production, or sends something that is not what you ordered, the wire is gone and your leverage is gone with it. Letters of credit solve this for big orders, but banks rarely make them worthwhile under tens of thousands of dollars. Escrow with milestones is the tool for the order in between.

The shape of the deal

  1. 1You and the supplier agree the terms in writing: product spec, quantities, dates, what counts as "delivered" for each stage.
  2. 2You fund the escrow for the first milestone (for example the deposit). The supplier sees that the money is there but cannot touch it.
  3. 3When the milestone is met (production started, pre-shipment inspection passed, goods shipped with documents), you release that milestone. The next one works the same way.
  4. 4If something goes wrong, either side opens a dispute and an arbiter decides on the evidence, with the reason in writing. Nobody can quietly change the terms after funding.

What iEscrow does and does not do here

What is held
Crypto, typically USDT or USDC. iEscrow does not hold fiat, so this works when the supplier accepts crypto, which is increasingly common for cross-border suppliers. If the factory only accepts T/T to its bank, this is not your tool.
Business Escrow
A private room between the two companies, invitation only, with the written agreement, the milestones and an arbiter assigned from the start or only if a dispute appears.
Inspection
Tie the balance to a passed pre-shipment inspection by making it the milestone condition. The money is funded before the inspection, released after it.
Fees
Business Escrow fees are a percentage of the deal, by tier. See Fees.
Escrow protects the payment, not the quality of what you get. The spec you write into the agreement is what the arbiter reads. "500 units as per sample #3, inspection report by X" beats "500 units".

If your supplier asked you to pay outside Alibaba to a Hong Kong account, that is exactly the situation Trade Assurance does not cover and escrow does: the same deal, with the money held until each stage is done.

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