Betamax voip - cheapest way of getting credit?

martyp

This is going to sound super miserly (is there an award for being this bad???!) but...

I want to get the 10 Euros minimum credit but aren't sure of the cheapest way to pay as they add on crafty extras at checkout (handling fee + 19% VAT(??))
Total is then 12.61 Euros.

I'm watching the variations in exchange rates on https://www.xe.com but no signs of it getting better...

They accept payment in credit/debit cards, bank transfer and Paypal. All seem to have varying fees. Paypal will charge £10.54 (today £10.56) for the transaction.

I'm considering doing a bank transfer (Cahoot) into a service by https://www.xe.com as a test and they convert it at the best exchange rate so in effect it should cost even less.

Can anyone advise or suggest what might be the cheapest method? In theory, Paypal or credit cards would incur costs to them so they'd charge the handling fee in respect?

Paul_Varjak

Get a Nationwide debit or credit card. They offer the bext exchange rate, plus they don't charge any fees for the Euro transaction.

Betamax do add a handling charge of course and the 19% VAT is the rate applicable (rather than the 17.5% in the UK).

The main problem is now the poor exchange rate of the British Pound!

Just make sure you choose a Betamax service that gives 120 days for your 10 Euros (some give only 30, 60 or 90 days). Also, some of the Betamax offerings have sneekily introduced a charge for calling UK landlines! I have been using SMSDiscount and Poivy and both of these now charge for calls to UK landlines.

If you have an unlimited calls package on your landline, you can use many of Betamax products on your landline to make free international calls -so you don't have to rely on your computer being on to make free calls.

Look here to find the best Betamax product for you:

http://progx.ch/home-voip-prixbetamax-3-1-0.html

BexTech

19% is the German VAT rate now (previously 16%)

Sign up with a non-EU address such as the USA and not pay any VAT.

Paul_Varjak

BexTech wrote: »

19% is the German VAT rate now (previously 16%)

Sign up with a non-EU address such as the USA and not pay any VAT.

BexTech wrote:

It's got not gotten...

If you can claim to live in USA then you can certainly say GOTTEN!

BexTech

Paul_Varjak wrote: »

If you can claim to live in USA then you can certainly say GOTTEN!

.

redux

BexTech wrote: »

Sign up with a non-EU address such as the USA and not pay any VAT.

That might cause other problems, for example in the choice of payment options.

martyp

Paul_Varjak wrote: »

The main problem is now the poor exchange rate of the British Pound!

Indeed, I'm kicking myself now thinking about 4 days ago it would get better, it's gone totally the opposite. Through Paypal at least the difference is about 50 already just over a few days!

martyp

I'm hoping to try the money transfer feature of https://www.xe.com as they claim to guarantee the rate of anywhere else.
That 19% VAT thing, how come we'd have to pay that in the UK? I'm lost on that, I thought if for example you bought products in France you wouldn't pay any tax on it as you're not a resident of the country charging the tax?

Graham1

Are you sure xe.com is a viable way of sending small payments ? Their FAQs say EFT sending of funds is only available for USA and Canada, and they charge €15 for Euro wire transfers. So the only viable option is cheques (do Betamax companies accept cheques ?)

Yes unfortunately VAT is EU-wide, only EU entities which are VAT registered in their own country can escape other EU countries VAT charges.

martyp

I think debit card might be ok, as the total charges by that method would be 12.50 Euros as opposed to 12.61 Euros on Paypal. The exchange rate on Paypal seems to be worse than on reuters etc. Not sure if they charge a bit extra on top or not.
You're right about XE, wire transfers are expensive although a standard bank transfer is free. The only downer on that is that it can take 7-19 business days to process...

Saeed

martyp wrote: »

I think debit card might be ok, as the total charges by that method would be 12.50 Euros as opposed to 12.61 Euros on Paypal. The exchange rate on Paypal seems to be worse than on reuters etc. Not sure if they charge a bit extra on top or not.
You're right about XE, wire transfers are expensive although a standard bank transfer is free. The only downer on that is that it can take 7-19 business days to process...

I think you are overdoing the miserly part a bit. Debit card transactions usually have a 2.5% handling charge minimum 2.50 normally. I used some spare credit I had on a PAYG sim to credit my JustVoip account. Gits took £5 and gave me 4.30 Euros!