Paying an overseas seller by bank transfer?

sprintstar

Has anyone done this? I'm thinking of buying a fairly high value item from ebay Germany, the seller doesn't take paypal but most non-professional sellers on the continent don't seem to but that doesn't particularly worry me, but other than sending cash I think my only option is a bank transfer. How would I go about setting one up? Are there any other complications that make it different from a bank transfer from within the UK?

soolin

Check how much your bank will charge. I have been quoted between £7 and £12 for a small transfer of funds to a European destination.

Soo

pulliptears

Yep, done it a few times, including Germany. The fee was about £7 from memory but this was last year.

sprintstar

OK thanks, lost out on the bidding in the end sadly. For future reference though do they have the same system of you just needing a sort code and account number to make a payment?

doingwhatican

No, if you are making a transfer to a bank in europe you will be supplied with the account number, sort code, BIC No and an IBAN number. These are the details you need to make the payment. You will have to go into your branch and fill in a form to make the payment and they will give you that days exchange rate for the transfer. There are then several levels of payment you can pay for, the cheapest being 10 or so working days and around £7, the next is aroun 4 working days for about £15 and the most expensive is chaps, which is same day but this is quite expensive.

syanide

you need the account details and the IBAN number.. but make sure that this isnt a scam first ...

Thefunkygibbons

Some banks charge even more, so worth shopping around

dazza.mk

Check out https://www.auctionchex.com (frequently recommended on the eBay forums)

Chuckman

Earlier this years I did a bank transfer to Poland for a CD I won on Ebay and the Halifax charged me £14 for the amount of £8. :eek:

The moral of my experience is to shop around and don't get caught out like I did.

sprintstar

Is it just a flat rate that the banks tend to charge then, as opposed to a certain percentage of the money being transferred?

soolin

sprintstar wrote:

Is it just a flat rate that the banks tend to charge then, as opposed to a certain percentage of the money being transferred?

It tends to be a flat rate which varies between banks.

Soo