Online business how to take euro payments?

chintanm78

Hi all,

I have searched through the forums to no avail. I own a small UK based online business which takes payment in euros as most businesses using our service are in the eurozone. However looking into the charges it seems ludricrous that there are no competitive business bank accounts out there. My bank HSBC charge 6€ to recieve a transfer into a euro account which also costs 2.50/month. And to make payments well lets not go there !!!! This charge incidently disappears if the sender uses my complete IBAN number and SWIFT code. Obviously there is also a long delay in the money being cleared. Of course you need to make payments its a business account so I'm stuck with those charges too.

I have checked out paypal - great for small amounts but on a transaction of 1000€ they take 34€ ! As we are a new business HSBC won't accept us for a merchant account and they also seem to be incredibly costly. Looked into money bookers great for people who have a house abroad incidently ! But there are limits on transfer amounts.

Is there any english bank out there - citibank seem to do only personal euro accounts - has anyone tried a reputable bank within the eurozone maybe ireland - are the charges any more competitive ?

It seems crazy to me that the UK probobaly does a large percentage of business with europe that it is not set-up banking wise to do business with it and small businesses like us bear the brunt of it !

bridiej

I'm going to copy this into anything else to see if you get more response.

chintanm78

thanks a million it all gets very confusing and I have spent almost a whole morning searching online and it seems quite fundamental to small business in europe