Being payed from someone in US (I'm in UK).. How to avoid fees!!!

legmog

Hi people

I have recently done some visual media work for someone in the US. The job is now complete and now the issue of payment has arisen.

In the past when I did a similar job, they sent me a cheque through the post... However the bank charged me for conversion fee's when I cashed the cheque...

So this time around we attempted PayPal (I've never received any money through Paypal before so I was going in somewhat blind).

It also turns out that Paypal applies a sort of fee when receiving money. Although only around 3%, in this case, that amounts to nearly 90 pounds lost to fees!


So my question is.... How can I receive payment from abroad WITHOUT paying a hefty fee for the privilege!!

Thanks

atush

A wire transfer will be cheaper than paypal, and even cheaper again if you both have good online banking.

G_M

It may also help if sender/receiver use the same bank (HSBC?).

Are they sending £ or $? Exchange rates used can make a difference as well as fees.

atush

With HSBC, it costs me only 9 quid to send a WT to the US or Canada via online banking.

mgdavid

there's no Paypal fee for money sent as a Gift and flagged as such

atush

there is no fee perhaps, but it has a conversion percentage to change the money of 3% I beleive.

In any case this isn't a gift?

jimjames

I recently received some money for some video that was licenced to one of the US news networks. After a lot of chasing it was paid by bank transfer which seemed reasonable in the end. Once the exchange rate was taken into account the fee paid was £10. I believe this is also a fixed fee not a percentage.