Payment methods when Buying from Germany/Austria

Wig

digerati wrote: »

An Austrian bank will levy quite high charges to accept a French cheque (or any paper-based method of payment issued on a non-AustroGerman bank). Instead I suggest the following:

Login to your French bank's website and choose bank transfer (Transfert bancaire), select international and enter the recipient's BIC + IBAN details. For bank charges (Frais à la charge du) you should select Shared charges (Frais partagés). It's very quick - normally payments between France and the rest of the EU only take one to two business days at most.

Use the eBay auction number as a reference to help the seller match your details with the sale.

Hope this helps! :-)

That's an interesting idea, I'll look into it thank you.

soolin

Wig wrote: »

That's an interesting idea, I'll look into it thank you.

The only problem with shared charges is that the seller is going to be expecting his payment in full as he would from another Euro zone country.

Wig

soolin wrote: »

The only problem with shared charges is that the seller is going to be expecting his payment in full as he would from another Euro zone country.

Yeah, I wasn't going to do the shared charges bit, just going to find out how much it would be from a French bank as there would be no exchange rate rip offs.

Tirian

Wig wrote: »

Interesting,

I pay £2.50 fee
plus 2.5% for same currency transaction (because I deny them the possibility to charge me on an exchange rate)
plus 3.5% because I pay them by paypal

So for a £60 purchase

£2.50
£1.50
£2.10

Total = £6.10 Still a heck of a lot just to pay someone.

Looking further at their website, I see that it is possible to send them a cheque thus negating the paypal fee and the same currency fee, but they will then charge the exchange rate fee which I have calculated at about 8.5%....so it's cheaper to pay by paypal in the currency of the destination.

They do appear to have good customer support in their forum
http://www.itsfree4u.co.uk/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=2

True, their exchange rates are quite poor so you effectively subsidize your payment on that - but then again, Paypal's exchange rates aren't great either.

Auctionchex is pretty decent value for low value transactions (e.g. sub £50) - well, by far better value than the standard £12-£20 bank charge. To be brutally honest though, if you buy something from Europe without factoring in how much it's going to cost you to make the payment then that's no-one's problem but your own - if you get overexcited about saving a couple of pounds on the base price and don't stop to think about the full cost of the transaction then congratulations, you've just met the learning curve ...

The only other solution I can suggest (which I have used many times) is to simply send well concealed cash. Make sure you send notes only and send it sandwiched between some card so that no-one can tell what's in there. For added security, you could send registered - but only really so that you can tell it's been received as no postal service will insure cash. It's a risk, but for small amounts I would say it's one worth taking. I must have sent 20-30 payments of between 5 Euros and 120 Euros through the post, and all have arrived safe and well.

I also once received £220 cash in the post in payment - however I do think that is a little OTT. I don't think I would ever post anything £100+. I had some qualms about the 120 Euro one but bit the bullet and it turned out OK. Wouldn't necessarily do that again though.

aeuerby

I've just spoken to our bank (Abbey) about receiving money from holland and was told that as long as a box "cover all charges" is ticked by the sender, the receipient is not charged - regardless of which currency is used.

Wig

Tirian wrote: »

True, their exchange rates are quite poor so you effectively subsidize your payment on that - but then again, Paypal's exchange rates aren't great either.

So don't let paypal convert the money - use a Nationwide CC
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=382659

Auctionchex is pretty decent value for low value transactions (e.g. sub £50) - well, by far better value than the standard £12-£20 bank charge. To be brutally honest though, if you buy something from Europe without factoring in how much it's going to cost you to make the payment then that's no-one's problem but your own - if you get overexcited about saving a couple of pounds on the base price and don't stop to think about the full cost of the transaction then congratulations, you've just met the learning curve ...

Which is why I'm doing my homework before bidding

The only other solution I can suggest (which I have used many times) is to simply send well concealed cash. Make sure you send notes only and send it sandwiched between some card so that no-one can tell what's in there. For added security, you could send registered - but only really so that you can tell it's been received as no postal service will insure cash. It's a risk, but for small amounts I would say it's one worth taking. I must have sent 20-30 payments of between 5 Euros and 120 Euros through the post, and all have arrived safe and well.

I'll consider this option aswell but at the moment I'm thinking aucionchex for peace of mind.

Wig

digerati wrote: »

Not correct. The recipient will receive the full amount provided Shared costs are selected. (Please read and understand the ramifications of EU/EEA directive 2560/2001.)

If I understand that, you are referring to

"2. With effect from 1 July 2003 at the latest, charges levied by an institution in respect of cross-border credit transfers in euro up to EUR 12500 shall be the same as the charges levied by the same institution in respect of corresponding credit transfers in euro transacted within the Member State in which the establishment of that institution executing the cross-border transfer is located."

And you are pointing out that IBAN transfers in countries like Germany/Austria are free of charge, hence no charge may be levied.

So if Lloyds charge £10 for an EMI, and if it is possible to select shared charges (on an EMI), you are saying I would be charged £5 and the payee would be charged nothing? If this were true the cost to me would be £5 + exchange rates. I expect what the rule means is that when sharing the sender pays his end at his bank and the reciever pays their end at their bank (which would be zero). And logically if the sender opted to select "pay all charges" then the sender would be charged for both ends but the German end would be zero anyway.

I also thought of something else, I have Barclays Platinum account, which gives me free CHAPS transfers. So could I insist they give me free EEC transfers? Or would they argue that they have a standard fee for CHAPS within UK and therfore they are allowed to charge even me for an EEC transfer.

Wig

Another thought, When I re-read the thread I linked to in post No. 18 (2 above) I noticed it says on the paypal options "pay in the currency on the ebay listing".

If I pay Auctionchex through paypal, there will be no listing will there be? So can I select paypal to pay in Euros or not? I think I will join their forum and ask them about this.

Tirian

Wig wrote: »

Another thought, When I re-read the thread I linked to in post No. 18 (2 above) I noticed it says on the paypal options "pay in the currency on the ebay listing".

If I pay Auctionchex through paypal, there will be no listing will there be? So can I select paypal to pay in Euros or not? I think I will join their forum and ask them about this.

If you are sending a payment through Paypal you can always choose which currency the recipient receives it in.

Wig

Tirian wrote: »

If you are sending a payment through Paypal you can always choose which currency the recipient receives it in.

Right, but important to me is that paypal also charges my credit card in Euros aswell, is this option always available?......As it is when you are paying an ebay seller with a foriegn currency listing.