Payments to overseas suppliers

cazmanian_minx

I think I've been daft. I've been using my business bank account (RBS) to pay overseas suppliers and just accepting the exchange rates offered and their charges - but could I do better by using someone like Caxton FX?

I usually have one a month to pay, amounts vary between US$500 and US$4000, am I too small for there to be an advantage in using a specific currency transfer service?

paddyrg

There's probably an advantage to using one of those services, but on £300 it won't be huge. At £2500 it might be worth it. Why not ask one of those services for a quote/their rates?

dshart

If the payments are always in US$ then have you considered having a US$ account (I think HSBC used to have such a facility, not sure about other banks). That way you could keep costs down by keeping the account funded every so often so it covered invoices from foreign suppliers, reducing the number of exchange transactions.

RBS do it too

http://www.rbs.co.uk/corporate/international/g0/international-solutions/foreign-currency-accounts.ashx

cazmanian_minx

Thank you both, I shall investigate further.

doningtonphil

We use Caxton fx for settling our foreign invoices (aud and eur). Their rates are normally pretty good, you can do it all on line, there are no charges, you can settle it by debit card or send a BACS once you have completed the trade and I have never had a failed transaction yet.

CKhalvashi

We use Worldpay with HSBC, if this is in the relevant country, or WU on many occasions if not.

I don't do multi currency accounts, however, but do deal with GBP, EUR (and pegged currencies) and USD on a monthly basis, but all within geographical Europe.

CK