Etsy - Business Account and Non-Sterling Fees

wendypl

Hi, I am a small start up business and have set up as a limited company. My business currently runs on the Etsy platform and all orders and Etsy fees are paid in US dollars. I am wondering if there is anyone similar here, who runs a business via Etsy and what the best way to set up the financial side. For example, my current bank charges Non-sterling purchase fee of £1.50 per transaction, plus a Non-sterling transaction fee of 2.75% of the value per transaction. These charges apply to the money received from Etsy per order and money to be paid from the account to Esty. So the fees are eating into the profits. I'm currently using a personal account as the fees using a business account is significantly higher. One suggestion is to use a Direct Debit Business account, rather than directly from the bank account with the fees being lower. I have also seen credit cards offer better rates. But I'm so new to this, I'm looking for advice and any suggestions
Many thanks, Wendy

WibblyGirly

I have an Etsy store. I avoid the bank fees by paying my bill with money in my payment account before it is sent to my bank account. Do you have direct checkout enabled?

Edit: For the other part of your question about fees when Etsy sends money to your account, I've just checked mine (I use a personal account too) but I don't get charged when Etsy sends me my money. Have you set up your store to use sterling?

You may be better off asking on the Etsy forums than here for advice.

lovinituk

You can pay your Etsy bill by Paypal. You can either pay in GBP and let Paypal do the conversion or for a slightly better deal, you can can convert it to USD within your Paypal account and then pay Etsy from that. Paypals exchange rates are not great but you won't be charged any additional fees. It might work out cheaper than your bank, you would need to do the sums.

Carer

I'm using direct checkout and the shop is set up in UK sterling.

Etsy just deduct their fees from my payment account and then send the balance to my account in Sterling every Monday.

There are no fees from my bank at all.

LexieLou

Hi Everyone,
Those of you who use ETSY, do you find its worth it? I'm thinking of starting up as I make items as gifts for people, and want to start to earn some ££

Thanks

LL

simplydevine05

I use Etsy. I have a Santander business credit card that allows transactions in foreign currencies fee free, so use this. My withdrawals are in pound sterling and cost nothing.

I have used Etsy for just over two years. It is only recently (last six months) really picking up, but with minimal ongoing costs it is worth having imo. I like that it is easy to use and the seller support is great. I've not had any problems and compared to eBay, it's an absolute breeze! It does take considerably longer to get going than other sites though, and you need to have a very large range of items and keep listing in order to get noticed due to the way their search function works.