The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: bwilber
Date: 2006-11-07 18:56
Hi everyone. If anyone can help me quickly, I would sure appreciate it. I bought a clarinet from England a couple of days ago on Ebay and the seller says that the banks in England charge $20.00 to convert any other money from different countries into sterling and so he asks for $10.00 to help to cover the cost. I have bought clarinets from England before and have never been asked for extra money for the conversion charge and so this is totally new to me. Has anyone had an expierence like this and is this true that they charge $20.00 to convert other country's money to sterling? Thanks for any help you can give me.
Bonnie Wilber
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Author: nickma
Date: 2006-11-07 19:00
This sometimes can happen depending on the bank (mostly it is free to receive), but if you are sending money via wire, you can instruct YOUR bank to pick up all charges, or request that the transfer is done in GBP. In either case, the recipient bears no costs.
Nick
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2006-11-07 19:05
Hey, my American business bank changes me $7.00 to cash a check from Canada! So there, you Canadians, you really are finally considered a foreign country!
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2006-11-07 19:58
Here the Banks charge a 10$ (-ish) fee for every money transfer, plus additional fees if the receiver has no SWIFT/IBAN number, a percentage of the amount etc etc.
That's why PayPal is so successful, I guess...
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Ben
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Author: joannew
Date: 2006-11-07 20:32
Yup, banks are ruthless with user fees, despite their million$ in profits. In France I have paid 37 euros to deposit a Canadian cheque! Paypal is the way to go - you pay a little on top of the currency exchange (as you do with banks), and other fees are miniscule in comparison to most banks.
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Author: buedsma
Date: 2006-11-08 06:51
same thing in belgium : when i have to pay something in the us or turkey , depending on which method is choosen to pay , my bank asks me explicitly if the conversion/transfer costs are for me or the other party.
( eg 30 euro for a transfer to Turkey :-)
( don't remember the costs for a money order to the US )
But : for the receiver , paypal is also costly !!
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2006-11-08 08:43
buedsma wrote:
> But : for the receiver , paypal is also costly !!
No it isn't. The fees are very modest compared to what the banks are charging. It's comparable to the credit card merchant fee; 2..3% is not all that expensive. Of course, there's a break-even point with bank transfers, but for int'l micropayments, PP is unbeatably cheap.
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Ben
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2006-11-08 15:16
At least several years ago, you could buy traveler's checks denominated in pounds at US branches of Barclay's Bank, without an exchange premium or fee.
If you have an account at a bank that has a London branch, you can get a debit card denominated in pounds with the exact amount on it and mail it to the seller.
Ken Shaw
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