Hi MGFolks,

thought I'd better post this in the international section as it relates to cross-border business. Might also post in the MGF Register forum, so please don’t be bothered if it shows up twice.

Due to various circumstances, it may sometimes be wise to look for MGF or TF parts in the UK, as we all know. Not only new ones or aftermarket replacements from shops accepting Visa or other credit cards, but sometimes interesting stuff shows up in fleaBay UK from private sellers as well. So the question is how to get the payment done then.

As usual I relied on my trustworthy Deutsche Bank and just wired the £10 due to the seller’s account; IBAN and BIC provided, no problem I thought. Been there, done that before, but only within Euro zone. Didn’t cost me a penny (or a cent, rather).
But now for something completely different: it’s sterling, luv! Slightly different online form asked me to state who’s going to pay the fees (either me, him or split). As I was the one to pay, I ticked the "all fees charged to the sender" box. No amounts whatsoever stated, well, can’t be that much anyway.
What an error!

When I got my account statement, I had to realise that £10 had miraculously been blown up to exactly 50.67 Euros. WTF British economy shooting up like a rocket, with exchange rates reverting to the sixties? No way - the actual amount is stated to be 11.62 Euros, adding 10 Euros for Deutsche Bank’s own sake, 1.55 SWIFT, 2.50 exchange fee, plus another 25 Euros (in plain English twenty-five!) foreign fees flat. And all this without warning in the first place.

Next day I went to the branch office for some good butt-kicking. Told the guys I would cancel my business relations immediately if I wasn’t refunded. Worked this time but for the future there has to be a different solution.

My ideas:
- don’t buy from private sellers any more (not too wise)
- get a Paypal account (wouldn’t like to do that, don’t trust them too much)
- agree on payment in Euros, this would be free of charge for me

Does anybody of you know what happens on a UK sterling account if I wire an amount in Euros? Are any fees to be paid on the receiver’s part for the conversion?

Thanks a lot and cheers
Mykel

Haaarrr, Haaaar !

Why don't you ask before you take such silly experiance

Anyway, young people need to learn from DIY ..
I'm on the scene since DM times and dealing with trades and private sellers in the UK /CN and TW since 1998.

First of all. Avoid banks. Whatever you do, leave them out.

Me tried each and everything, from bank money transfer over personal cheques, Paypal, Google pay, Moneybookers, etc.
I just prefer to ship cash GBP in a registered letter.

However in the last years I asked some MGF friends in the UK to do the payment for me and then I post the money to them in a letter or hand out cash when we meet later anywere in Europe at an MG Meeting
If nothing helps, I use Postbank Online-Banking bank2cash for money transfer in the receipient currency. Cost me 15 EURO (I believe) some years ago and that's the cheapest I found.
( Link to german language payment conditions )

Another bigger problem are UK based banks. They don't like to provide their IBAN / BIC codes to their customers, even the EEC rules talk about easy money transfer.
Adrian C. has the most experiance with the crappy payment systems I'm quite sure he will post to the thread about his silly exeriance.

Discuss
http://www.mgfregister.org/forum/viewto ... f=7&t=6747