Cheapest way to receive international payments?
Di started this topic @ 15:28 on 03/02/2011
Hi,
I have clients abroad (Europe) and they need to pay me. So far my experience with international payments have been at a personal level, where I would go to the bank and do a transfer from a UK account to a European account, at a charge of around £25 per transaction. I wonder if there is a cheaper way to do this. I wonder what the difference is, for example, when you pay abroad with a Visa card, as they normally charge me a few pence for the transaction. Is anybody aware of other payment methods that my clients could use to pay me? PayPal maybe?
I wouldn't want to use things like Western Union, forcing my clients to go to their offices just to pay me.
Any ideas?
Thanks a lot
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RE: Cheapest way to receive international payments?
AstarothSolutions | 04/02/2011 12:14 PM
As the merchant you generally are not charged any more for receiving international payments than you are for local as long as you are charging in GBP.
You are correct however in saying that to do a BACS payment or equiv internationally receives a fairly significant fee, generally less than £25 if within the EU however.
If you accepted their payment by credit/ debit card (eg via paypal) then unless you have explicitly negotiated with your merchant bank that you don't pay a blended rate then you get charged the normal aquiring fee.
Your client may receive a foreign transaction fee (as you mention) but it is going to be much less than the banks free for electronic transfers. If you use PayPal and your clients in a country with a currency PayPal supports then they will pay no fee (but will get a worse exchange rate)
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RE: Cheapest way to receive international payments?
Hi,
my business consists on doing custom web applications (websites), so the concept of "online store" where you find a "Pay Now" option doesn't really apply.
I just checked PayPal and they offer something suitable, consisting on providing a link to my potential client where he/she can make the payment, all within PayPal's website. However Paypal charges 3% per transaction, which in my case would be more than what I would pay through BACS.
Other online services such as PayPoint or WordPay offer flat fees of around £10/month, which could be interesting.
In all, seems like BACS is the best way after all?
Thanks
RE: Cheapest way to receive international payments?
AstarothSolutions | 04/02/2011 04:47 PM
For you, absolutely, but your client will have circa £15-25 to pay as a fee.
Standard PayPal is very expensive in transaction fee terms but with no standing charge it is useful for those only receiving occasional payments.
If your going to get payments more regularly then you can get a merchant account and a virtual terminal then get your clients to phone the payment in.
I would recheck what you have read on WorldPay as it is normally monthly fee + per transaction fee but this should be significantly below what PP charges per transaction (eg 30p for debit cards and 2% for credit cards)
------------------------
www.AstarothSolutions.com - Bespoke web development
Do you need more hours in a day? http://www.VirtualAssistantDirect.com
RE: Cheapest way to receive international payments?
Yes you are right, WordPay is monthly fee + fee per transaction.
I will investigate the merchant accounts, although they are probably similar (monthly + per transaction). I'm still at that level where I;'m not doing monthly transactions, but when I get there it'll probably be the best option.
Thanks
RE: Cheapest way to receive international payments?
lisaroy1 | 08/02/2011 09:37 AM
There are many of the Money Bookers you can get via them also and i have heard some are very cheap