This is interesting.Like Helen,we live in UK and we price in Sterling,most of our clients are British but the ones from USA,New Zealand etc choose to pay in sterling as well even though we take euros.We have never yet been paid in euros.It doesn't actually matter to us as we have bank accounts in both countries. We do have to pay to change the sterling to euros when we send money over of course but we wait until a decent amount is available and then get a better exchange rate.
www.thepetitmanoir.com
Banking advice please
-
Alan Knighting
- Posts: 4120
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:26 am
- Location: Monflanquin, Lot-et-Garonne, France
Fraise,
I live in France so would rather be paid in euro's but it's not to be. Most of my guests, no matter where they come from, seem to prefer to pay in pounds stirling.
Like you, I bank the cheques in my UK account and transfer money in large chunks rather than bit by bit. That way I get business rate and since the charges are on a per transaction basis it helps keep the overheads down.
Alan
I live in France so would rather be paid in euro's but it's not to be. Most of my guests, no matter where they come from, seem to prefer to pay in pounds stirling.
Like you, I bank the cheques in my UK account and transfer money in large chunks rather than bit by bit. That way I get business rate and since the charges are on a per transaction basis it helps keep the overheads down.
Alan
I accept payment in sterling or euros. However, I find the vast majority of Uk based guests prefer to make a transfer to our Uk bank a/c.
One word of caution with Nationwide (or any bank for that matter). Although they may not charge you for withdrawing money, I bet the rate they give you is not good. For example, today I exchanged and transferred £100k into euros with First Direct - I got 0.4 away from the spot - i.e. 1.4680 vs 1.4720. With most card companies you'll be lucky to get within 1% and often it'll be a lot further than that.
I used to be a banker and trade currencies - if you watch the BBC market data page - http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/fds/ ... efault.stm
it is accurate for the spot (mid-market) rates. When you get a rate quoted from your bank you should see how much they are effectively taking in commission - I often have arguments with my bank, but have consistently found First Direct to beat the other banks and the supposed specialists who have always been extremely uncompetitive every time I have tried them.
One word of caution with Nationwide (or any bank for that matter). Although they may not charge you for withdrawing money, I bet the rate they give you is not good. For example, today I exchanged and transferred £100k into euros with First Direct - I got 0.4 away from the spot - i.e. 1.4680 vs 1.4720. With most card companies you'll be lucky to get within 1% and often it'll be a lot further than that.
I used to be a banker and trade currencies - if you watch the BBC market data page - http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/fds/ ... efault.stm
it is accurate for the spot (mid-market) rates. When you get a rate quoted from your bank you should see how much they are effectively taking in commission - I often have arguments with my bank, but have consistently found First Direct to beat the other banks and the supposed specialists who have always been extremely uncompetitive every time I have tried them.
"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible."
-
Alan Knighting
- Posts: 4120
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:26 am
- Location: Monflanquin, Lot-et-Garonne, France
-
Hells Bells
- Posts: 13173
- Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2005 8:42 am
- Location: French Alps
- Contact:
Dean , I checked the conversion rates I received using my Nationwide card over Christmas and New Year in France, and they were actually better then my hubby got with his Barclays debit card, I consistently spent less pounds than him for a similar transaction amount. It is always a 'best buy' as far as the press is concerned for travellers.
Paolo asked if you lose bookings by accepting payment only in euros. I did this last year (my first year) and it didn't seem to be a problem. Everyone paid by bank transfer and I had no charges to pay from UK guests, although the Australian and New Zealand transfers were quite expensive.
This year I've offered to accept either euros or sterling and everyone so far has paid in euros except for one family. I wanted to get some money into my UK account so I asked them if they would pay in sterling. They were quite happy to do so. In fact, their bank gave me a better exchange rate against the euro price than I had given them.
I thought it would encourage people if I offered to accept sterling but it really doesn't seem to make any difference - and I'm still struggling to fill weeks outside the school summer holiday period.!
This year I've offered to accept either euros or sterling and everyone so far has paid in euros except for one family. I wanted to get some money into my UK account so I asked them if they would pay in sterling. They were quite happy to do so. In fact, their bank gave me a better exchange rate against the euro price than I had given them.
I thought it would encourage people if I offered to accept sterling but it really doesn't seem to make any difference - and I'm still struggling to fill weeks outside the school summer holiday period.!