Xe Trade for International Transfers

[KathyG]

Just thought I'd let everyone know I've been using Xe Trade quite successfully this year for transferring money to and from 'punters'.

My heart always sank a bit when I had an overseas enquiry as I felt I should have an efficient process at hand for them and probably looked a bit like a 'mickey mouse' outfit because I just left it to them to sort out which was very hit and miss with bank charges either end etc. And returning security deposits internationally was a bit of a nightmare.

However now that I recommend xe-trade, everything goes very smoothly. There are no charges/commissions, they make their money on the 'spread', unless you want to make a wire transfer. Sending a banker's draft is free.

I'd still like to sort out a credit card option though if anyone has any cheap options?

[Mountain Goat]

We've been using XeTrade as well, recommended by eRichard, and it works well, especially as they use Barclays in the UK, so transfers to/from are same day between accounts.

Are you based in the UK? We're now using SagePay with RBS Streamline for c/cards, tied to a secure invoice system - seems to work fine, though early days, and also gives us a virtual terminal for telephone/fax c'card charges. You can tweak it for various levels of security (3D Secure etc.) but haven't understood this 100%.

If you're in France, ask LV - she's got an unbeatable system.

MG

[KathyG]

Oh sorry MG, didn't realise anyone was using it!

We're in the UK. So with SagePay do you pay per transaction or a percentage of? Is it based on your turnover with them?

[Mountain Goat]

Kathy,

The best deal is joining the Federation of Small Businesses, which gives you quite a lot of other good discounts. When you get your membership of the FSB they have a special into to both SagePay (payment provider) and RBS Streamline (merchant account) which saves you a few hundred quid on setup fees.

SagePay with all the bells and whistles is then around £20/month, and RBS Streamline charges between 1.5% and 2.5%(?) commission on transactions, but that depends on turnover.

Taking turnover into account, PayPal may be a better deal, keeping in mind the downsides of PayPal: higher commission and dubious chargebacks in favour of the punter (in our experience).

MG

[Hells Bells]

MG, have you had any dubious chargebacks from Paypal for your chalet?

[e-richard]

Those are interesting numbers MG, and help put PayPal's "high" charges into perspective.

If we take RBS streamline commission at its bottom rate of 1.5%, you need to have an annual transaction total of over £10,000 before its cheaper than PayPal. If you pay more than 1.5%, then because of the monthly fees, your annual transactions need to be somewhat higher.

I'm sure this makes sense for a lot of owners, but for me, I'll stick to PayPal for my 2 or 3 transactions per annum. About 80% of my bookings from UK and EU pay with Internet Banking, which is all free.

[Mountain Goat]

Helen, no, not for the chalet, but on a couple of other small items, over the last couple of years. I'm not looking forward to a problem with PayPal as they're obsessed with proof of items purchased and sent (i.e. eBay purchases/recorded delivery) and not good on understanding rental payment. How do we prove a punter has stayed with us?

eRichard - that's an excellent summary, and I can see it doesn't make sense for everyone. We use it on 4 different (small) goat enterprises, and in each case we send the customer a link to the SagePay secure payment form. I've only been using it properly for a couple of weeks, so I'm not sure how it's going to work out. The payment form can be customised completely, unlike most of the PayPal examples I've seen.

Like PayPal, the major advantage for us is that we can zap the punter a payment request from anywhere, rather than mess around with waiting for bank transfers, postal cheques or telephoned credit card details

MG

[olive]

"How do we prove a punter has stayed with us? "

Why do you need to, MG? Isn't it the contract which counts? They sign, they are committed to paying and you are committed to providing accommodation.

I don't use paypal.......what am I misunderstanding here?

[Hells Bells]

I think MG is worried that he will get a chargeback for a rental payment made via Paypal, although that can happen with any credit card transaction. We discussed this recently here viewtopic.php?t=12305&highlight=paypal , and concluded that it might be difficult to try and claim payment back if you had already stayed in the accommodation.

[Mountain Goat]

Olive, things like contracts are pie-in-the-sky with PayPal,

If there is a problem, you spend a week or two battling with auto-responders picking up some vague hints in your complaints and firing non-relevant replies. If you insist on dealing with a human, and you haven't gone nuts, you do get a human, who, you begin to realise, hasn't a clue what you're talking about.

Trust me - don't get involved with the non-existent tech. support at PayPal.

MG

[e-richard]

...it might be difficult to try and claim payment back if you had already stayed in the accommodation.

Also, has anyone, here on LMH, ever experienced a chargeback request for a holiday rental ?
Or even knows of anyone who has ?

[KathyG]

Just discovered that Custom House (XeTrade) was taken over by Western Union last September!