How to take payments from overseas?

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sazzleevans
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How to take payments from overseas?

Post by sazzleevans »

Hi

I have had my first non UK resident booking. Can anyone help me with the most effective way of receiving a payment?

I want the money to go into my UK account and not be deposited in Spain.

Thanks
Sarah
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jimadept
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Post by jimadept »

PayPal is fairly easy once you've jumped through all the hoops in order to get payment to your bank account sorted out. I use my balance to pay for other things so I rarely have to request a transfer (once in 4 years so far).

Another alternative is international bank transfer. Have a look at your bank statements, these days most of them show your IBAN (International Bank Account) number and your bank's BIC (formerly known as SWIFT) number. If they're not on your statement, your bank's website will have them, or if all else fails, a quick call to your branch will get them.

Armed with these numbers, the accountholder's name and address and the address of the branch, anyone with a bank account in the western world can transfer money to you. From within the EU it should theoretically be free of charge, but my Dutch bank, which for most things is the cheapest in the market, manages somehow to charge me 5 euros per outgoing transaction. In most cases this is still an acceptable fee though.

good luck, Jim
sazzleevans
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Post by sazzleevans »

Thanks Jim I will give that a go .

Sarah
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vrooje
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Post by vrooje »

Sarah:

I wouldn't have posted since I was going to give the same advice as Jim; but I just wanted to cast my vote for Paypal. It was a bit of a hassle to set it up initially, but now it's a very smooth process and what most of our clients use (and I'm in the US with mostly UK clients, so I can say for sure that foreign transactions are not a problem).

Also, regarding the bank transfer, the best way to do that is to set up an account which you'll use specifically for bank transfers. That way, if some fraudster gets ahold of your account details and tries to steal from you, they won't get anything.

Cheers!
Brooke
sazzleevans
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Post by sazzleevans »

Thats great advise. I have a paypal account so I will suggest that...but I think a bank transfer is the way they will go.

Take care and thanks

Sarah
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jimadept
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Post by jimadept »

I've never quite worked out what all the fuss is about regarding fraud with your bank details. In Spain and Holland, for example, and I imagine many other countries, all companies, freelances, self-employed people, etc., put their account details on their letterheads and on all their invoices. I've been doing it for 11 years now and have never had a problem.

If anyone faked a direct debit authorisation, for example, you always have a cooling off period during which you can reverse a direct debit or standing order payment if you don't agree with it. Maybe that cooling off period doesn't exist in the UK, I have no idea, but it would be a bit strange if you couldn't reverse a fraudulent direct debit. And the perpetrator can be traced directly to the recipient account, so it's hardly the perfect crime either. So I wouldn't lose too much sleep about making your account details public.

Just my GBP0.02

Jim
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

For internatinoal guests I offer PayPal, bank transfer and bank draft. A bank draft is a cheque in the currency you want, which they can arrange at a bank or a travel bureau. This is the slowest mode of payment but the advantage is that you don't lose anything in bank commissions. A transfer can be commission-free at your end, but in my experience rarely is.
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sazzleevans
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Post by sazzleevans »

Hi Paolo

Do you happen to have an email or letter you send out with payment instructions? :oops:

Just saves me trying to reinvent the wheel...if you could help?

Sarah
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

Sure, I'll PM it to you.
Paolo
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vrooje
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Post by vrooje »

Jim,

You're right, there are some safety measures in place regarding bank transfers. I just always figure that I'd rather not have to rely on them! :)

Cheers!
Brooke
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rich_sipe
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Post by rich_sipe »

I like paypal because it offers me a bit of protection. This way there is an intermediary who can also take some of the risk and offer their protection. I would be worried about liability from issues with a direct bank draft/transfer.
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Alan Knighting
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Post by Alan Knighting »

I don't remember whether or not Moneybookers has been mentioned as a method of on-line payment.

Does anyone have any experience of them?

Alan
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Alan Knighting
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Post by Alan Knighting »

I assume that silence means the answer is NO Moneybookers is not within anyone's experience.
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vrooje
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Post by vrooje »

:) Yes -- at least that's what it means to me!
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tansy
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Post by tansy »

Jim...thank you for saying what you did re self employed ...I thought I was going mad...I can't tell you how many sleepless nights I've had!!

Before moving to France I had a recruitment business specialising in jobs overseas...for years my clients had my bank details to send me money - so when we started our business here I didn't think twice and gave all our 'guests' our bank details to send money...touch wood everything else, I've never had a problem in 20 years....yikes, am I so out of touch or just been lucky? :)
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