re: foreign bank transfers

[delilah]

Hi there, a bit of advice please! in our first year and it's going ok so far. However i have a few from overseas and usually ask them to use OANDA to convert the currency and do bank transfer. I added a £15 booking fee for overseas bookings as they still kept falling short. My bank doesn't charge for the transfer. Today had a 30% deposit booking with the £15 booking fee, still fall short by £4...mystery to me (client seems v genuine, and this has happened twice with other overseas guests). How do other people handle this? i came out of paypal because of the issues around that.
thanks,

[KathyG]

Hi Delilah, I use xe.com to work out the rate and then ask them to use xe.trade for the transaction. They have to register with xe.trade which takes roughly 1 working day and then if they opt to send it by 'draft' there is no commission to pay. They then select the amount to be sent in sterling so shouldn't be any shortfall for you. It's worked perfectly for me for several years now.

[FelicityA]

That is of interest to me Kathy. Do you know if xe.trade works for North Americans and Australians sending to Europe? I used to use xoom which all my guests loved but now they have banned its use for anything but personal transfers.

[KathyG]

Hi Felicity, I've used it for both North Americans and Australians. There's a list somewhere of which countries you can use it for, I'll go and have a look.

[KathyG]

Here are the currencies you can trade

[FelicityA]

Brilliant. Thank you for that, Kathy!

PS. Sorry to sound so ignorant. But does 'draft' mean just that - a paper draft that is posted to your address? PPS. Just did live chat with them (very quick and efficient) and confirmed that is what it means.

[KathyG]

I don't receive anything by post, it gets paid into my a/c and then they email me to let me know.....

[FelicityA]

That's really strange because the 'chat' man said I was right to assume that a draft was like a cheque that was posted to me.

It is hopeless isn't it, when you go on these chat things and really nobody knows anything but sound like they do and you get incorrect information. Your method with a draft sounds much better. So the guest chooses 'draft' and that gets sent to your bank (Still by post maybe? That way they would make up their lost commission by holding onto the money for longer) ?

[KathyG]

Well more than likely they're right and I'm wrong. If my guests don't actually read my email properly and choose NOT to send it by draft then it goes by electronic transfer as that's what's been happening. I do remember receiving a 'cheque' by post a few years ago though so someone got it right.

[christinedavid]

I just ask them to send the money to my bank in my currency (Sterling) and charge them what my bank charges me for receiving foreign payments (£7). This way, it's easy and I don't lose out. I don't need to have anything to do with exchange rates.