Bank Transparency for International Payments

[SlowFrog]

Hi,

I am the sole director of a small limited company specialising in illustrations and designs. I do a lot of commissions for international customers - mainly in the US.

I have a Lloyds Bank business current account and feel pretty horrified by the lack of transparency in the way money paid from the US, is converted to GBP with absolutely no information regarding the exchange rate used for that transaction, or confirmation of the additional margin/percentage used by Lloyds to make a profit. In addition, there are set fees for all international payments and another complication is that other correspondent/intermediary banks may be involved which adds yet another layer of obfuscation.

With large sums of money being sent and received on a daily basis by many of us, I would have thought there’d be regulations in place to ensure recipients are fully aware of what happened to the money en route to their account. Currently, if I charge $6,500 for a job, I end up with a figure of ~£4,700 and absolutely no other info. How is this acceptable?

I guess I’m wondering if any of you experience similar frustrations and whether there are other UK banks out there that do it better. The other option I’ve considered is using TransferWise or similar. Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

Thanks,
John

 

[The Byre]

Just open an online dollar and/or Euro account somewhere.

 

[Deleted member 59730]

There are several approaches. You could open a US dollar account at your UK bank and transfer when the time is of your choosing. I know of some people who swear by Transferwise.

If you open a dollar account ask for the exact amount to be transferred with your client paying the charges.

And only send the final artwork when the money is in your bank in full.

 

[Mr D]

Hi,

I am the sole director of a small limited company specialising in illustrations and designs. I do a lot of commissions for international customers - mainly in the US.

I have a Lloyds Bank business current account and feel pretty horrified by the lack of transparency in the way money paid from the US, is converted to GBP with absolutely no information regarding the exchange rate used for that transaction, or confirmation of the additional margin/percentage used by Lloyds to make a profit. In addition, there are set fees for all international payments and another complication is that other correspondent/intermediary banks may be involved which adds yet another layer of obfuscation.

With large sums of money being sent and received on a daily basis by many of us, I would have thought there’d be regulations in place to ensure recipients are fully aware of what happened to the money en route to their account. Currently, if I charge $6,500 for a job, I end up with a figure of ~£4,700 and absolutely no other info. How is this acceptable?

I guess I’m wondering if any of you experience similar frustrations and whether there are other UK banks out there that do it better. The other option I’ve considered is using TransferWise or similar. Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

Thanks,
John

Change banks. Find one better or as @The Byre suggests use a dollar / euro account - perhaps a currency account and get dollars.
You then decide when and how much to convert to GBP and can pick a time when exchange rate suits you better. And you will see the rate used before you transfer the money.

 

[SlowFrog]

Thank you for all the replies. Some good ideas that I’ll explore further. I’m still surprised that banks can get away with providing so little info. I can’t even see confirmation of the original amount that was sent ($6,500) so there’s absolutely no way of validating anything. For all I know, Lloyds may well have just decided to take an extra £300 and I’d have no way of checking. Seems completely mad to me!

Cheers,
John

 

[Red Wood]

Transferwise will solve all of your problems as mentioned above. We use for USD/EUR. Had no problems over many years of use with sometimes relatively large balances held in both.

 

[Deleted member 59730]

You might also consider Visa payments. Deliver the work for approval with a watermark and then send an unwatermarked copy when the payment has been made in full.

Are you a member of the Association of illustrators? They might be able to help.

 

[JRatron]

another vote for transferwise. You can keep your lloyds account and just use transferwise as the conduit for sending internationally. They give you a UK bank account to pay into so there's no charges from lloyds and transferwise gives you full transparency on rates and does stuff like auto-notify people that they have been paid by email. Stuff that should be standard these days.