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Paying foreign suppliers

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Mayor

Mayor

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Feb 3, 2009
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We predominantly deal with UK suppliers, but have bought a couple of times from a french supplier. No problems, apart from invoice time. They sent us a sterling invoice with french bank account details, but a quick chat with our bank indicated that a direct payment would cost us a wack in charges. No problems thinks us, and give them debit card details, thinking we had dropped the problem into our suppliers lap. Charges appeared on our bank statement - lousy conversion rate, and a forty odd quid transaction charge on a £300 invoice. Whats the best way to pay these guys - should I just send them a sterling cheque ? any ideas ?
 
If you're using a debit card on a business account, you'll always get a lousy exchange rate, plus fees.

How often are you going to do business with them, and how much are your payments going to be. If it's an occasional invoice for around £300, there aren't many better ways to do it.

As heretical as it sounds, can they accept payment by Paypal?

Also, if there has been any conversion on your payment, then they've actually processed your card payment in Euros, not in sterling, which is what a sterling invoice would imply they would do.
 
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Thanks. We probably buy 6 or 7 times a year at most, I believe that they are thinking of setting up a UK bank account, but not for some time, as they are new to the UK. I'll investigate the Paypal thing.
 
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Who applied the £40 transaction charge, was it your bank or them? I don't see why your bank would, so I assume it must have been them, did they advise you of this fee, which sounds ridiculously expensive.
 
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HSBC my friend - Everything is expensive. If I could find a human to talk to there, I'd have a moan.
 
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Mayor said:
HSBC my friend - Everything is expensive. If I could find a human to talk to there, I'd have a moan.
Click to expand...

If the payment was processed by debit card, there shouldn't have been a charge applied by your bank.

For an international transfer, HSBC charge £30 (£17 if you have an arrangement set up, but this costs £6 a month, I think). The recipient will also be charged for receiving the money, and you can choose to bear these charges yourself. It sounds like this is what happened here, although it shouldn't have happened unless you specifically did an international money transfer.

If the payment was done via credit or debit card, it shouldn't have cost you any more than doing the same thing in the UK. Your supplier should not have added any extra charges unless they were specified in their payment terms, so I would query this.

Cheaper ways include a transfer with a third party service such as XE.com, or use a personal 0% commission credit card to pay for the goods, and get your card provider to do the conversion, not theirs.
 
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For last 3 years we use this guys www.thomasexchange.co.uk. They take 12 pounds per transaction and have the best rates. But be aware - if you deal by card, not by cash, you bank will charge another 4-5 pounds
 
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Just had this pop up on my Facebook, thought it might be useful here

transferwise com/en (im not allowed to post the link)

There's also bitcoins?
 
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