revbobuk Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Folks - just came to buy some stuff from our friends at Thomann, and their default payment method is direct bank transfer. Which is OK with me - I pay most of my UK suppliers that way, and it's free from my Santander Business Bank account. I can do the whole thing online, and it's easy enough. But it was only a small order - £25. So I'm a little surprised that Santander want to charge me a flat rate £25 for a euro transfer. Works out cheaper to pay by card over the phone. Obviously a bigger order would be more cost effective, but it seems to me that since the transfer doesn't cost Santander anything, as it all happens digitally, it's a bit steep. Anyone have any suggestions for good ways of paying bills in euro? Doesn't happen often enough to warrant me having a separate account in euro. Thomann make reference to 'SEPA' transfers, but the guy on the Santander helpline had no idea what they were. Natwest charge £10 for those, though, which is a bit cheaper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerry Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 at Thomann, and their default payment method is direct bank transfer. At checkout you can pay by direct transfer, Paypal or credit card.All banks rip off sorry, charge for transfers in foreign currency.Use Paypal or credit card and pay in Sterling.CheersGerry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themadhippy Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Another option is a prepaid credit card, available in sterling euros or dollars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Thomann's default is whatever you last used - mine always defaults to credit card. Bank transfer also add a time delay while they check manually for the payment arriving. If they are offering you additional discount then bank transfer gets you the best deal, but you have the hassle of paying santander to do it (My bank too). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 xetrade.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kerry davies Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Just paid $10 US and First Direct charged 16 pence. One would have thought a Spanish bank working in Euros would have been a little more amenable. I don't get charged for ATM withdrawals in the EU and when I was working my credit card attracted none of these charges worldwide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revbobuk Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 xetrade.com Started registering with them, and then got cold feet. The quantity of personal information they ask for is alarming - passport number, bank account number, full credit card details, home address, mothers maiden name and more. I know that, as they are Canadian, then they must be trustworthy - but that's a heck of a lot of data for them to keep safe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImagineerTom Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Money Laundering rules..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Indeedy, they asked a lot less of me when I joined back in 2006, but have asked a few more questions since. I suspect the OP gets the Spanish because he's UK based, and and thus they have to apply UK law. But... Xetrade does work, and work well, and is affordable. The way it works is that there is a bank in each country they work in, and you in reality pay and receive money from that bank. Particularity handy is that they will send a cheque in the local currency to the recipient. And yes, I've used it to pay Thomann! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart91 Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 One thing to remember with Thomann is if they take payment in Euros, they will refund in Euros. So you get hit with the currency conversion charges twice. (I had one particularly annoying instance of this, when they shipped more of an item than I'd ordered, and billed me for it too. A prompt refund was given, but it still ended up being a significant hit...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 More annoying than that is that Thomann charge different prices for different countries, even after you've taken off the VAT. If you are "foreign" then you get German pricing, which is higher than Brit pricing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sully Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 Not only are the fees high via normal banks, the rates are rubbish. Transferwise was started by a couple of guys who were annoyed at crappy rates and high fees for small transfers between Euro and UK banks. I used the the first free transaction to pay for an event ticket in Euros last summer on the recommendation of a friend and it was all fairly seamless. You set up a transaction on their site and do a normal UK bank transfer to the Transferwise UK account using a magic reference, they then do the Euro transfer a few days later to the transaction you set up once your incoming bank transfer has been confirmed. Sully (I have a referral code here which gives you the first transfer free and could get me a bonus, this might be a bit too much of a plug though) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revbobuk Posted January 14, 2014 Author Share Posted January 14, 2014 Not only are the fees high via normal banks, the rates are rubbish. Transferwise was started by a couple of guys who were annoyed at crappy rates and high fees for small transfers between Euro and UK banks. I used the the first free transaction to pay for an event ticket in Euros last summer on the recommendation of a friend and it was all fairly seamless. You set up a transaction on their site and do a normal UK bank transfer to the Transferwise UK account using a magic reference, they then do the Euro transfer a few days later to the transaction you set up once your incoming bank transfer has been confirmed. Sully (I have a referral code here which gives you the first transfer free and could get me a bonus, this might be a bit too much of a plug though) Sully - that looks straightforward. Thanks for the link! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pscandrett Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 Use Paypal or credit card and pay in Sterling. I agree with the first part of that - pay by credit card - but not the pay in Sterling. Get yourself a credit card that gives you 'perfect' foreign exchange rates and doesn't charge you for the privilege. I use a Post Office credit card - bought specifically for this purpose when spending overseas or in non-GBP currencies online. It charges you the amount in GBP equivalent on that day, but crucially doesn't 'load' the transaction with a 1-2% fee or have bad rates. Make sure the transaction is done in the foreign currency - if the foreign exchange transaction is done by the merchant they'll probably add a fee or use bad rates too. If you use paypal, they will convert by default unless you tell them not to (and their rates aren't great either). It has the advantage that you have the consumer credit act behind you too if it's a consumer transaction. As an indication as to what you can save, a 100USD transaction recently saved me about 2GBP by doing it this way, and I avoided a slew of extra charges when I went to NZ/Aus in 2012. For business credit cards, I have no idea what the state of affairs is/are, and apologies if it doesn't apply to Thomann directly, but I hope this helps someone in general which is why I'm saying it :-) More info at http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerry Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 Use Paypal or credit card and pay in Sterling. I agree with the first part of that - pay by credit card - but not the pay in Sterling. The OP only wants to pay £25 so paying via Paypal in Sterling is an easy, and not too expensive, option.CheersGerry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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