Comments on: Payments without borders

By: Learn Currency Trading Online

Learn Currency Trading Online — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 23:02:58 +0000

What a great way to bring up

By: Anndrew Pelt

Anndrew Pelt — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 03:22:50 +0000

Thanks for the post. I hope you have a good day! Im spending much time lately learning how forex works.

By: KENAX

KENAX — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 06:13:50 +0000

Yes, cheap ways of getting paid is important, such as one suggested someone mentioned to recently: http://www.hyperwallet.com in the US. Then there’s Moneybookers.com in Europe and expanding to other parts of the world, and unbelievably inexpensive. In the US I have an account at Bank of America, which I opened using a foreign passport and they are good because they process incoming cheques free of charge.
But together with all this you might want to check out http://translationpayments.com/ to make sure you get paid in the first place. Comments by other translators concerning the payment practices of different companies they have worked for, suggestions from international lawyers how to get paid, and many other useful tips.

By: Eve

Eve — Fri, 23 May 2008 16:17:13 +0000

I have been saying this on various forums, and will repeat it here. I am not a paid sales person for Travelex, but I think they are one of the best options around for getting money from country to country with little or no fees. And, I have been looking into this for 4 years since I pay large sums of money to overseas vendors.

Travelex is not a bank. They are a currency exchange faciliator. You sent up an account with them and specicy to whom they transfer money on your behalf, within a specific country domestically, or internationally. I also use them in the US for “ACH” payments to vendors – low cost bank transfers (costs me .50 per transaction and nothing to the reciepient).

With Travelex, international transactions have no fees other than the stated exchange rate, which is very competitive (best I have seen anywhere including banks, paypal, etc.)

I will repeat my mantra that there are two things to look for when transfering money internationally: FEES and THE EXCHANGE RATE. The second of these can actually end up being more important if you are the one bearing the exchange rate risk (usually this is the agency or person paying for the services). A decimal point or two in the exchange rate offered can make the difference between hundreds of dollars (or more over time), depending on the amounts you transfer.

I have found Travelex to be very competitive on both accounts (fees and exchange rate).

You can also use Travelex to pay yourself. If you have an account overseas, you can have your international clients pay into this account, and then pay yourself to your USD account when you think it is appropriate for you to do so. Also, with Travelex, you do not need to hold on to foreign money for so long, since there are no fees per international transaction to cut into the overal percentage.

If anyone wants to contact Travelex to benefit from this great service, feel free to email me for info.

By: Jean-Christophe Helary

Jean-Christophe Helary — Thu, 22 May 2008 04:10:16 +0000

Regarding the Postal Bank in Japan, it has been privatized very recently and legaly separated from the Postal Services proper.

Right now it is not possible to wire money within Japan to other “common” banks but it will be possible from next January I heard.

So, currently, the Postal Bank is more useful for payments to foreign entities than for payments to local ones. But that will change.

Also the fees are significantly lower than when using a normal bank.

By: Marianne Reiner

Marianne Reiner — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:13:44 +0000

Hi Corinne:

Thanks for this great posting. I just received payment from a client in Europe on my Paypal account and indeed the only fee I was charged was 5 euros! And with the current conversion rate, I say “Yeah for euros and European clients”!
Best,

Marianne

By: Corinne McKay

Corinne McKay — Wed, 14 May 2008 22:28:59 +0000

Thanks for your comment! I love countries where the post office functions as many other things as well (bank, insurance agency, etc.). It sounds like you have a great system worked out in Japan.

By: Jean-Christophe Helary

Jean-Christophe Helary — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:24:36 +0000

I use the Post Office in Japan to pay the people I work with.

I can send international remittances either directly to their address or to their bank account, either in cash or directly from my postal account.

Jean-Christophe

By: Corinne McKay

Corinne McKay — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:55:52 +0000

Hello and thanks for your comment! Unfortunately PayPal’s US pricing structure seems to be different. Looking at the “Website Payments Standard” account on their website, the fees don’t start to go down until you reach US $3,000, and then it only goes from 3.9% to 3.5% for international transactions. Sounds like Spain has a better deal!

By: Olli

Olli — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:56:20 +0000

From my own experience (and from the other side of the Atlantic), I would recomend PayPal for payments bigger than 1.000 € (as the fees to pay dramatically fall dawn after this ammount). For an ammount between 0 and 1000 €, I would choose Wire transfers. Here in Europe (at least in Spain) there is no charge for taking a transfer coming overseas (thought there were rumours about it, government decided they wouldn’t allow it).

Btw: the same applies for eBay