Best Way To Pay For An Import

[BittyMooPeeb]

I paid my deposit for a dog using an international money transfer. My bank charged me a fee, but then I got slugged with another fee from an 'intermediary' bank. I am fuming at my bank, who did not inform me that they would not be sending the money directly. They claim it is in their terms and conditions that "other banks might charge a fee" (which it is) but how was I supposed to know that they would be sending the money to another bank and not the one I wanted the money to go to?

So, apart from venting about my (now hated) bank, I wondered how other people pay for imports without being slugged with huge bank fees.

[Ron]

I have imported 4 dogs 2 from the UK 2 from NZ and have always used a bank draft cost about $15 then just post it off. I have noticed on my internet banking that i can now do an international transfer, not had a look as I have had no need so not sure how that works and costs.

[peaceful]

PAYPAL is easy and the fees much cheaper.

[Ptolomy]

Interested to see what people suggest as I wil be parting with money shortly.

[SilverHaze]

I have used this a number of times. Recommended to me by a friend who works in the international banking/money game!

http://www.tranzfers.com

[Bokezu]

I do an international bank transfer, the cost is $30.00 each time I do one, doesn't matter how much money I transfer the cost is the same.

[Elkie1]

We recently paid some money for our new import in the UK and it costed us $28 fee with the Commonwealth bank and then an aditional 12 GBP. But aparently you can also do an intrnational transfer though the post office...

[Hunterhound]

I paid directly to the Swedish breeders account...I had a charge from my Bank & then a charge from the breeders bank. The charge is a fixed amount from both Banks. Therefore I got the charge with the deposit and the same lot of charges for the final payment just before the pup left. You need to factors these costs in when looking at your budget to import....it probably adds approx $100 to the cost.

[Kanati Whippets]

I just bought my 1st import at the end of May and did it through international banking over the phone.

They charged me $30 total for doing it and making sure it was in NZ dollars at the other end.

I was happy as i thought that was pretty cheep. It doesn't matter how much i transfer at a time, its still just the $30 fee for doing it.

no matter where it goes. so they told me.

ETA: the money went from my account straight into the breeders account.

Edited June 17, 2010 by Kanati Whippets

[flatchat]

My credit union did a direct transfer from my account to the Swedish breeder's. I think it cost $25.

[Quizzed]

I direct debited from my account to the International acct - can't remember the cost but it was reasonable

[yurrugar]

I used Paypal for all 5 of my imports. For my exports though, new owners have always directly deposited into my account.

[ellz]

I received payment for my recent export to Japan via PayPal.

Back in the days prior to the internet I paid for my imports from the UK, USA and New Zealand via either International Money Order or a Bank Draft in their currency.

[perryamstaffs]

having worked in a bank i can tell you that each bank has fees for outgoing transfers and incoming transfers internationally you can also be charged by other banks that the money transfers through. for example if it has to go through a major bank to get into a credit union the major bank will take some fees. it is best to ask the breeder to find out the fees involved at their bank for incoming fees and get the swift code (so it goes directly to that bank not through others) to limit the inbetween banks which noone can get fees for as it can change each time transmited, if the fees are to high ask if they have fees for an international draft ( they usually have a cleance time like normal cheques) and dont have fees at their end, due to lack of training the staff may not have known it took me a really upset customer to actually look into this and found out most banks dont do training on this as most people think it was lost in conversion but i must say once staff know they will inform you i made sure every customer was told because as a manager i didn't want a repeat of the first (mind you it took me 2mths of internal calls to find out it was frustrating like everything else their which is why i dont work in banking anymore), you should also send the money already converted as our rates in australia are usually better then europe but not for usa

make sure you look at everything to try save some of the expense every little bit helps

[Bokezu]

I did my third payment yesterday as my breeder is paying the airfares for me as well. This time the lovely bank girl told me that they do take charges out at the other end!! It was 16 euro for each payment to the account, so I paid the extra that would have been taken out. but wish they had told me, as I felt bad the arranged amount would not have arrived to her account, it would have been 16 euro less each time......!!!!!! no wonder she said in her last e-mail to me "make sure you pay all bank charges"!!!!!!

[BittyMooPeeb]

having worked in a bank i can tell you that each bank has fees for outgoing transfers and incoming transfers internationally you can also be charged by other banks that the money transfers through. for example if it has to go through a major bank to get into a credit union the major bank will take some fees. it is best to ask the breeder to find out the fees involved at their bank for incoming fees and get the swift code (so it goes directly to that bank not through others) to limit the inbetween banks which noone can get fees for as it can change each time transmited, if the fees are to high ask if they have fees for an international draft ( they usually have a cleance time like normal cheques) and dont have fees at their end, due to lack of training the staff may not have known it took me a really upset customer to actually look into this and found out most banks dont do training on this as most people think it was lost in conversion but i must say once staff know they will inform you i made sure every customer was told because as a manager i didn't want a repeat of the first (mind you it took me 2mths of internal calls to find out it was frustrating like everything else their which is why i dont work in banking anymore), you should also send the money already converted as our rates in australia are usually better then europe but not for usa

make sure you look at everything to try save some of the expense every little bit helps

Hi DeepImpact,

I did have the swift code for the transfer, and was told at the bank that the only charges would be their own charge, and that of the receiving bank. I was not told that they would not send the money to the receiving bank, but would send it somewhere else first!

So it seems like Paypal might be the go (I am still fuming at paying $50 to transfer $1000 - what a rip off!! no wonder banks make huge profits).

Does anyone know if the recipient needs to have a paypal account?

[Quizzed]

I am fairly sure the receipient needs to have a PAYPAL account for you to pay that way

[nynka]

don't forget paypal has it's own commission fees according to $ amount too, so may end up more expensive than bank fees.

Transferring a large sum of money internationally does cost a bit in itself.

[Silverblue]

I used a direct debit from my account to theirs, I was happy to pay the extra for piece of mind, it is alot of money to be floating around in cyber space.

[nynka]

yes, I have always used direct transfer to bank account also, using swift etc. I think just on this occasion you had some shonky expenses and should follow that up with your bank....