The Wholesale Forums

[Cholera]

I wanted to write this down so that anyone who is considering importing from any country, can see that you can easily make a payment to a supplier, even if it is a small amount or large amount...no need for Paypal, no need for expensive and admin hungry TT's etc.

I often use a company called TransferMate [for payments to any country except India...as I have a Bank account in India for paying Indian suppliers].

Web address: http://www.transfermate.com/

The premise is simple. Send TransferMate the payment and they will, in turn, credit your supplier's bank account with the funds.

Cost? A flat £10. Most UK banks charge at least £25 and more [some use a sliding scale of charges, of course].

PLUS...they give you FAR better currency exchange rates than your bank ever will. That's not an exaggeration. Your Bank WILL rip you off with the currency rate.

Furthermore: 1st transfer is FREE and if you are sendind regular overseas payments.....they will waive the £10 fee on ALL your transactions.

Process: You DO need Internet banking [this is one way of verifiying your ID, and they may ask you for more, depending upon sums involved etc].

You setup TransferMate as a recipient in your biull payments section, of your Internet banking [they provide sort code, aa/c number and you use your biz/personal name as a reference]

You email TransferMate when you send money: Tell them the amount, the beneficiary full details etc etc etc

You pay TransferMate via your Internet banking service. Add the £10, if applicable.

They get the money, usually within 2 days, from your bank.

They take out their £10 [if applicable] and pass the rest on to the beneficiary you have previously supplied them with.

That's it.

They are NOT a scam. They are NOT greedy gets. They are professional, long-term, well regarded operators in the FX exchanges. If you are considering using them, please do some homework first to give YOU peace of mind...I have around 100 transactions over 2 years for mine.

I am NOT connected nor on some form of commissions etc. I merely mention them to help smaller operators get a better and easier deal, than they do from their bankers.

This is ALMOST as easy as Paypal, believe me and yet is WAY much more secure [few scammers give out as many details as a bank account needs etc etc, but don't use that as the ONLY qualification to judge them upon].

NEVER use Western Union [dangerous, of course AND expensive]...use a bank deposit!

Hope this helps, please let me know [via the forum] if you find them of use.

This may be of no use to some, but....they also ACCEPT foreign payments on your behalf. Your buyer pays them, they then pay you. Useful if your bank gives you lousy currency exchange rates

Mike

[DSC]

Your post is factually incorrect in many ways.

They do not offer a far better rate than banks, I could get atleast 1% more than they are offering on USD at HSBC. T/T does not take alot of admin at most 1 side of a4 and its much quicker than this service. Also I have never paid £25 for a T/T

Finally this company is registered in Ireland so it would be difficult for someone in the UK to take action against them if things went wrong.

[Cholera]

Hmmmm...I forgot to consult your mighty wisdomness on what you what rates YOU were getting, forgive me. Had I realised I had to compare your deals with teh rest of the world, I'd have surely sought your consent to post.

Your post is claiming factual incorrectness in comparison with your own set of circumstances.....it is disingenuous at best, to claim the facts are incorrect, wholly.

I meant this post as a broad rule of thumb for smaller operators; and as for FX rates, my bank [Nat West] DO go to town [in the wrong direction] on currency rates.

Please clarify "1% more"...you mean you get an extra cent on the dollar or an extra penny in the pound? Your vagueness, does cloud the matter of your supremacy in matters of banking, somewhat. If you are confused whether TM offer currency rates to 4 [or more] decimal places, please do take the time to research befor you condemn.

TT DOES [depending upon one's arrangement with the bank] take more admin than paying TransferMate ...fill in the forms, send [or fax them] back, await bank to set it up, await payment, confirm payment received. TM= send payment via Internet banking [no need for forms], send beneficiary details to TM, await TM to confirm when money is landed in beneficiary account.

I am glad YOU are smart enough never to have paid £25 for a TT [I bow down to you, Sir Richard].....but as mentioned, this post isn't meant to fit all operators, all the time...just some of the people, some of the time.

I'm glad you feel you can trust Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company, Ltd, even though their parent company is not a UK entity. But who said trustworthy corporations *only* came from the UK?

Mike

[DSC]

If you are paying tourist rates for your business transactions then anything is going to appear good. I thought it quite clear by how I phrased my post but for you I meant an extra 1% to the dollar.

Every high street bank in the UK I have used for TT in the UK only needs you to fill in 1 side of A4 and fax it to them, no more. Which is less work than you admit to having to do with this company.

I am not saying trustworthy companies only come for the UK but you can have a bad experience with any company of any size anywhere in the world. But when it comes to financial matters its infinitely more difficult to resolve it if the company is not UK based and regulated by the FSA. By the way HSBC is a British company headquartered in the UK.

[Cholera]

Let's agree to differ on everything here...let's not fall out on what is, after all, hardly going to cause anyone any worry long term. I sincerely wanted to let smaller traders see that there are other options to TT, which for *some* smaller traders are costly and a bit of an obstacle [at times etc].

Everything we discuss is academic, in some form or another so I'm happy to not labour any more on this, if you are. Being a newcomer here, I really don't want to alienate anyone :O) Least of all somebody with such a good reputation and enviable standing here.


Mike

[otrendycar]

I paid 45 pound on admin fees in Barclays when I use T/T . WHy?

[Meeko]

Barclays make me sick.... I've been with Barclays for like 10 years and I have to admit they are absolutely terrible and their interest rates suck. I can't wait to change banks! It's just finding the time to do it. Barclays charged me 20 quid for an international transfer. My interest rate at the moment is 0.10%... yes can you believe that? not even 1%. I believe Natwest & Alliance & Leicester have pretty good interest rates on their current accounts.. like both around 6% or more. Everytime I call Barclays they're always trying to sell stuff to me... I'm already a customer of theres yet they continue to spam me with mortgage deals and loans and insurance. I hate Barclays and all that they stand for . The customer service at Barclays sucks... also their online banking is dire... If you make a transaction it wont actually show online for like a week or 2 and even then it only displays like the last 10 transactions which clear after 7 days or somthing ridiculous/ END OF RANT.

[SIXS]

I've never used TM but i can understand why people would use this service as the service does look good and easy to use.

Why would you want to manually fill a form in every time and fax it. It's takes time and money and plus fax is not as secure as you think!!

I would'nt personally want my suppliers details, bank account no's etc sitting on a fax machine at the end of someone's desk. Plus banks have a poor record of destroying personal informaton (see watchdog).

I used to have a Barclays business account and not only do you have to go into a branch to fill in a TT form but they charge you for £45! Time & money!!

I switched to HSBC and opened a business account. I can now make international payment online for only £15 and i can check the rates before i pay. Very easy to use and simple and not to mention cheap. I can even save all my supplier payee details so i dont have to fill in anything every time i want to pay.

TM looks like a good service and it seems easy and it's cheap.

Cholera good post i'm backing you up all the way. You make sense and i'm sure small traders will appreciate your advice.

[Cholera]

I concur that HSBC seem to be the best of a very bad bunch; banks, in general, make the mafia seem like pussycats.

Thanks for posting your experiences and prices you've paid for TT....I was beginning to wonder if Nat West were just picking on me, for a minute there....I got quite paranoid

£40+ quids for a TT? Blimey....this seems to say to me that banks don't really give two toots for smaller businesses [say, sub £100K T/O businesses or sole traders etc]...and they just take the urine and charge as much as they can get away with. The charges seem to bear no relation to 'cost' or 'fair markup' on cost.

Also, in the past afore I started to use 3rd party currency transfer services like TM and Ruesch http://www.ruesch.com/ [well established, reputable, major player who also charge £10 per inward or outward transfer....but their exchange rate is not as good as TM or perhaps HSBC, maybe]....I would get one Nat West geezer/geezeress on the phone giving me one price for xx amount of TT and yet another giving me another price for self same amount....almost varying the price to maximise the income, dependant upon what time of day it was. That's just my experience with Nat West....but in the main, to my limited experience [2 business bank accounts from 2 banks running concurrently for a long while]...they are all shysters. Wouldn't trust any of 'em with me savings The mattress is safer

Out of interest...would people be interested in comparing the varying TT charges they've been levied, here, just for comparisons in the main, etc? Gripes on said charges, gratefully read and welcomed!

Thanks again, your experiences have given me some reassurance [that it's just not me suffering from a banker who spreads it thick and wide, charge wise].

Mike

[studio1one]

I'm with HSBC

rates are good charges are not so.

Thankfully when I send to China its often to HSBC too because most shnxhen manafacturers bank in hong kong


same day£10 with good rates at that point.