Any halfway decent sized bank will have an international banking division
that can handle this for you. I often do stuff in the reverse (for my
business, not MG-related) where someone overseas wants to pay... three options:
1) I do most transactions by credit card, so the cc company does the
conversion (favorable to them, I'm sure). That seems to be out for you, so...
2) Wire transfer. Direct deposit from one bank to another. Just watch out
for fees - there may be a fee on both the originating end AND the receiving
end. Fees will probably be about $15 coming from overseas to US, not sure
about reverse.
3) A check drawn on a UK bank and in sterling. Most banks have partnership
agreements with other banks (particularly in London) so your bank's
international banking division can arrange to have a check cut and
delivered on your behalf from a bank in the U.K..
You seem to be a bit price-sensitive, so I would say this... getting a
check or a wire transfer will cost some money. Maybe $15 or $20. If that
seems high relative to the value of what you're buying, then I would
suggest that if you have a low-value item, that the difference in exchange
rates between $1.44 and $1.50 on paypal or whatever will not be significant
for lower cost items.
At any rate, there will be some cost incurred to get it from there to here.
- Tab
At 10:47 AM 5/15/02 -0500, Patton Dickson wrote:
>Thanks for the reply guys... Here is the issue,
>
>I just bought a part off of eBay from a guy in the UK. I was planning on
>using an international money order, but I incorrectly though I could get it
>in sterling, and falsely assumed that it would be easy. Well since I can't
>find a way to do that, I asked him how his other customers (he has good
>feedback) have handled it. His reply is below.
>
>------------------------------------
>I do not like the BidPay system but if you send $ then it will have to be
>$1.50 to the pound. $ money orders the bank charges me $8 to
>convert so if you send sterling then all would be straight forward. I do
>hope I have not been too long winded, but better be up front as I have in
>the past had customers dump on me when it came to the exchange rate system
>-----------------------------------
>
>I got a really good deal on the part, but I don't want to pay a 6% penalty
>on the exchange rate ($1.44 right now). Any other ideas? I also have to
>figure out the shipping issue since Airmail takes 4-5 days at $35 .vs
>surface mail taking 5 weeks $25 while I am at it....
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