barclays

Sending small amounts of money overseas has always been a pain in the ass. From our side of the pond, it looks like this:

1) International Postal Money Order. Small fee, not availible at all Post Offices, can only get during business hours. 2) Travelers' Checks. Small fee. Can be purchased at most banks. Must be purchased during business hours. Can't be purchased in the exact amount, only to the nearest $10 or $20. 3) International Bank Draft / Cashiers' Check. Few banks will do it and the fees have gotten rediculous. 4) Send cash. Some risk of loss - I wouldn't do it for a large amount, but I've never had a problem. You can get foreign currency at any exchange for a nominal markup. Currency exchanges are hard to find outside big cities. 5) Paypal. Not sure what the fees are for this sort of thing. Normally the "seller" winds up paying about 3% on monies collected. The "buyer" pays no fee. There is probably an additional fee for the currency exchange. I'm sure you can look it up on their website. I've recieved and made several international payments with Paypal and had no problems. Once you have an account setup, it's pretty hassle free. I think the fees are small considering the agravation saved.

Greg

There's also BidPay, a service of Western Union:

My girlfriend (wonderful woman) popped into Barclays for me (I was doing more important things like model making) - as I sometimes need to either pay/sell small items through e-bay to/from American modellers. Forget Barclays - the cost of buying or cashing a dollar cheque is more than the cost of a new 1:72 plane kit !!

For small amounts it is simpler to mail dollar bills in an envelope and hope for honesty in the post and with the recipient.

(If you buy/sell numerous small items keep the US dollar bills instead of changing them into sterling - if you can afford it)

Well, that's my thrupence worth.

................ Remove the sea bird if you want to reply.

Thanks, no Barclays then!

I often round up to the next bill and ask them to inc singles back, i sent 7 last week, and one seller said today it hadnt arrived, vsmall amount, less than 15 bucks. i never change them back, i keep them in a LAPD money clip to use ! One payment hasnt arrived from 3 weeks ago, to someone here, so gonna send it again next payday.

HEy.brain wave, someone who won a few of my kits a few months ago pikced up as he was local, he buys from the US, maybe worth asking if he would do them for me in the future.

thanks, had noticed a lot of sellers said no bidpay but worth looking at

More the fools they. I've had excellent results with that.

Bill Banaszak, MFE