That seems to be the case as far as I can tell CH.
I have just had a lens bought by someone in the US. He instructed
his bank to transfer the funds direct to my UK bank. It cost him $50
to transfer $440; this was intended to be the full purchase price of
£310(UKP). In the event, one of the banks (probably in the US) took
a larger cut, or perhaps the exchange rate changed (!), and what I
received in my bank was short. So my customer sent me a $20 bill to
cover it (by agreement). This was by far the most satisfactory US-UK
transaction for me in the last 12 months (yes, it was only the 3rd
;-)).
BTW, this customer also organised insured FedEx to transport his buy.
I had to call the office near my home and they came and collected the
item. It arrived with him the next day!
- Banks
I had always thought that the British banks were pretty average
(although my current one, the Co-operative Bank is small and
excellent), but the US banks that I did business with 12 years ago
were pretty useless. The German banks I dealt with were getting into
the computer age nicely when I returned to Germany in 1997, but the
Dutch banks (*&**&^%!) in 2000 were quite awful (except for the Post
Bank, which is excellent). Now we find that the Eurozone has no
central cheque clearing system (we have had it in the UK for years,
but we are only a small area to organise). The time taken in the
Eurozone to sort out cheques is apparently going to be longer than
before the Euro came on line!
These organisations could really do with getting themselves some
customer service ...
Chris
At 11:24 +0800 10/2/02, C.H.Ling wrote:
I think wire transfer has fixed charge which is independent of the amount
you transfer. If you have to pay thousands of US the charge is neglectable
and it is the safest way.
C.H.Ling
--
<|_:-)_|>
C M I Barker
Cambridgeshire, England.
?
+44 (0)7092 251126
mailto:imagopus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
... a nascent photo library.
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