[LINK] RFI: Overseas Payments

Marghanita da Cruz marghanita at ramin.com.au
Tue Mar 18 16:29:59 AEDT 2014


Young things seem to live by Gumtree. So, I asked
http://www.gumtree.com/money-transfer-services

Marghanita
Roger Clarke wrote:
> At 17:47 +1300 18/3/14, Paul Bolger wrote:
>> PayPal,  if you don't mind giving your business to reactionary Americans.
>> Otherwise you could try giving a cc authorisation for that amount. 
>> Car hire places seem to regard that as okay for security.
> 
> Leaving aside the question of the gouge involved in the PayPal 
> yet-another-intermediary scheme, there are a great many people and 
> small businesses around the world to whom people want to transfer 
> money use bank accounts, and don't accept payments through credit 
> cards.
> 
> Off-list, http://www.ozforex.com.au/ was suggested.  (Thanks!).
> 
> My impression was that it was more than 1.6% of the amount transferred.
> 
> (And of course it's always necessary to check the conversion rate, to 
> make sure that the spread they're applying is in line with the 
> market).
> 
> But $16 per $1000 is way better than $80 flat!
> 
> _________________________________________________________________________
> 
> On 18/03/2014 5:40 PM, "Roger Clarke" 
> <<mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au>Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au> wrote:
> 
> What are linkers' experiences with making payments overseas?
> 
> I paid 50% of a 10-day rental in France recently.
> 
> Suncorp took AUD 20 off me for starters.
> Then it arrived EUR 38 short.
> 
> That mirrors the experience with a payment to an Austrian bank last year.
> 
> Despite the invention of SWIFT 40 years ago, it appears that
> Australian banks aren't big enough or organised enough to be able to
> pay directly to mainstream banks overseas.
> 
> Instead, unnecessary intermediaries are used.  Suncorp, and I gather
> banks generally, protect themslelves by saying 'there may be fees'.
> But you can't know in advance what they are.  I'm looking for someone
> to threaten litigation, in order to force basic consumer rights to be
> reinstated.
> 
> In this case, Suncorp wrote an unapologetic letter back to me,
> pointed to their Terms, and offered to send the missing EUR 38 on to
> the French bank as a one-time-only favour.
> 
> I agreed, partly to get the EUR 38 back, partly to solve the
> immediate problem of the short-payment, but mainly to establish that
> they can indeed achieve payment of a nominated amount to a distant
> account.  Precisely EUR 38 arrived.  So they're bare-faced liars for
> saying that they can't do it!
> 
> 
> In the meantime, I need to make a further 50% payment to the French bank.
> 
> Does anyone know of a way to transfer funds that costs less than AUD
> 80 per transaction??!!
> 
> (With the largely-automated systems that are in place, somewhere
> closer to AUD 0.80 seems like a fair price.  Currency conversion is a
> separate transaction of course, with its own 'spread', i.e. fees,
> plus commission).
> 
> 
> [I'll claim this isn't Off-Topic, on the basis that, like SCADA, some
> part of the international transfer system probably now uses the
> Internet - one hopes, using a VPN ...]
> 
> 
> --
> Roger Clarke 
> <http://www.rogerclarke.com/>http://www.rogerclarke.com/
> 
> Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
> Tel: <tel:%2B61%202%206288%206916>+61 2 6288 6916 
>  <http://about.me/roger.clarke>http://about.me/roger.clarke
> mailto:<mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au>Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au 
>  <http://www.xamax.com.au/>http://www.xamax.com.au/
> 
> Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law            University of N.S.W.
> Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University
> _______________________________________________
> Link mailing list
> <mailto:Link at mailman.anu.edu.au>Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
> <http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link>http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
> 
> 


-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
Ramin Communications Pty Ltd
http://ramin.com.au/
Phone:(+61)0414-869202






More information about the Link mailing list