Billing US customers via forex website?

[JG Media]

Hi There,

I've ben reading through the forum about receiving international payments and a lot of posts come up suggesting the usage of forex sites.

How does this work?, does the site issue me with an account number I can attached to my invoices or does the client have to sign up and make a transfer via the site(this doesn't sound viable).

At the moment I'm being paid via paypal which is charging me 3.9% per payment received and then 2.5% to convert from USD to GBP... would i be able to create a forex account and credit it via paypal so I could skip paypals 2.5% conversion rate?

This is all exciting

Thanks

J

[questiontime]

You can also ask them to do international transfer from their bank account instead of using Paypal. so, you save on the 3.9% paypal fee. each such transaction will incur a fixed cost. depending on your fee rate, this fixed cost may be higher or lower than the 3.9%.

would i be able to create a forex account and credit it via paypal so I could skip paypals 2.5% conversion rate?

someone has to do the currency conversion for you. so you will end up paying this anyway.

[candyflipper]

The paypal option sounds terrible. If you want convenience, it would even be better to simply invoice in GBP and take a credit card payment. You would pay merchant fees, and the client would pay the FX fee. American clients can get credit cards that have no FX fee, so the only overhead is your merchant fee. Some card processors will rebate all or part of your merchant fees if they get to do the conversion (ie invoice in USD with a retail conversion rate).

If we're talking lots of money, you would be better off opening a USD account. Invoice in USD, and get USD revenue. Why even bother converting to GBP? Just let your USD account grow, and use it to pay for USD expenses. Convert only what you need. One plus is you'll be hedging against the GBP at no cost.

You could maybe get a USD credit card yourself (one that has no FX fees), and use it for expenses in any currency. Then settle the bill w/ your USD account.

[Wanderer]

At the moment I'm being paid via paypal which is charging me 3.9% per payment received and then 2.5% to convert from USD to GBP... would i be able to create a forex account and credit it via paypal so I could skip paypals 2.5% conversion rate?

Ouchie!

Get yourself a USD bank account quick smart. That way you can transfer the money with no exchange rate fee. Don't go giving those thieving bastard money changers any money.

http://www.caterallen.co.uk/PrivateB...s.aspx?pid=209