I need help finding the best way to get a check in British pounds to Fred Rose in the UK.My bank tells me that they can order a check in Pounds but it will take 10 days to do this.Do I have any other way to make this transfer?
ron f
Hi Ron,
A similar question came up on the board a few months ago, and several options were discussed. You can check it out here:
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?topic=1962&forum=1
That thread also has some discussion on the difference between “freakin’” and “friggin’” for anyone who’s interested.
For me, whether it be the U.K., the Middle East, or Asia, I’ve always found credit cards to be the way to go as you don’t have the currency conversion hassles!
The problem with credit cards is that for many small merchants the fees to establish an account are prohibitive. I paid for my NSP G chanter by going to England and using my credit card in an ATM (the cash advance fees were less than the bank charges to convert funds), but as I was going anyway, this method might not work for all.
Recently, I’ve done two things. First, to pay for a small Ebay purchase, I went to a local AmEx office and bought sterling travelers checks. There’s some risk to this, as you have to countersign the checks before you send them, making them susceptible to theft, and the exchange rate’s not great - but this is useful for small amounts. The smallest purchase was 100 pounds - with all the fees, it came to about US$160-170. The other option was a Canadian company called cashbycourier.com. They will take your credit card and send you a money order or cash in the currency of your choice. No additional fees, and the exchange rates, while certainly at a premium over what you’d get from your credit card company, were reasonable (I think at about a 5% premium) - certainly better than airport rates at Thomas Cook or American Express. I think there’s a minimum purchase with this service - US$300. I was buying a nyckelharpa, so the minimum wasn’t an issue, but for a whistle, it might be set too high - you might need to buy two. One other thing - these guys are serious about credit card verification, so be prepared to prove you’re who you say you are (I had to FAX them a utility bill with my address on it, which was not easy, since we’d just moved house).
Hope this helps - there are other services, and bank-to-bank transfers are possible, but I’ve found that from the States, they are not easy to arrange and the bank fees are prohibitive. In this, Europeans have it easier.
Best,
Tim
[ This Message was edited by: Tim Hall on 2002-03-27 12:16 ]
On 2002-03-27 11:29, gogo wrote:
Hi Ron,A similar question came up on the board a few months ago, and several options were discussed. You can check it out here:
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?topic=1962&forum=1
That thread also has some discussion on the difference between “freakin’” and “friggin’” for anyone who’s interested.
I like the other “F” word better,
Anna “the Lenny Bruce” of poetry" Martinez
Have you checked out your National Post? I had to get some money over the other way round and the German Post does offer a special service for money transfers, cash in pay and they create a postal cheque to be send over. I presume that the National Post in the US or Canada offer a similar service, it can be expensive though as the fees are varying with the amount you have to send.
Brigitte
In Canada the “National Post” is a wanna be national newspaper with right wing neo-conservative thinking.
You might then want to use Canada Post, which will do international money orders.
MarkB
oh well… Canadian Post sounds right to me, I did not know about the newspaper existing with this name, the “National” I used as I did not know how the different countries postal systems might be called. Here it is Deutsche Post AG just to mention.
Enjoy your day
Brigitte
edited to correct my saying… switch to English today did not work as well as usual…
[ This Message was edited by: goldie on 2002-03-28 08:35 ]