Moving money around Europe

[edb49]

Been trying to get my head around this and thought the PH collective could help.

I've got a Juno CN race car that I'm selling, and a chap from France wants to buy it. It's probably worth £25-30k.

If it was a UK buyer, nice and simple, they give me cash which gets paid straight into my bank and they take the car away same day.

How can this work for a European buyer though? The chat wants to pay in Euros, and there are a few different issues with this:
- If he gets Sterling out of his bank, he will probably have a nasty exchange rate
- If the car isn't as I describe, he'll have to pay the exchange rate twice
- I don't 'know' euros so I probably couldn't recognise good forgeries
- If I'm pay euros into my bank, I'll get done with a nasty exchange rate

Any advice on how best to do this transaction for all involved?

[davepoth]

If he wants to pay in Euros, find out what rate your bank will apply, and covert the price at that rate.

[edb49]

davepoth said:

If he wants to pay in Euros, find out what rate your bank will apply, and covert the price at that rate.

That was my first thought, but I would imagine (I use Barclays) it will be a 'tourist rate' which on the amount of money we're talking about will be crazy.

[ironictwist]

If it were me, I'd head over, look over the car & if I'm happy with it, action a bank transfer...Stay the night at a hotel somewhere so money clears by AM & then head back home the next day with it.

[Chris944_S2]

He can do a bank transfer to your account in Sterling to the agred amount, all you need to do is give him your IBAN number.
Don't worry about the exchange rate or bank fees as he pays them all, the only thing you are concerned about is having the correct amount of Pounds in your account. The banks will apply their exchange rate plus a fixed fee for the transaction, but that's his problem not yours.

[ironictwist]

Chris944_S2 said:

He can do a bank transfer to your account in Sterling to the agred amount, all you need to do is give him your IBAN number.
Don't worry about the exchange rate or bank fees as he pays them all, the only thing you are concerned about is having the correct amount of Pounds in your account. The banks will apply their exchange rate plus a fixed fee for the transaction, but that's his problem not yours.

^^ Bingo. Thats how I get my international clients to pay.

[SirSamuelOfBuca]

Hmmm can't he just go bank and say can you send 25000 pounds to xxx.

When I transfer money to a usd account I just say send 3000 usd? Or am I missing something

[edb49]

Yep, I know it's possible to do an international wire transfer but it's not really ideal. I know I wouldn't want to stay the night picking up a car.

[edb49]

SirSamuelOfBuca said:

Hmmm can't he just go bank and say can you send 25000 pounds to xxx.

When I transfer money to a usd account I just say send 3000 usd? Or am I missing something

Doesn't have the immediacy of 'look at car, agree deal'. Also, he would need to be in two places at once - in his bank in France to do the transfer, and also over here looking at the car.

[ermi]

You could try this service. http://transferwise.com/ Startup company who just received 1m Usd as investment from PayPal founder.

[rohrl]

edb49 said:

Yep, I know it's possible to do an international wire transfer but it's not really ideal. I know I wouldn't want to stay the night picking up a car.

If the buyer is coming from abroad to look at a car costing £25K then another 40-odd quid on a Travelodge isn't going to be a big deal.

This sort of stuff is the buyer's problem anyway. It's up to him to supply you with the money if he wants the car, not for you to worry about how he does it.

[ironictwist]

rohrl said:

edb49 said:

Yep, I know it's possible to do an international wire transfer but it's not really ideal. I know I wouldn't want to stay the night picking up a car.

If the buyer is coming from abroad to look at a car costing £25K then another 40-odd quid on a Travelodge isn't going to be a big deal.

This sort of stuff is the buyer's problem anyway. It's up to him to supply you with the money if he wants the car, not for you to worry about how he does it.

Exactly, I'm sure someone spending that much money has a sensible enough head to know what/how he's going to be paying when he's buying from here, it's nothing for you to be concerned over Just sit back & wait for him to arrive...

[edb49]

rohrl said:

If the buyer is coming from abroad to look at a car costing £25K then another 40-odd quid on a Travelodge isn't going to be a big deal.

This sort of stuff is the buyer's problem anyway. It's up to him to supply you with the money if he wants the car, not for you to worry about how he does it.

If someone has £25k to spend on a race car, plus all the money and time to run it - they probably don't want to spend the night in another country unnecessarily, Travelodge or Hilton.

Just trying to be helpful in getting a solution to them, ultimately I will say "it's the Barclays exchange rate, sorry"

[DonkeyApple]

I thought this thread was going to be about the best vehicle for moving shed loads of cash around.

I would have suggested an RS6 or an AMG estate.

[rohrl]

DonkeyApple said:

I thought this thread was going to be about the best vehicle for moving shed loads of cash around.

I would have suggested an RS6 or an AMG estate.

You'd need to convert the cash to gold then cast gold bumpers for your Rolls-Royce. Ideally the R-R will be driven by a bowler-hatted Korean strongman.

[ermi]

I did quick calculation with http://transferwise.com/ and he will save £1k.