Paying US$ to China

[Paul R]

I have a little venture going at the moment with a friend, nothing huge may just pay for my insurance next year or a weeks worth a petrol! Anyway he has sourced some bits we need in China and they want us to pay in $ which is far enough but what is the best way of doing this? Some kind of $ Account or just get hit by rates from my bank and pay from my normal current account? Will be ordering about once a month if all goes well. Can anyone shed any light on this?

Many thanks

[Golfman]

http://www.travelexbusiness.com/uk/

Or simply ask your bank to make the transaction for you... They will do all the conversion stuff for you.

What are you buying?

[rich1231]

Paul R said:

I have a little venture going at the moment with a friend, nothing huge may just pay for my insurance next year or a weeks worth a petrol! Anyway he has sourced some bits we need in China and they want us to pay in $ which is far enough but what is the best way of doing this? Some kind of $ Account or just get hit by rates from my bank and pay from my normal current account? Will be ordering about once a month if all goes well. Can anyone shed any light on this?

Many thanks

Please dont tell me you are paying in advance for a bundle of stuff from china? From a factory you havnt done business from before...

Arrange COD.

[Russ T Bin]

I have just done exactly the same thing, bought some items from China, went into my bank and paid, most companies in China are very trustworthy, but do some research on them before letting them have your hard earned.

[Exigeowner]

I probably spend about 500,000 min per yer in china and just do bank transfer through normal bank, only pay £15 for trnsfer plus whatever the day rate on usd to sterling, only recently as we are talking alot of payments in usd we have bothered to open usd account, same transfer fee but without the different usd daily rate, of course at some stage i will want it back in sterling but hopefully i will change it back when rate drop back down to 1.8

[cannedheat]

If sending via your Bank, get a rate from an exchange boutique first and ask the Bank to match it. I know HSBC will match the higer rates quoted by boutiques as they hate losing the business but you'll probs need to get your Bank branch staff to call their Treasury dept.

[VX Foxy]

cannedheat said:

get a rate from an exchange boutique first.

Thanks for the tip - could you recommend one?

[CHIEF]

99.9% of the time China will accept usd payments. ask them if they accept Western Union

but most still only accept TT (Wire Transfer) any bank can sort this but call and check the fees first.

make sure you dont get stitched up on shipping either.

been dealing with China for over 10 years now and buy a lot from there so if you want any pointers feel free to ask

[Batteryboy]

try HIFX have used them for years.

[dilbert]

Golfman said:

http://www.travelexbusiness.com/uk/

Or simply ask your bank to make the transaction for you... They will do all the conversion stuff for you.

What are you buying?

AK's no doubt!

[cannedheat]

VX Foxy said:

cannedheat said:

get a rate from an exchange boutique first.

Thanks for the tip - could you recommend one?

http://www.xe.com

http://www.xe.com/fx/

[G1ABB]

There are many cheaper alternatives to using the high street banks and if you hold foreign currency you are also adopting addtional exchange rate risk. It may be easier to set something up with say MoneyCorp or Travelex as suggested.... (there are plenty of others). Currency transfer is then direct from stirling to payee of your choice in just about any currency. Transfer fee itself is also less at around £6 a pop. It is the spread used that determines the majority of the transaction cost at least for larger transactions.

cheers
Graham