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Translation - art & business » Money matters »
Payment via bank transfer from UK client - I pay the bank charges?
Thread poster: sagmalschnell

sagmalschnell
Germany
Local time: 15:58
English to German
+ ...
May 16, 2017

Hello,

I completed a fast turnaround, small job for a UK client (my first job for them). It took them six week to pay me (81 EUR), fine, but when the money arrived in my bank account, it turned out that I paid the bank transfer charges, leaving me with 69 EUR.

Is this standard practice? Is it recommended to add a disclaimer to the invoice saying "applicable bank charges are paid be the client" or something like that?

Thanks for your advice.
 

sabine de vos  Identity Verified
Belgium
Local time: 15:58
Member (2016)
English to Dutch
depends on the bank! May 18, 2017

I had this issue too, then tried getting my payment through another bank (Keytrade) and ...no costs at all!
Also avoid Paypal, they too charge!
 

Thomas T. Frost  Identity Verified
Member (2014)
Danish to English
+ ...
Sort it out up front May 18, 2017

I always deal with the payment questions before accepting any work:

- When to invoice?
- When to pay?
- How to pay?
- Who pays which charges?

If PayPal is used, I set my rate about 6% higher to cover the fee.

There is also a range of non-bank money transfer solutions that are usually cheaper than banks. Transferwise typically charges up to 1%.
 

Amel Abdullah  Identity Verified
Jordan
Arabic to English
+ ...
Bank Charges May 18, 2017

You should discuss the matter with your clients, but even when the client pays, there may be charges from intermediary banks as well as charges from your own bank to contend with.
 

philgoddard
United States
Member (2009)
German to English
+ ...
Whose bank charges are they? May 18, 2017

If they're imposed by your bank, there's not much you can do about it.

If they're your client's, you should insist on full payment. You don't pay their electricity or phone bills, so why should you pay their bank charges?
 

Alexandra Schneeuhr  Identity Verified
Cyprus
Local time: 16:58
Member (2012)
English to Russian
+ ...
TransferWise May 18, 2017

Suggest them to use TransferWise service next time they have to pay you; three of UK agencies I work with use it and I have no complaints so far, as both parties save on conversion rates and bank charges.
 

Huw Watkins  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:58
Member (2005)
Italian to English
+ ...
I agree! May 18, 2017

Alexandra Schneeuhr wrote:

Suggest them to use TransferWise service next time they have to pay you; three of UK agencies I work with use it and I have no complaints so far, as both parties save on conversion rates and bank charges.


Transferwise is excellent. I even don't mind accepting the charge in these cases as it is so low and this is more than compensated by the fact that you get the genuine exchange rate of the day (compared to Paypal and banks who make huge margins on the exchange rate alone).

For a transaction of say 81 euros, the fees will be 2 euros absolute max with Transferwise (with a very modest additional charge if a credit card is used). I know this for an absolute fact as I have sent money using the service.

If the job is quoted to the UK client in euros, it actually saves them money as they will get better exchange rates, even including the charge.

[Edited at 2017-05-18 20:38 GMT]
 


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Payment via bank transfer from UK client - I pay the bank charges?

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