I'm looking to place an order with b-c.de who require payment via bank transfer (they charge for CC).

Am I right in thinking there are no bank charges incurred for EU online bank transfers?

take the CC charge

I got charged £25 when i sent a bank transfer from here to the Netherlands. I did go into the bank to do this so it might not be the same, but i presume it would be.

credit card gives you payment protection. are you fluent in german ? would you want to try getting your money back yourself?

check with an internet currency converter, how many pounds you have to send for the euro amount—and make the bank transfer in pounds !!— the german company receives the money in euros, this way there is no! charge for converting…

Looks like HSBC charge £9 for an online transfer, so the €5 CC charge is the better bet.

check with an internet currency converter, how many pounds you have to send for the euro amount—and make the bank transfer in pounds !!— the german company receives the money in euros, this way there is no! charge for converting…

Have you successfully managed that? When I looked into this the charge for a bank transfer to Europe (about what handyman said) had nothing to do with the currency conversion. I've previously taken a CC or paypal hit instead.

accu – Member
check with an internet currency converter, how many pounds you have to send for the euro amount—and make the bank transfer in pounds !!— the german company receives the money in euros, this way there is no! charge for converting…

Wrong. Beneficiary will pass charge to convert back on you. Even then, the rate on a currency converter will be based on a live mid-market rate and won't be the same rate used by the beneficiary bank to convert GBP to EUR so your amount will be immediately wrong.

CC charge is the best way to go, far cheaper than a cross border SWIFT payment.

did it often..

there is an EU reg. that there is no currency converting charge allowed for cross boarder SWIFT payments within the EU ..

I always added 1 or 2 pounds (or euros , the other way…)to cover up currency changings while sending the transfer..

bank charges for transfers are another subject and are individual, but using my CC I also have to pay a charge for feoreign use..
whatever is best or cheaper

and some more about that…

http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/payments/crossborder/index_en.htm

My understanding was that the free transfer is only for payments in Euros between Eurozone accounts. So Euro-GBP and vice versa incurred a cost. Either way when you make the payment you can specify all costs and currency transaction fees to be paid in advance, so the recipient gets the exact specified number of euros.

TBH, I'd go the CC route. Gives you some kind of protection, unlike bank transfer. First mistake I made here in Germany was purchasing household goods and paying up front. They have your money and mess you around and put your delivery priority to the bottom of the pile, and prioritise those paying CoD. So I always use CC or CoD now, never pre-payment for *anything*, whether it'd be bike24, rose, b-c.de, or anything else (although never had an issue with the bike stores).

andy…maybe its best to use CC..

but …not long ago a friend of mine bought his DB alpine MK2 by using the cross boarder SWIFT payment, he added 2 pounds to cover currency changings and sent euros ! to mike, mike received pounds….the charge for that was 50,- cent ( half euro!!) the same charge as for any other transfer he does in germany..NO!! other charges, not for converting ..nothing !
cheaper than CC and no CC charges for mike !!

accu – you're talking about making payments from a German bank account? They're set up to do this – UK bank accounts are different.