Sending money to america

helicopter99

Hi i'm thinking of buying a guitar from america just wondering if anyone has sent money over their not using pay pal? Paypal is what has been recommended by the seller but I was thinking is there a cheaper way with a better exchange rate to transfer money to america?

Thanks 

Teyeplayer

Purchased a Teye guitar direct from Teye some years ago, that was all bank transfer -all very smooth and easy. 

phil_b

I have always used PayPal 

SteveF

I use a Monzo card linked to my Paypal account when travelling and when paying for things in foreign currencies online. i.e. pay by Paypal but select the card as the payment method in the PayPal checkout screen iyswim.  When you pay, select to pay in USD rather than GBP and you'll use Monzo's exchange rate (which is Mastercard's basic rate with no fees on top).  As far as I am aware that's the best you'll likely get. It's certainly better than Paypal's own rate anyway.  (There are other cards which do the same thing I think, this just happens to be the one I got). 

As far as I can tell, this way you also get Paypal's buyer protection etc, as opposed to using bank transfer where I'm not sure what the protection is, if any. 

Wazmeister

Use Paypal.

Fully protected.

Majorscale

Agree with @Wazmeister, for protection a slightly worse exchange rate is worth it.

Bank transfers will also incur banking fees so not ideal and no protection. For regular bank transfers across borders I use transferwise but for a one-off purchase like this, with a safety net,  then PayPal can’t be beat. 

BlueStrat

+1 for PayPal; the extra service on top is worth the extra few quid in fees

danishbacon

I you trust who you are buying from and don’t mind waiting weeks for an insurance payout if the worst happens, Transferwise

Seziertisch

SteveF said:

I use a Monzo card linked to my Paypal account when travelling and when paying for things in foreign currencies online. i.e. pay by Paypal but select the card as the payment method in the PayPal checkout screen iyswim.  When you pay, select to pay in USD rather than GBP and you'll use Monzo's exchange rate (which is Mastercard's basic rate with no fees on top).  As far as I am aware that's the best you'll likely get. It's certainly better than Paypal's own rate anyway.  (There are other cards which do the same thing I think, this just happens to be the one I got). 

As far as I can tell, this way you also get Paypal's buyer protection etc, as opposed to using bank transfer where I'm not sure what the protection is, if any. 

I have a Revolut card in my PayPal account fir the same reason and the difference between PayPal’s exchange rate and the card rate is pretty significant. I recently bought an item for 600 sterling and the difference in EUR between the PayPal and Revolut rates was nearly EUR 40

octatonic

If they are trustworthy and a known entity then use Wise.
I’ve done this quite a few times.

Otherwise, PayPal.

Whitecat

My wife & I have a joint Capital One mastercard that has no additional forex fees other than the bank-favoured exchange rate... have this attached to PayPal, so when we pay we we pay in target currency rather than let PayPal convert (or just use card directly). Saves a bit every time...

Keiko

octatonic said:

If they are trustworthy and a known entity then use Wise.
I’ve done this quite a few times.

Otherwise, PayPal.

I used 'Wise' recently. I found it frustrating and expensive to set up, and not user friendly at all. No explanation of how to do the most fundamental things a user would want to do. Having to pay undisclosed fees whilst setting up the account. Once I got paid I had to google how to get the money out and into my actual bank. All left a bad taste in my mouth. Got there in the end though, and should be a bit more straight forward from now on. So just be aware if you only intend to use it once, the low exchange rate might not be so attractive when you add in the hidden setup fees and the amount of frustration setting things up.