Payment surcharges?

[fciceri]

Hello everyone

I should first point out I live in Italy, outside of the UK. I recently purchased an inferno laptop, but upon payment, i was forced to pay by bank transfer due to issues with credit card payment. After waiting for a few days, the payment went through, and work began on assembling the laptop. After a few days, I noticed my payment was under by roughly 19 gbp. I paid by bank transfer, in euros, as my bank doesn't let me pay in gbp directly, but I distinctly remember looking up the rate for the day I was paying on and the amount was correct. I contacted support two days ago and I was told I had to pay the remaining amount by bank transfer, but I wasn't told there are any surcharges on paying with foreign currencies.
Am I missing out on something? I contacted support again but received no answer, and have waited for a combined 6 hours in live chat to no avail. Can someone tell me if I have to pay extra since I am paying in euros, or if there are any charges when paying with bank transfer(If I recall correctly, payment should be free via bank transfer).

thanks

 

[steaky360]

I would have thought the bank might charge you as you were paying someone in pounds and you paid in Euros (I know if I pay for something in Euros from my bank I get charged a fee). Although I'm not sure. I don't know if there are any charges from PCS for paying via bank transfer but if there were you would have been told about them when you ordered.

 

[fciceri]

All i know is I payed ~788 eur(637 GBP), and I was told that i am missing 18.54 gbp

 

[steaky360]

Might be worth seeing if you can have a chat to your bank about it / check your statement to see if it was a charge from them. Do you have online banking? Might be on there?

 

[Rakk]

Yeah, I'd ask your bank (or email PCS about it), I know if I pay for anything in any foreign currency from my bank/credit card that I get charged a fee for it, so it could well be something like that.
I know you said you had to pay in Euros, but maybe PCS got charged a fee for it (because you couldn't pay in GBP) which is why you still owe them a small amount

 

[fciceri]

I know you said you had to pay in Euros, but maybe PCS got charged a fee for it (because you couldn't pay in GBP) which is why you still owe them a small amount

Yeah, the thing is I was told i paid less, no mention of fees. Does anyone have a trustworthy current exchange rate?

 

[keynes]

Yeah, the thing is I was told i paid less, no mention of fees. Does anyone have a trustworthy current exchange rate?

I think it depends on when you transfer the money, when you say that you check the exchange rate did you use the rate given by your bank? If I want to do a bank transfer to another country I have to pay a fee to my bank and I think sometimes the recipient may be charge a fee by the oversea bank receiving my transfer.

 

[Rakk]

Yeah, the thing is I was told i paid less, no mention of fees. Does anyone have a trustworthy current exchange rate?

What I meant was that the amount that PCS received in UKP may have the amount you paid in Euros less a charge for exchange that the bank charged, whether PCS would be informed that a fee had been taken for conversion I just don't know.

Presumably the only people that would know the exact exchange rates and conversions fees at the time of payment would be the banks - though I realise that doesn't exactly help.

 

[steaky360]

The current exchange rate (from any single source) is probably NOT the rate used by your bank (unless it was the bank that told you it!) They will want to 'make' money on any transaction they do involving exchange rates and thus will probably buy/sell currency at varying rates which will be different to many of their competitors.

 

[fciceri]

I contacted PCS, asking specifically how much they want me to pay. As far as my bank goes, bank transfer online has no fees attached, and seeing as the currency remains euro, my bank should not be taking money out. I realise that the bank PCS is using(i assume it's hsbc) may be asking for a fee. As far as exchange rates are concerned, I checked from wed-friday(day payment was made to day payment went through), the variation was of ~3 pounds. I don't understand where the number 18.54 comes from. As far as I understand, the fee should be of 6 or 8 UKP, but I can't find details about that

 

[Rakk]

Ok, so after some research, this is what my bank charges (HSBC look to have the same rate).

Any transaction in a foreign currency is converted into sterling at our prevailing exchange rate and a transaction fee of 2.75% is subsequently applied for debit card transactions. This fee is known as the Exchange Rate Transaction Fee (ERTF).

So they charge 2.75% of the total amount, does that get to roughly 18.50? (by my calculations if the machine was £675 it would get a £18.56 charge)

Note: this is for debit card transactions, but bank transfers could well have the same charges on them.


As for how much PCS want you to pay, they've already said how much they need, however they do not know what the exchange rate and charges will be at the time of your transaction so will not be able to give you an accurate number that you will have to pay for them to get the right amount.

 

[fciceri]

So they charge 2.75% of the total amount, does that get to roughly 18.50? (by my calculations if the machine was £675 it would get a £18.56 charge)

18.54 is outstanding on a total of 637. I assume my exchange rate was off. since 788/(618.46*1.0275) = 1.24003165, where 788 is what i paid in eur and 618.46 is what was received in GBP, i would say 1.24003165*18.54 ~23 eur. I'll go ahead and pay 24 eur just in case something goes wrong. Can someone doublecheck that the conversion fee is percentile and not a flat fee, or can i just have a link to the source?
Thank you so much for your time

 

[Rakk]

I found it on page 1 of http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/PA_esf-ca-app-content/content/pws/content/personal/pdfs/gen-price-list.pdf
where its explaining about using your debit card abroad.

I reckon about 24 euros as well cos (18.54/0.8006)*1.0275=23.79 Euro's (where 1 euro = 0.8006 UKP according to google as of a few mins ago) but as mentioned by someone else, commission rates may be different to what it shows on Google, so I'd probably send through 25 euros to be on the safe side if it was me and hope that that's fine.

Note: obviously I'm not expert on the T&C's on bank charges, and those charges are what applies to using your debit card abroad - I would imagine its the same for bank transfers but I could be wrong. I could be wrong with the conversion numbers as well, I've had a very tiring week.

 

[fciceri]

Since I keep seeing the 2.75% is always tied to cards, to my understanding the % for the transaction comes from VISA. As a result, I think I'll wait and try to contact someone from support, or wait for an answer to my email, and see what they have to say. Thanks again for your help

 

[Rakk]

Since I keep seeing the 2.75% is always tied to cards, to my understanding the % for the transaction comes from VISA. As a result, I think I'll wait and try to contact someone from support, or wait for an answer to my email, and see what they have to say. Thanks again for your help

Good plan waiting
Cos although it looks like it probably is something like that, it may be something entirely different

 

[fciceri]

I am also considering online transfer services like transferwise. I can send my euros and know in advance how many GBP will be on the receiving end, something which I am unable to do by rough estimation