Non US People : Foreign Currency conversion (21)
Hey Guys
Need some advice on how you are dealing with this currency conversion from banks and foreign currency markup fees from Credit Cards while making payments.
Are you paying through your Cc to fund your accounts on traffic sources, buy tools/softwares etc.
Is there any way to minimise it?
@SuperAffiliates(non US) : Please advice on how you are tackling it.
I pay for traffic using my offshore company's card to avoid moving money from tax-free zone.
Probably that's the best option, because you keep cash flow outside your country and your taxes are zero.
When I need money locally I wire them to my local USD account (my bank in Russia provides USD, EUR and RUR accounts).
Also if I purchase something on Amazon for example I use my Russian card linked to my local USD account to avoid conversion.
I can easily exchange currencies between accounts using a bank's iPhone app, but I prefer to withdraw dollars in the ATM and exchange somewhere else with a better rate.
Transferwise typically has great rates
Transferwise is great. Also if you use Skrill or Neteller (most STMers probably don't, but many of my friends with poker background do) and work with a good affiliate, ask him. He might be able to help you out. I know mine personally for a long time and he does my xxx.xxx conversions for free (xe.com rates), which is pretty awesome.
I use MoneyCorp in the UK. You can just use their INTL bank accounts.
Cheaper than most services I've used in the past and transfer happens on the same day.
Ay transfer has a flat fee of £5 but I'm sure that's negotiable too.
How about paying for tools/softwares and to traffic sources?
Are you doing it through your Cc? Aren't you paying foreign markup fee?
In my country, Cc charges 3.5% as foreign markup fee for every int'l transaction that is huge 
Originally Posted by jsid1008
Are you doing it through your Cc? Aren't you paying foreign markup fee?
In my country, Cc charges 3.5% as foreign markup fee for every int'l transaction that is huge
Apply for an Amex 'EuroDollar' card: https://www.americanexpress.com/icc/eurodollar/
You obviously need the $-currency type card. All my USD CC payments go through these cards. At the end of the month Amex collects outstanding debts from my local USD bank account. Zero currency conversion markup fees by taking this route.
Another vote for TransferWise. Much more convenient than the bank's conversion rates.
You can use Transferwise instead of wires. CurrencyFair is also OK but cannot be used for everything because of AML. HiFX is usable but usually has worse rate than the previous two. TransferMate and WorldFirst (for some reason very popular in the UK) are pathetic jokes. I don't have experience with MoneyCorp.
Some banks allow you to have multiple accounts (e.g. USD, EUR and your local currency) and one card assigned to all these accounts. Then when you are in e.g. Germany and pay with card, the money is automatically deducted from your EUR bank account. When you pay on Amazon/ebay/Paypal, the money is automatically deducted in USD. Depends on the country.
It is also smart to have e.g. Skrill account in USD and a linked USD card and a Neteller account in EUR and a linked EUR card. Then use the one which you need.
Thanks for your input guys, now i pretty much know how to transfer currencies.
Making payments from my Cc is still a problem for me because i am unable to escape from the charges, i haven't find any alternative yet.
Transferwise for international transfers over a few hundred $$.
For CC payments you are not going to much headway worth mentioning unless you do one or all of the following:
a) get a card in the currency you are paying in (most important)
b) get a solid rewards scheme that compensates for the bleed
c) get a card from somewhere like Capital One (US only) where apparently they don't charge the 2-3% FX fees that virtually all banks charge on all non-local currency transactions.
I have checked with the topmost banks in India, all are deducting fees and they said that they are following the guidelines imposed by the central bank.
@ Zeno : Bank don't offer cards in USD here.
Use Kantox, way cheaper than all the fees banks charge when dealing with foreign currencies + faster
Typically banks can give you a card in a foreign currency. When I was buying, I kept a USD account at my bank and had a USD CC from them. I had others who got a USD CC from Amex or another CC company and just paid it via their bank. This way the currency was always the same and there was no exchange fee unless you were converting into another account. This saved me a fair amount of money.
Yes the rates are great but the fees are insane , they quoted me $167 in fees to transfer $10k which brings the rates lower than my terrible bank . I am guessing this service will be good from dollar to euro/pound or small amounts .
Originally Posted by bbrock32
Repeating again what I said above. Use kantox.com and your commissions will go divided by ten!
Banks rip your face off. Kantox matches companies that want to buy/sell foreign currencies and then swaps the money (eg american firm needs euros & euro firm needs dollars - swap it).
They got millions in investment behind them and have a team of +100 people. Very trustworthy. It saves us as global network with +800 worldwide active offers thousands and thousands of euros/dollars a years in stupid bank fees
You can also ask most banks for special (almost live) rates with minimal margin. Depends on the bank itself, but in most cases its doable for transfers in excess of 10k. Ask your account manager if they can offer this.
They'll never ever ever give you the rates kantox does. Even if you transfer +7 numbers a month. Kantox has traded over 2 billion dollars over the last year
Originally Posted by cbrughmans
These however are SEPA if account's holder bank is in EU,
so they are a few euros each irrespective of the amount I think.
Yes but both transfers are in the same currency. you tranfer them euros; they transfer you dollars. the bank fee for that (less than 5$) can be negotiated away with your bank if youre a decent client, but the euro-dollar bank tranfers commission is a total ripp-off and can never be negotiated away. that's where kantox comes into play. just check it out with them - im not taking any commission on it or something, just sharin how we saved thousands of euros in stupid bank fees by utilizing their service
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