Bank commission charged for direct DACS payment to EU bank accounts

[shearwater]

Hello all,

 

I write to ask to Alamy colleagues from EU about bank commissions charged in DACS direct claim payments to their EU bank accounts.

 

This year I received my first DACS payment directly claimed by me. On 1st October I received the payment of 35pounds in my spanish bank account. In the transfer detail I can see a charged commission of 25€. So I got only 15€ of a 40€ payment 

 

I asked my bank and they said that they didn’t charged me any commission. They claim the transfer has shared costs and that the commission was collected by an intermediary bank, which seems that did the currency conversion too. They told me to ask the emisor for the MT103 payment document, which is a document that should reflect the transfer details with commissions charged from sender to receiver.

All I know is that DACS use HSBC UK Bank for payments.

 

So my question is: Have you got any kind of commission for DACS payment to EU bank accounts? 

Is this normal or may be worth ask DACS?

 

I can say that I have never had any commission applied to any payment from Alamy to the same bank account. Not sure which bank Alamy uses.

 

Looking forward to hear your experiences.

 

Thank you and regards!

 

[John Mitchell]

Can't speak for EU banks, but my big rich Canadian bank took $15 because it was an international transfer. They do this as a matter of course, which is why I use PayPal for Alamy payments.

[spacecadet]

This may be down to the type of payment. I know that I will be charged about £20 by my bank to send money to an EU bank.

The other change this year is that the UK is no longer in the EU, although of course it was never in the eurozone where such commissions were banned. So it may be a case of welcome to the Brexit, sir.

Edited November 6, 2021 by spacecadet

[shearwater]

46 minutes ago, John Mitchell said:

Can't speak for EU banks, but my big rich Canadian bank took $15 because it was an international transfer. They do this as a matter of course, which is why I use PayPal for Alamy payments.

Thank you, John.

As far as I know UK still remains in SEPA area. And my bank states that they do not charge a commission for transfers in this area. So they claim it is from the sender part.

I use bank payment with Alamy, and never had a commission charged, even being "shared costs" bank transfers.

[shearwater]

19 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

This may be down to the type of payment. I know that I will be charged about £20 by my bank to send money to an EU bank.

The other change this year is that the UK is no longer in the EU, although of course it was never in the eurozone where such commissions were banned. So it may be a case of welcome to the Brexit, sir.

As commented, I think the UK still remains in SEPA area. And my bank states that they do not charge a commission for transfers in this area. So they claim it is from the sender part. Despite that, it could be as you say...a Brexit thing 

Let's wait to other EU members experience before asking DACS.

Thank you, spacecadet.

[shearwater]

I have wrote DACS asking for this issue. Waiting for their reply.

Anyone from EU can tell me if they have got a similar commission?

I wonder how much I would had received if the DACS payment were a couple of pounds... nothing? 

 

[biel]

On 18/11/2021 at 20:52, shearwater said:

I have wrote DACS asking for this issue. Waiting for their reply.

Anyone from EU can tell me if they have got a similar commission?

I wonder how much I would had received if the DACS payment were a couple of pounds... nothing? 

 

I are in the same scenario, more brutal than yours. I ask to DACS, reply:

All our payments are made by direct bank transfer, and we have no control over any fees your bank charges you I’m afraid.

As long as the payment has been made successfully, there will be nothing we can do to recall it.

----------------

bank again. The others years no commission so other method is necessary or the next year the same history pop up. Of course my bank have 0 commission..

Paypal have commission too, so if you have any method with 0 "commission"...

Edited December 15, 2021 by biel

[shearwater]

3 hours ago, biel said:

 

I are in the same scenario, more brutal than yours. I ask to DACS, reply:

All our payments are made by direct bank transfer, and we have no control over any fees your bank charges you I’m afraid.

As long as the payment has been made successfully, there will be nothing we can do to recall it.

----------------

bank again. The others years no commission so other method is necessary or the next year the same history pop up. Of course my bank have 0 commission..

Paypal have commission too, so if you have any method with 0 "commission"...

I asked DACS one month ago, but haven’t received an answer yet. It is strange for me, because they usually reply very fast. But viewing your answer…mine would be the same 

My bank swear they didn’t charge anything and that I should ask the emisor…so, we are caught in the middle of the fire shots.

Yes, we should ask DACS for another payment method for next year for EU citizens (Paypal wasn’t supported as far as I know, only bank transfer).

Regards

[Jill Morgan]

3 hours ago, biel said:

 

bank again. The others years no commission so other method is necessary or the next year the same history pop up. Of course my bank have 0 commission..

Paypal have commission too, so if you have any method with 0 "commission"...

 

There is no commission from Paypal on Alamy payments.  Alamy eats the commission.  It is the best way to get Alamy payments.

 

Jill

[meanderingemu]

2 hours ago, Jill Morgan said:

 

There is no commission from Paypal on Alamy payments.  Alamy eats the commission.  It is the best way to get Alamy payments.

 

Jill

 

how do you get your funds with no commission from Paypal?  Do you have a US based bank account to transfer the funds to?

[Rico]

7 minutes ago, meanderingemu said:

 

how do you get your funds with no commission from Paypal?  Do you have a US based bank account to transfer the funds to?

I use of the big Canadian banks. It doesn't have to be US. Works great, but it takes a few days longer to get it deposited to PP, then you transfer it to your regular bank.

[meanderingemu]

1 minute ago, Rico said:

I use of the big Canadian banks. It doesn't have to be US. Works great, but it takes a few days longer to get it deposited to PP, then you transfer it to your regular bank.

can i ask which bank?  mine only has US$ accounts that can't be linked with Paypal, forcing a conversion into Can$ which Paypal charges a hefty commission on.  

[Rico]

1 minute ago, meanderingemu said:

can i ask which bank?  mine only has US$ accounts that can't be linked with Paypal, forcing a conversion into Can$ which Paypal charges a hefty commission on.  

CIBC. It gets deposited to PP in US dollars and when I make the transfer over to the CIBC account it makes the conversion automatically. Easy as pie.

[Jill Morgan]

22 minutes ago, meanderingemu said:

 

how do you get your funds with no commission from Paypal?  Do you have a US based bank account to transfer the funds to?

 

I don't do anything.  It goes in to my account as US funds.  I can either change it over to Cdn or use it to pay for a bunch of subscriptions I have that are in US dollars, but no fee to accept the money itself.

 

Jill

[meanderingemu]

1 minute ago, Rico said:

CIBC. It gets deposited to PP in US dollars and when I make the transfer over to the CIBC account it makes the conversion automatically. Easy as pie.

so you let Paypal convert it to Canadian dollars with a 2.5% commission?  not really "no commission" in my view, and extremely high a fee for conversion.  

[Rico]

5 minutes ago, meanderingemu said:

so you let Paypal convert it to Canadian dollars with a 2.5% commission?  not really "no commission" in my view, and extremely high a fee for conversion.  

Where do you see that PP charges a commision? It's a straight conversion to Cdn. The rates may vary, but there is no commission stated.

[biel]

in the middle of this whole conversation... one thing is managing DACS payment by alamy and another thing is managing DACs by yourself. In my case I manage DACs,  so maybe if you delegate this to Alamy, Alamy "eats" the Paypal commission

[spacecadet]

12 hours ago, Rico said:

Where do you see that PP charges a commision? It's a straight conversion to Cdn. The rates may vary, but there is no commission stated.

It's an inside commission so not itemised. Paypal list it in their fees.

In the UK we suffer a forex commission on all payments from Alamy when our dollar commissions are converted to sterling anyway. It's north of 3%.

[meanderingemu]

13 hours ago, Rico said:

Where do you see that PP charges a commision? It's a straight conversion to Cdn. The rates may vary, but there is no commission stated.

 

https://www.paypal.com/ca/webapps/mpp/paypal-fees#fixedFees

 

 

wow, it might be 3%/4% now.  (hadn't checked the new agreement)

Edited December 16, 2021 by meanderingemu

[Rico]

1 hour ago, meanderingemu said:

 

https://www.paypal.com/ca/webapps/mpp/paypal-fees#fixedFees

 

 

wow, it might be 3%/4% now.  (hadn't checked the new agreement)

I'm going with what Jill said.

"There is no commission from Paypal on Alamy payments.  Alamy eats the commission.  It is the best way to get Alamy payments."

 

[spacecadet]

34 minutes ago, Rico said:

I'm going with what Jill said.

"There is no commission from Paypal on Alamy payments.  Alamy eats the commission.  It is the best way to get Alamy payments."

 

I explained that. There is forex commission- it's just inside. You get 4% or whatever less than the best interbank rate.

[meanderingemu]

44 minutes ago, Rico said:

I'm going with what Jill said.

"There is no commission from Paypal on Alamy payments.  Alamy eats the commission.  It is the best way to get Alamy payments."

 

 

 

That's two statement, maybe 3/4% commission for you is acceptable making it "The best way to get Alamy payments", but saying that Alamy pays that commission is not true.  Fact that you don't see the commission explicitly doesn't make it No Commission- same as UK contributor pay a conversion fee when Alamy converts it to UK pounds.

 

 Considering i can usually do my US-CAN$ conversion at about 0.50%, this is paying about $30 commission per $1000 revenue, which is not paid by Alamy in any way 

[Rico]

1 hour ago, meanderingemu said:

 

 

That's two statement, maybe 3/4% commission for you is acceptable making it "The best way to get Alamy payments", but saying that Alamy pays that commission is not true.  Fact that you don't see the commission explicitly doesn't make it No Commission- same as UK contributor pay a conversion fee when Alamy converts it to UK pounds.

 

 Considering i can usually do my US-CAN$ conversion at about 0.50%, this is paying about $30 commission per $1000 revenue, which is not paid by Alamy in any way 

Everybody can choose whatever payment system works best for them, lots of options fortunately. All the best.

[CarloBo]

On 06/11/2021 at 19:08, shearwater said:

Thank you, John.

As far as I know UK still remains in SEPA area. And my bank states that they do not charge a commission for transfers in this area. So they claim it is from the sender part.

I use bank payment with Alamy, and never had a commission charged, even being "shared costs" bank transfers.

You're right UK is still part of SEPA, I don't think it's due to Brexit.  As a rule of thumb, banks that are smaller, don't have multicurrency account, have no branches in the country of receiver...etc need an intermediary bank to facilitate the transfer and they charge up to 100$ each transaction.

The best way to avoid intermediary bank transfer feee is to cut banks out

 

I let Alamy claim my DACS and I'm paid on PayPal (and yes there are hidden fees of about 4%, not sure what it means that Alamy eats commission).

[spacecadet]

SEPA merely prohibits additional cross-border fees for euro payments in the EU. It didn't, and doesn't, have any relevance to Alamy payments.

Edited December 17, 2021 by spacecadet

[meanderingemu]

18 hours ago, Rico said:

Everybody can choose whatever payment system works best for them, lots of options fortunately. All the best.

 

the issue is not what you pick, it's claiming that there is no fee.  This reminds me of discussions on some forums where people prefer the approach of Micro agencies that don't display how much they pocketed vs Alamy's more explicit method.