seeking advice on paying for coins won in European online auctions

Hoping many of you have already gone down this path. I have not....yet. It seems many of the auctions houses want to be paid via PayPal (or a thing called "BACS" and I have no idea what that is). Worse, I have read Paypal's site and it is not super clear on what I have to pay to get this done. I know there is some kind of charge for currency conversion.

Any advice (or gotcha's) would be super helpful! Thanks.

 

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Highly recommend wise.com.

It takes at few days to set it up the first time (involves a test deposit, if I recall) but after that it is by far the easiest and least expensive to send money to other countries.

Until recently it was called transferwise. If you search this forum you'll find more information and recommendations for the service.

 

I like PayPal if such auction houses accept it (most do). Once you have set up a PayPal account, it's very versatile and easy to use.

 

Don't the auction houses tack on an extra fee if paying by PayPal or credit card?

 

BACS is basically just a bank transfer. PayPal has a few fees and poor currency conversion rates, but is really is to use. You could try a money transfer website - I know a few of them offer good sign up bonuses

 

I like Stripe - a British based payments system. I have used this in the Leu auctions. Leu granted me credit of 5,000 Swiss Francs. When I used paypal in the past my bank flagged it as a possible fraudulent charge since it was a relatively large sum going to Switzerland. Stripe worked perfectly.

 

Most auction houses add 3.5%-4.5%. CC about the same. A small price
to pay to get that coin you've been looking for. Before bidding, ask the auction
house what forms of payment they accept. Some don't accept PayPal.

 

[edited] Virtually any payment method will involve some cost, either directly or hidden in the conversion rate. Different methods also pose different levels of risk. If I remember correctly, there should be no PayPal fee per se for the buyer with a 'goods and services' payment, but the conversion rate will be a couple of points less favorable than the published market rate. PayPal offers excellent buyer protection which is well worth any fee involved, in my opinion.

Also, in addition to credit card fees charged by the auction house, be wary of 'foreign transaction' fees imposed by your card issuer.

 

Those payment methods are okay but they cost more than wise.com. For instance, here's the bottom portion of a recent Leu invoice:

 

Yes, about 4% is typical. But I've tried without success to use wise.com at a Polish auction because the Polish bank wouldn't accept it. Moreover, I find wise.com harder to use and not as versatile for a variety of online transactions. Moreover, PayPal offers excellent buyer protection and is extremely reliable. I think it's worth the tiny extra cost for the low-budget coins I typically buy.

 

I normally use PayPal where accepted (most do). Typically there is a 3-4% charge for using PayPal, but if you have your PayPal account linked to a cashback credit card then you'll get half of that back. I always click on PayPal's "conversion options" (I think that's what they call it) when paying and select to pay in local currency (EUR, etc), not USD, since that way you're getting your credit card's conversion rate which is likely more competitive than PayPal's. As mentioned above, you really want to have a credit card that doesn't charge foreign transaction fees.

At the end of the day the couple of percent you usually pay for using PayPal, or a credit card, is negligible compared to buyers fees and shipping costs.

The worst way to pay for European auctions from the US is bank wire transfer, which is horribly expensive, as opposed to within Europe where it's either very cheap or free.

 

I use PayPal whenever the auction house allows it.
I am European but my country doesn't use EUR as currency so I still have to deal with conversions. But for some reason, my bank has a very good conversion rate so I don't use PayPal's.

Some auction houses have 0 PayPal fees. I don't know how. But this is obviously good for me.
Some have 4.5%.
I recently paid an invoice from a house that was not accepting PayPal. Their preferred option was IBAN/BIC. For me this is not an option as the charges are quite big. Second option was credit card. I was under the impression this is different from debit card, as I have a debit card. I wanted to see what happens. I chose "credit card", entered my card details and paid it successfully. Fee was 3%.

 

+1 for Wise.com Wish everything in life were so easy to use and keenly priced.

 

Did not realize that. Very good advice. TY

 

I always use Wise.com. It costs less than PayPal every time I've looked into what cost would be with PayPal and it is much less than the fees my bank would charge for forex, let alone the fees the auction houses charge if I use a credit card. Most bank transfers cost me about 1% when all is said and done and the exchange rate is basically always the same rate I get when I Google "$xxx usd to eur" so it is very easy to figure out what a given bid will cost if I win.

Actually while recently negotiating a retail purchase from a European dealer I was able to get an additional discount of about 7.5% from the dealer's "best price" when I offered to pay with Wise instead of PayPal. Most European dealers seem much more eager to work with my offers when I can pay by bank transfer like that.

 

Call me old-fashioned, trusting, cheap, or whatever, but when I buy from a trusted seller (and don't we all) I use the good old bank transfer. It's the cheapest way by far. To me, CC's and PP are often just a middleman whose 'service' I never asked for and who forcibly try to position themselves between me and the seller. Mostly an annoying money-making scheme I can do without. A 1% shipping insurance fee I consider a good investment.

When forced to use PP or the likes I always opt for my bank to do the conversion; saves a lot of money as well.

 

@Heliodromus Whenever the firm allows, I usually use PayPal like you do. I have a credit card with no foreign transaction fee, close to market rate exchange rates and 1.5% cash back. Using the option to pay in local currency is about 2% less than the PayPal conversion rate. If paying with credit card isn’t offered by the auction house, they often agree if I check with them. My card also allows generating a unique account number to use for a one-time foreign transaction to reduce fraud and avoid rejecting the charge.
I agree about conventional bank wire transfers - added fees and unfavorable rates. Thanks to other replies, I will check out Wise if it is only ~1% over market exchange rates as that would be less than my current method.

 

BACS, as already noted, is a wire transfer. I don't recommend that route for payment. It is costly (wire transfer fee + conversion rate) and time consuming. Some auction houses have a limit for credit card payments, above which payment must be made through BACS, so in that situation the buyer has no option.

If you use Paypal, you do have the option of having the payment converted by your credit card instead of Paypal, which really doesn't offer attractive conversion rates. Historically, credit card currency conversion rates are quite good, so you might consider that alternative. The option for conversion on Paypal can be found through "conversion options" or something like that during payment.

 

Used a lot of auctions and performed many domestic and international transactions, both personal and business.

Remember when we used to get birthday or Xmas cards from our families when we were younger? Open the card, and cash fell into your lap!

To eliminate ANY pesky fees, I send CASH. Usually, to really let the Seller know that I mean business, I use envelopes with a clear window. That way, they know they are getting paid!

ok. Just joking! Don’t want you all to think I am a troll or just a dolt (be quiet, @Ryro )

I use Paypal, CC, however, I am intrigued by WISE.

 

Of course not, my friend. And I would never for a second admit that I thought you were telling the truth until I got to the bottom of your post (had me worried).
I've used WISE for the last year or two (ever since @TIF recommended it) and have saved a considerable amount in extra fees.
Though, I still use Paypal, for the Buyer protection, when the house doesn't charge extra for it.