European banks
 

Hi Wayne!

I have been using a Mastercard to pay for your merchandise in the US, and this has worked OK... Using an Eurpean bank account may be easier, but I don't know for sure. In Europe, you need a special code for payments between countries, this code is for the specific banks, and it can be difficult to get to this information sometimes. That may have been your problem.

By using VISA or Mastercard I have had no problems either buying parts for my (now sold) KTM super enduro from Germany and Austria, or when ordering tuning parts from England for my turbo'ed Volvo.

You can check out e-bay, they have a special PAY-PAL system that might be some kind of starting point for you?

;)Anyway, many thanks for a great forum and web-shop...


OleSmileWavy

Wayne,

It would appear to be a good idea....certainly the recent experience I have had of wiring money from bank accounts in Europe to the US have been very easy to do and yes there is a cost but it is not significant...within Europe it is even easier.

My suggest would be start an account with somebody like HSBC or even Satander..UBS?...big global banks that have branches all over Europe and the US (via subsiduaries etc) ...it may make it all flow more easily...

Citigroup etc are also common over here, but less 'retail' orientated.

Within Europe it really helps if the bank has international presence...certainly for mine the international wire transfer took about two minutes to organise over the phone and it worked smoothly, the key is naturally for the details of each party to be very clear, so account numbers, branch sort codes, names and addresses are required, in addition the international routing number is needed for all transactions...again the more international the bank the easier this is....

Getting a bank that has a good base in the US is the key.. then you can go in person to the bank to get things moving and trouble shoot if needed.

I would definitely do it. At the very least, you could use the money in your European account to pay for your own purchases in Europe with no fees at all. I don't think it really matters if you go to a large int'l. bank or just open up a passbook account at any local Sparkasse in Germany. It's not like you need the ATM card or many of their services. Note of caution though. When I was going to school in Germany I had built a considerable savings account there, working for about 6 mos. When I went to close my account before heading back to the U.S., I learned they had a fee for closing your account. It was something like 10-20 DM in those days, probably a lot more now. So I just withdrew all but about 5 DM and left.

Wayne,

You may need to be a legal resident of the country in order to open an account. I'm not 100% sure but you should check.

I do international wire transfers within Europe and they charge me a 3/1000 fee with a minimum of 6€ plus a fixed 7€. My bank usually has very low commisions for these kind of services but I do not know what others charge.

In order to do the transfer it is really helpful to know the BIC/SWIFT and IBAN numbers from the destination account. The first is the bank code and the second the account number, both in an international format. My bank charges more if I do not supply these numbers.

Regarding banks, I would try an international bank, preferrably with branches all over Europe. I would suggest Deutsche Bank, Barclays or Santander.

Same thing happened to me when I closed my account as well. I was so far along the closing process that I said eff it and paid my 20 DM. If I had known about that, I would have left 5 DM as well.

Wayne,

If you still need help in this area, pls PM me.

Joe