Beware Regular Bank Transfers

[rmm2131]

This warning is not in reference to Tranzfers bank wire service, but in using just your bank to send money overseas to Barclays Bank for your Pandora.

I walked into my NY bank wednesday morning and initiated a bank transfer which took about 20 minutes. The bank employee inputted the info and called ahead to find out the rate for conversion which I was told was going to be determined when the transfer began later that day. I had with me a derived general amount of $583, but XE.com was fluctuating and google was even less at around $575. I wanted to take advantage of the lowered rate since weeks before the same converted amount was $628. It looked like a better alternative to using Transzfers with all the verification and the $5 + $25 fee to use it, but I was in for a surprise.

The next day I checked my bank account and found I was charged $583 plus an additional $40 for the fee, which I knew already, which would of brought the amount total to about what I originally was refunded from Openpandora in december. For a domestic transfer my bank charges $25 so using Tranzfers would of debited my account for that amount anyways. I couldn't lose out by getting it over with could I? The kicker here is an additional $9.80 was tacked on for the conversion rate from my bank so ended up paying $633. When I called my bank I was told that they use Keybank's daily current currency conversion rates. When I mentioned that XE and Bloomberg.com gave much less amounts yesterday and today, they said they don't bother with online fluctuating rates. So how do they determine them? I only received the same answer and now it's too late.

Now to say i'm livid is an understatement. When I talked to the nice bank clerk about it she said that it was only $9.80 which I corrected her and said it was actually suppose to be less than the $583 we entered. What fun i've had with this. Thought this would be helpful to others.

I also emailed Debs and Jacquelyn at Openpandora and stated everything and even begged a little on whether they will reimburse any or part of the fees since they are partially doing the same for those who use the Tranzfers service. I even begged about extras added to the shipping box for those who have received a major buggering from the "can't accept credit cards" situation.

I'll update this post if I get a response from them, but I urge any of you to ask for the exact amount you will be charged for the transfer from your bank. I'm still happy to support this project though.

Update#1 An additional $4.53 was added to the currency conversion rate by Keybank bringing the grand total so far to $637.53. Yay!

PM sent to you Chip. Yeah Squidge I expected some "greasing", but not half the can of crisco.

 

[Chip]

I also emailed Debs and Jacquelyn at Openpandora and stated everything and even begged a little on whether they will reimburse any or part of the fees since they are partially doing the same for those who use the Tranzfers service. I even begged about extras added to the shipping box for those who have received a major buggering from the "can't accept credit cards" situation.
Just got a mail from Jacquelyn who happened to see your post here. She says they just double checked and haven't received anything about this situation. Please send it again, or send it to me (PM or Email) and I'll get it to them.

 

[Squidge]

Banks never use the rates on sites such as xe.com, as they want less administration and more profit. So they typically update once per day, and since they usually advertise in big bold letters "0% commision!!", the normally change the rate in there favour buy a few percent (so you are paying a hidden commision instead).

 

[mafia-man]

The other thing is, there is an exchange rate for currency dealers and then there is a general exchange rate for the general public and consumers and they can vary greatly.

 

[sinoth]

Are you really complaining about an extra $15 fee on a $600 order? For luxury items. Suck it up, eat out one less time this week.

Also:
QUOTE
The next day I checked my bank account and found I was charged $583 plus an additional $40 for the fee, which I knew already, which would of brought the amount total to about what I originally was refunded from Openpandora in december.


I can't believe people are actually having OP pay their transfer fees. Just because a friend tells you its ok to take a crap on his floor, doesn't mean you should crap on his floor. OP has been screwed enough by banks and conversion rates, the last thing they need is to be screwed by customers as well. I can only hope the understanding customers outnumber the greedy ones.

 

[cbox]

I thought we could repay the exact amount we were refunded without having to go through conversion again?

 

[Squidge]

I thought we could repay the exact amount we were refunded without having to go through conversion again?

If you bank charges you $40 to convert your USD into GBP, then the amount you were refunded is no longer enough. However, OP will eat this charge, so yes, you are correct.

 

[emcp]

Are you really complaining about an extra $15 fee on a $600 order? For luxury items. Suck it up, eat out one less time this week.

Also:
QUOTE
The next day I checked my bank account and found I was charged $583 plus an additional $40 for the fee, which I knew already, which would of brought the amount total to about what I originally was refunded from Openpandora in december.

I can't believe people are actually having OP pay their transfer fees. Just because a friend tells you its ok to take a crap on his floor, doesn't mean you should crap on his floor. OP has been screwed enough by banks and conversion rates, the last thing they need is to be screwed by customers as well. I can only hope the understanding customers outnumber the greedy ones.


AMEN

 

[rmm2131]

Are you really complaining about an extra $15 fee on a $600 order? For luxury items. Suck it up, eat out one less time this week.

Also:
QUOTE
The next day I checked my bank account and found I was charged $583 plus an additional $40 for the fee, which I knew already, which would of brought the amount total to about what I originally was refunded from Openpandora in december.

I can't believe people are actually having OP pay their transfer fees. Just because a friend tells you its ok to take a crap on his floor, doesn't mean you should crap on his floor. OP has been screwed enough by banks and conversion rates, the last thing they need is to be screwed by customers as well. I can only hope the understanding customers outnumber the greedy ones.


AMEN


emcp and sinoth,
i'll do the math for you two. I paid $749.14 early october plus conversion fees, if I remember, of around $6. +$6.00
I was refunded in December $620.80 and charged more fees of around $6.00. +another $6.00
Yesterday I repaid the amount and paid a $40.00 Bank fee to the UK. +$40.00
I was charged about $6 or so over the amount XE.com and Bloomberg.com gave me for currency conversion of my 419.97GBP order. +another $6.00
I was also charged an additional $9.80 for the conversion. +$9.80
I received a second phone call from my bank that they had needed to charge an additional amount on top of the $9.80 which was an extra $4.53. +$4.53

So if my math and memory are right(though I truly believe the fees were more for the first few amounts) $6.00+$6.00+$40.00+$6.00+9.80+$4.53=$72.33 extra to reorder. That's a little more than $15 isn't it?

Now i'm not asking Openpandora to pay all my fees or even half of this amount. I only really begged for a little compensation toward the $40.00 fee I expected in the form of an extra in the box or at least maybe a reimbursement to my paypal or mastercard since I read here somewhere that they might help with bank transfer fees for reorderers.

$72.33 is a lot to suck up. You both may suck for $15 and barely notice it, but when I pay $72.33 for something extra that just goes poof then well that really sucks. I'm still happy to support this project as those behind it have had to deal with far worse a loss in money and time.

I just want others to beware that their bank may sway the conversion rate far in their disfavor.
Okay? Okay.

 

[j.pickens]

I just had the wire transfer made in US dollars, the exact amount I was refunded.
The bank charged me $30 for the transfer.
I do not know the amount received by Open Pandora Ltd. in GB Pounds.
Perhaps your problem was made worse by attempting to transfer an exact GB Pounds amount.
The work necessary to ensure an exact Pounds amount appears to have caused you to be charged extra transfer fees.
Open Pandora accepted my transaction, I paid the $30, and I guess they ate whatever lagging exchange rates or fees which may have been taken out of the transaction at their end.
By doing the transaction in my native currency (US$), these extras did not enter into the equation on my end.

 

[rmm2131]

I just had the wire transfer made in US dollars, the exact amount I was refunded.
The bank charged me $30 for the transfer.
I do not know the amount received by Open Pandora Ltd. in GB Pounds.
Perhaps your problem was made worse by attempting to transfer an exact GB Pounds amount.
The work necessary to ensure an exact Pounds amount appears to have caused you to be charged extra transfer fees.
Open Pandora accepted my transaction, I paid the $30, and I guess they ate whatever lagging exchange rates or fees which may have been taken out of the transaction at their end.
By doing the transaction in my native currency (US$), these extras did not enter into the equation on my end.

I agree and it probably is better for everyone to pay just what they were refunded and never once mention the GBP amount to the bank employee. That $14.33 extra was still fun to pay though. When I had emailed Openpandora on what amount to transfer I was told to either send the exact refunded amount, or to send wednesdays converted amount of 419.97GBP which Debs said was about $578. XE and Bloomberg said it was $583ish and the teller said the amount of GBP will go by the correct daily rate.

I assumed she was smiling when she said that because i'm handsome, not because my dollar bills like to fly freely out my wallet. :rolleyes:

For fun here is the conversion amounts I tallied over the past month:
419.97 GBP = 608.745 USD on 12/31/08
419.97 GBP = 616.217 USD on 1/5/09
419.97 GBP = 639.931 USD on 1/8/09
419.97 GBP = 635.945 USD on 1/9/09
419.97 GBP = 611.910 USD on 1/14/09
419.97 GBP = 622.930 USD on 1/16/09
419.97 GBP = 624.749 USD on 1/18/09
419.97 GBP = 607.063 USD on 1/19/09
419.97 GBP = 583.858 USD on 1/20/09
419.97 GBP = 580.290 USD on 1/22/09
419.97 GBP = 574.792 USD on 1/23/09

 

[warmi]

For fun here is the conversion amounts I tallied over the past month:
419.97 GBP = 608.745 USD on 12/31/08
419.97 GBP = 616.217 USD on 1/5/09
419.97 GBP = 639.931 USD on 1/8/09
419.97 GBP = 635.945 USD on 1/9/09
419.97 GBP = 611.910 USD on 1/14/09
419.97 GBP = 622.930 USD on 1/16/09
419.97 GBP = 624.749 USD on 1/18/09
419.97 GBP = 607.063 USD on 1/19/09
419.97 GBP = 583.858 USD on 1/20/09
419.97 GBP = 580.290 USD on 1/22/09
419.97 GBP = 574.792 USD on 1/23/09



Whoa ... British Pound is going down the drain fast.

 

[joa]

Are you really complaining about an extra $15 fee on a $600 order? For luxury items. Suck it up, eat out one less time this week.

Also:
QUOTE
The next day I checked my bank account and found I was charged $583 plus an additional $40 for the fee, which I knew already, which would of brought the amount total to about what I originally was refunded from Openpandora in december.

I can't believe people are actually having OP pay their transfer fees. Just because a friend tells you its ok to take a crap on his floor, doesn't mean you should crap on his floor. OP has been screwed enough by banks and conversion rates, the last thing they need is to be screwed by customers as well. I can only hope the understanding customers outnumber the greedy ones.


I agree.

 

[TaG]

Whoa ... British Pound is going down the drain fast.
Gone. 1/3rd of it's value gone. Will be worse when they print more money, sorry "apply quantitative easing techniques".

 

[Monk]

We'll print more money then we'll be worth that much more!


Err... won't we? :blink

 

[quartercast]

I can't believe people are actually having OP pay their transfer fees. Just because a friend tells you its ok to take a crap on his floor, doesn't mean you should crap on his floor. OP has been screwed enough by banks and conversion rates, the last thing they need is to be screwed by customers as well. I can only hope the understanding customers outnumber the greedy ones.

I do take pity on the developers, but one question keeps cropping up in my mind.

Why should I have to pay extra because OP hasn't done their research properly? It's pretty clear, from the reaction of every major bank and transaction firm so far, that nobody will accept this amount of CC transactions to an unknown company. This should have been sorted out in the first place, with an agreement being signed between the bank and OP on accepting the CC orders (or not!). Then at least OP would have a little more clout, and either sorted the mess out beforehand or avoided it entirely.

 

[WizardStan]

Why should I have to pay extra because OP hasn't done their research properly? It's pretty clear, from the reaction of every major bank and transaction firm so far, that nobody will accept this amount of CC transactions to an unknown company. This should have been sorted out in the first place, with an agreement being signed between the bank and OP on accepting the CC orders (or not!). Then at least OP would have a little more clout, and either sorted the mess out beforehand or avoided it entirely.

As has been reiterated time and agian, in hindsight it is clear. It's obvious now, after the fact, but at the time they had no reason to believe that it would cause a problem. This has been discussed many, many, many times already. It is impossible to account for every eventually in such a large undertaking. You just do what you can and hope the things you didn't think of are the ones that'll trip you up.

 

[White Demon]

Whoa ... British Pound is going down the drain fast.

It's not that, it's the fact that ever since the economic crisis began, people started buying the USD to try and prop it up. Because of that, EVERY currency worldwide has taken a hammering against the USD.

A few months ago, the Aussie dollar was sitting at around 98 cents USD. Now it's down to under 70 cents.