Best way to buy from Thomann?

Hertz32

Bearing in mind I dont have a credit card or anything. Just a debit card and Paypal.
Which would have lower fees?

Fortheloveofguitar

Depends on your bank for debit cards. I

I'm with Barclays and they've never charged me any currency conversion fees.

Hertz32

Fair enough, I'm with Natwest and I'm not sure if/what they charge. Will look it up

rsvmark

Iirc, natwest will only charge the euro to £ rate on the day of the transaction

ab2014

Ive typically used paypal rather than sneaky bank charges. I tried to find out exact costings via debit cards and its a minefield of £ and % charges

streethawk

Do you not pay them in sterling and - I assume - their bank foots the conversion bill?

Bit of an odd business model for someone like Thomann if not.

I buy things in euros/dollars and the bank charges me a flat rate of £10.

spacecadet

Best way to buy from Thomann? Don't. Give your money to a UK dealer. 

newi123

ab2014 said:

Ive typically used paypal rather than sneaky bank charges. I tried to find out exact costings via debit cards and its a minefield of £ and % charges

This is true - the issue is if your card is in GBP and the payment is in Euros / USD etc, they may or may not make a direct charge, but you are subject to their exchange rate.

With Barclays I find the exchange rate they give me is around 5% less than the daily rate quoted on google - so although they don`t charge me directly, it ends up costing me 5% of the purchase price.

I assume that Paypal will work in the same way as there will still be a currency exchange, as again your account is in a different currency to the payment............. I have yet to find the cheapest way to do this, and came to the conclusion a while ago that you just have to figure it into the overall cost of the purchase!

I had also assumed that Thomann would charge you in GBP!

p90fool

spacecadet;643569" said:

Best way to buy from Thomann? Don't. Give your money to a UK dealer. 

Why? At which border do you draw the line? Should I only use UK dealers, or Welsh dealers, or maybe only Powys dealers?

I'll give my money to dealers who've treated me well and given me good value for decades. Some of them are in the UK and some of them are not.

The Supreme C***s of Rock n Roll were UK dealers remember.

spacecadet

p90fool said:

spacecadet;643569" said:

Best way to buy from Thomann? Don't. Give your money to a UK dealer. 

Why? At which border do you draw the line? Should I only use UK dealers, or Welsh dealers, or maybe only Powys dealers?

I'll give my money to dealers who've treated me well and given me good value for decades. Some of them are in the UK and some of them are not.

The Supreme C***s of Rock n Roll were UK dealers remember.

Last time I checked Wales was part of the UK. You can give your money to whoever you like and if Thomann or some other non UK dealer has given you great service then thats awesome. Thats how it should be. I would just like to see more business staying in the UK. If you can be bothered, I've just posted this. 

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/42012/not-buying-from-uk-dealers-rant

GuitarZero

spacecadet said:

Best way to buy from Thomann? Don't. Give your money to a UK dealer. 

I'll happily do that when their goods are priced as low as Thomann.  In the meantime, I'll use whoever gives me the best deal.

hotpot

GuitarZero said:

spacecadet said:

Best way to buy from Thomann? Don't. Give your money to a UK dealer. 

I'll happily do that when their goods are priced as low as Thomann.  In the meantime, I'll use whoever gives me the best deal.

^ This ^ I've had quite a few pieces of gear from Thomann lately & UK stores cant touch them on price or service.

Iamnobody

ab2014;643538" said:

Ive typically used paypal rather than sneaky bank charges. I tried to find out exact costings via debit cards and its a minefield of £ and % charges

Paypal's exchange rate is usually not the best. You can check your visa one at the link below and still pay with PayPal but take your card issuers exchange rate...better deal assuming your card issuer doesn't put a fee on top.

http://www.visaeurope.com/making-payments/exchange-rates

Nunogilberto

Don't do what I just did and order something from their website without double checking the availability - 15th June is when my next shipment comes in...

TTony

The Post Office do a foreign currency card.

You buy the foreign currency, and put it on the balance of your card.  Do that in a PO or on-line.  

You can then use the card online (as if it were a credit/debit card) to buy stuff using the foreign money balance on the card.  

One benefit if that you always know exactly what exchange rate you'll be getting, because you've already got it when you bought the currency balance on the card.  Another benefit is that you can choose when to buy the currency - buy it when the exchange rate is good, and you've locked into that rate.

dindude

Best way? I usually buy online from them. Did a collection once and it turns out they're in fucking Germany! Who knew?

UnclePsychosis

Halifax Clarity card is awesome for buying anything in a foreign currency.

Bank exchange rate, no fees, no commission.

57Deluxe

you could try offering them sheep...

Sarge

Co-op bank, no charge.

monoamine

Have been booking a round the world trip and paying in advance so have had recent experiene of conversions like these.

Best way is to pay by paypal using a registered credit card but MAKE SURE that you tick the option to have the conversion done by Mastercard etc or whoever makes the card, as the rates as good as you'll get, but won't be made available to you immediately. Not sure if you can do this with a debit card but have a look on paypal.

Pete24v

Have always used paypal and a credit card, no problem. As previously mentioned, get Mastercard to do the conversion.