How to pay an outstanding bill ?
Hello all, About three months ago I bought a copy of the Eisenbahn Journal "Baureihe E10" magazine online at their website. After following the online directions I was surprised when the whole process ended before I could pay using the usual shopping-basket check-out procedure. In fact I thought my attempt had somehow failed but, much to my delight, the magazine arrived a few days later - with an invoice for payment to be made by bank transfer - Überweisung. Well, as is well known, our British banks charge extortionate fees for bank transfers involving a change of currency. In this case the fees would be £20 sterling for transferring a sum of Euros 17.11 - not an appealing prospect. Anyway, after some delay I have now received two reminders - Zahlungserinnerungen - and, although I e-mailed an explanation of my problem, and asked if I could pay by credit card or Paypal, I have not received a reply. That was a month ago, and my e-mail was in English. Ok. That was a long introduction. Well, now let me ask for some advice. Has anybody here had the same problem ? If so, how was it solved ? If there seems to be no alternative to making a bank transfer, I wonder if any member based on the continent would be willing to do me a big favour to help me settle this matter. If all else fails, would any member in Europe be willing to accept a payment of say, 22 Euros by Paypal from me, and then make a cost-free bank transfer to EJ on my account ? The total bill, as I mentioned, is Euros 17.11. I'm a bit embarrassed even to ask, but I would be really grateful. Any other suggestions would, of course, be equally gratefully received especially if they are polite and helpful - but I don't mind if they're not. :-) Thanks in advance. Pete Molloy.

How about Cash? I have done this numerous times without any mishaps. Just a thought. David

Hi Pete - I would do the same as David - send them a 20 euro note, but enclose the note in something to disguise it, such as an old CD case.

same here. That has worked fine for me on several occasions

- Hello Gents, Many thanks for your replies. In the circumstances it seems that Cash by registered mail would be the best method - a 20-Euro note, well disguised ! This will add about £4 for reg. mail, plus 3 Euros for rounding up, but it's still a lot better than paying bank charges of £20 ! Thanks again. Pete Molloy.

Hello Pete, this German expression should help you: Friends are like stars, you can't see them always, but they are always here. Your bill is Euros 17.11 = Pound 15.00 (Euros 18.94) that should be Ok. Check your e-mails.

Pete, if you want to do this regularly, you could try opening a SEPA current account - see my seperate posting on this topic - I've set this up recently and it seems to work fine.... just the same as any other sterling account but you don't get the £20 admin charge, just a small currency conversion charge. I must admit after fighting with my bank for years and having paid out an average of £240.00 per year in Swift charges, the SEPA account works very well for me... mine's through Citibank, but I don't know who else offers it - Nationwide definitely don't

Pete, The simplest and cheapest way to deal with VGB - Verlags Gruppe Bahn - is by credit card. Just write - in English - to give them the details. The only thing I don't like about their system is that they still show your full 16-digit number on the Rechnung. With other more backward suppliers in Germany I still use HSBC's Worldpay @ £9 a time but this SEPA a/c sounds interesting. David

I had exactly the same problem. I just emailed them and gave them my credit card details.

JUust a thought - is fax safer or less safe than email when sending card details?

With other more backward suppliers in Germany At the risk of the thread penalising all German suppliers, I am constantly amazed by the lack of consideration shown towards customers by many retailers and sellers. The almost dictatorial insistence on bank transfer and paranoid fear of any method that does not suit them is palpable. One should be asking the question, do these people really want to trade with you? The quicker that EBay.de force PayPal on their sellers as they have on PayPal.co.uk cannot come a day too early. At least then, we will have some assurance that the mysterious 'postman' stole your money excuse will cease and we might have some redress when the item does not meets its description. The usual bleat is that there has been scandals over PayPal in the national press however no mention is made in the press of the 100,000's of PayPal transactions that are completed without drama and at less risk to the non-German buyers. What is being forgotten is that we live in a global age of commerce and making sales more difficult by the sole use of a parochial payment system that favours only a portion of potential customers will only lead to a reduced market. Rant over :lol:

maybe the ebay/paypal charges are a little high When I was considering buying from a dealer on EBay.de*, I would always ask if PayPal was acceptable and offer to pay the PayPal charge of 5%, most German sellers refused even this simple request and were simply not used. This precaution has saved me on many occasions when goods have arrived as either damaged or mis-described. I emphasise that the only problems of lost payment or goods have occurred when dealing with sellers who insist on uberweisung or cash payment. (see footnote) Tim *After three of 'lost in the post' claims from sellers I have now ceased buying on EBay.de unless I use PayPal and I have dealt with the seller.