I live in Oz and am building a web site for someone in the US.
The total cost of the site will be $USD100.00 (it’s more fun for me than profit making).
At some point in time, this person is going to need to pay me and for the life of me I simply cannot think of a way of getting the money. Yeah, next time I’ll think ahead.
So, should I request that this person:
a. Send me an International Money Order plus a little bit (say $10 to cover collection costs).
b. A cashiers check (ie. a check drawn by the bank after being paid for, unlike a personal check which can bounce) plus a little bit.
c. An international transfer (eg. Western Union) plus a little bit.
d. Something else that I haven’t thought about (and I would prefer not to fly to the States to collect the amount in cash).
I am not willing to become a credit card merchant simply to collect a hundred dollars here and there, so I haven’t included that in the list.
I had to pay a loan off from Ireland to my parents in the US, every month for about 2 years - I used to get an International Bankers Draft - cross between a and b - (costs about €4), and simply put it in the mail. It’s a cheque in the target currency that’s only payable into the named account, but it’s drawn on the bank. Don’t know how available they are in the US though, as outside US cities I’ve found banks to be almost entirely ignorant of foreign currency transactions.
I don’t think a Western Union money order would cost you anything, would it? IIRC, it costs the buyer to get the money order and you can cash it free.
If you have a PayPal account, that’s also a possibility, although I think they might charge a fee to the receiver. But if you already have an account for eBay, and use it to buy things from American sellers, that might be a good option.
They might be able to transfer the money directly to your bank account. I think it costs around $12US to do that.