Thieving Banks
Contractors and the thieving banks.
I was mad as hell. It must be happening to loads of IT Contractors.
I’ve just come back from the bank after depositing a cheque for £3,750 from one of our advertising customers. So, I asked them about the rate. I expected that it wouldn’t be too much as it is usually pretty minimal for larger amounts (or so I thought).
The rate of the Euro to the pound is about 1.475 to the pound. The bank told me that the buy and sell rate for the pound was 1.45 to 150 (pretty much).
That means I was losing 2.5 cents for every pound that I was putting in.
So, I lost 93.50 Euros in the transaction. I asked if there was a transaction fee as well. They told me there was a further fee of 6.50 Euros. That made it exactly 100 Euros that I lost just by handing over a cheque.
I can’t afford for my business to lose that sort of money every time I hand in a cheque.
I’ll probably find that there is a cheque processing fee as well for the cheque I just put in.
Pickpocketing Bankers
Banks used to be amongst the most trusted of professions. Hoever, now it seems dealing with them is like walking through a pickpocketing area in the Kasbah in Morocco.
They’re taking a bit here and a bit there. Moreover, they are using subterfuge, like how they calculate interest, to do it.
There must be loads more IT contractors who are working abroad and transferring money here, or who are working here but need to transfer money abroad, who these people are rooking.
There must also be IT agencies who transfer money into different currencies regularly who they they rob as well.
My Own Fault
One of the reasons that I’m more than a bit mad is that I could have avoided it.
As regular readers know we have an arrangement with a partner on this site where our readers (including myself) can change currencies very cheaply.
I’m told that they would have got me an exchange rate of less than a cent difference instead of 2.5 cents for every pound. There would not be a transaction charge either (or fee for processing the cheque).
I hadn’t got around to filling in the form yet and that’s why I can’t do it yet, so it’s probably my own fault.
However, I put several cheques in a month and over a year I must lose quite a lot.
On just one cheque I’ve lost 100 Euros which is about £65 which would pay for a good night out.
So I must fill in those forms and send send them back.
Send them an email
Anybody else who has to change currencies regularly or who need to change a large amount (even better rates) would be better to contact our partners just to ask what kind of rate they could do.
If you want to find out more information about how you can exchange money at the very cheapest rates click here
Foreign Exchange
Ask them for a quote.
There‘s no compunction to join up and we won‘t use your details for anything else.
In future, if I get ripped off by the ban it will only be my only lazy fault.
Don’t let thieving banks rob you.
