Bank fees are eating up my cheques..

Suggestions for foreign affiliates please!

[johannes]

I participate in a lot of affiliate programs. It has come to that I get payments from about 15 different sources.

The problem is with some of these smaller affiliate managers. They will send me a cheque as soon as the payment amount reaches $25. This is a problem for me as I will pay abt $12 to cash one check. It doesn't matter if I cash 10 checks at a time, I will still pay $12 per check.

I try to contact these managers so that they defer my payment until the amount is much higher. It works with big ones like Amazon and CJ. But some of these managers don't bother at all. They just see me as a hassle.

I know that I can open a US bank account, but most small affiliate managers only pay by check anyway.

Some questions for you now!:

How much do you in Usa pay if you're cashing a cheque of $25?

Is there some bank that I can send my checks to, that automatically cashes cheques for a low rate?

Have any of you affiliates outside of Usa some suggestions for me?

[Longhaired Genius]

where do you live?

[johannes]

oops sorry missed some vital info!

Live in Sweden.

[Woz]

I have the same problem living in Australia and would welcome some ideas.

Onya
Woz

[grant]

I'm not sure about this, but I think you could open a US acct and hire an American bookkeeper that you can put on the acct so they can sign and deposit checks. (My company has one, he just uses a stamper to stamp the back of the check and he walks the check to the bank).

In this scenario, checks get mailed to American bookkeeper who signs, deposits checks. You could probably pay $30/hour for this service, and pay them to do this once/month (1-2 hours of work, tops).

Grant

[Longhaired Genius]

Don't assume every bank in your country will have the same charges. Ask them all and make sure you get a straight answer from someone who actually knows. In the UK I use natwest who have a flat £10 fee for up to about $5000, which is pretty reasonable I think.

[LeClair]

Some banks offer currency accounts.
They might have accounts in US$.
Amex Bank is one of them.

[lazerzubb]

You can try using a wired transfer, often this isn't available with small sums of money, but over 1000$ most do it for free, so the money goes straight in to your account, and the only thing you pay is the currency transaction.

>>I know that I can open a US bank account

Are you sure? it's very different after 9/11 from what it used to be.

[Iguana]

The US bank chase do International Banking for non-US citizens. I've not tried them myself.

[johannes]

Thanks a lot all for your input!

I've tried all Swedish banks. But there are now only four major banks, so there's no competition and bad service.

A foreigner can get a us bank account, but there seem to be some burocracy and sometimes high fees.

Here's another idea: Swiss bank offers accounts in USD. I just received a mail from them , they charge about CHF5 ($3.5) per check, this is more reasonable! I've not researched the other details yet, but it sounds promising:
[postfinance.ch...]

Anyone here who've tried Swiss bank or have a better choice?

[philr]

I live in Australia and used to have this same problem.

I was with Linkshare when I was receiving small cheques all the time, most were not worth cashing.

I changed my sites over to CJ programs and find it much better as I just get 1 cheque from CJ which covers all the programs they run.

I do cash my US cheques through a Credit Union for $2.00 per cheque so thats not bad.

[2oddSox]

Johannes,

Can I ask what the outcome was from the Swedish banks? I'm married to a Swedish lass, and we're about to make the move back to Sweden. While she'll be working full-time, I'll be devoting all my time to similar projects to yourself. I'd be interested to learn what response you got from each bank. Surely there has to be one that was responsive to your plight?

Thanks for any info you can provide,

2odd...

[Woz]

>Credit Union for $2.00 per cheque

Great idea Phil. I've have been cashing US cheques through one of the majors (W) for $10 a pop. Even then that was a favour from the manager, they should have charged $60 which, as you say, almost makes it not worth the effort on small cheques.

Is there a delay with the Credit Union?

Onya
Woz

[philr]

No they convert the amount the same day and put it in your account takes about 2-3 weeks to clear but that is pretty standard with overseas cheques.

[johannes]

2oddsox, I've asked both at offices and to their national customer service.
SE-banken 100 kr
Nordea 120 kr
Föreningssparbanken 100-125 kr
Handelsbanken 100 kr
This is the fee per check. 100 kr= about US$12.

[icoin]

I am an affiliate manager. I use a service called ikobo to pay all of my affiliates. They use a Visa card to take out the money that I send them. It's re-usable and costs me hardly anything.

[profitpuppy]

I set up an account with Chase (you can do this without visiting the us, but it is easier if you visit), and now I mail my cheques to the us to be banked ... much better way to do things, because there are no fees.