How to collect sterling payments for a meeting.

mct1

I'm organising a 2009 meeting for a professional organisation which has a bank account but no credit card and I want to make it easy for delegates to pay. The main problem is that half the attenders live in NI and with the state of sterling at the moment, I'm suddenly very reluctant to fix a definite sterling cheque amount at this stage since we could potentially lose a lot on the exchange.

I've been thinking of various ways to let them pay, eg Paypal, bank transfer, but I wonder if there are other alternatives I haven't considered. Any ideas gratefully received.

Gurgle

Since the event is taking place in Ireland, maybe you should charge them in Euro?

blue4ever

bank transfer - they collect and pay you 10 days before hand. But be careful - if sterling dips it will eat into your margin.

I was a gathering in London last week and had to pay in advace - in sterling. When in Rome....

mct1

Gurgle: I agree, but the problem is that the organisation has no credit card account, so it's going to be awkward for them to pay in euro. My concern is that if it's awkward enough, they won't bother booking!

blue4ever: bank transfer looks OK but don't you need to give out IBANs and BICs and the like. Not everyone has online banking either, so that means waiting in the bank queue and filling in forms (well it does here anyway). There people just won't have the time or inclination to do that for a meeting.

I know that when I go to UK meetings I pay with credit card - or once with Paypal. Any more thoughts?

blue4ever

mct1 wrote: »

Gurgle: I agree, but the problem is that the organisation has no credit card account, so it's going to be awkward for them to pay in euro. My concern is that if it's awkward enough, they won't bother booking!

blue4ever: bank transfer looks OK but don't you need to give out IBANs and BICs and the like. Not everyone has online banking either, so that means waiting in the bank queue and filling in forms (well it does here anyway). There people just won't have the time or inclination to do that for a meeting.

I know that when I go to UK meetings I pay with credit card - or once with Paypal. Any more thoughts?

Are they paying the Organisation, and then they in turn pay you? If so, you can get them to draw a Euro draft a few days before.

May i ask - are you 'the venue' or are you the Organisor of the event.

mct1

blue4ever: I'm just the organiser of the event. I get nothing out of this myself - just doing it for professional development reasons & because someone needs to and no-one else will.

I need to get firm bookings at least 2 weeks in advance of the meeting which is next March, and preferably well before that - the hotel want definite numbers by then anyway. So they can't just pay me on the day.

I'm not sure there's any easy answer to this, but thanks for your interest - it's concentrated my mind somewhat. And I've gone off the idea of Paypal.

Cringer

Would you incur exchange rate fees if payment is made by credit card whilst acting as a merchant?

Paying via paypal will also incur some costs to you.

I have often lodged Sterling cheques into my Irish account and incurred no exchange rate fees, only the rate on the day.

Alternatively, cash payments could be made on the day, in euro, if that makes things easier.

A lot of organisations will also have a cheque book for Euro only, depending on where they do business.

You could:
1. Charge them (for example): €100 for Euro Cheques
Or
2. £85 stg (stating YOUR exchange rate e.g 0.85p to the €1).



This way you give them a choice of payments, and you make sure you don't lose out in the transaction.