Subject: Italian law regarding bank transfers?
Author: Carmel in Rome
Date Posted: 15 December 2003
Message:
Does anyone know whether it is true that Italy has a law requiring a payment of 1.5% on any sum over 1000 euros that is transferred to an Italian bank from anywhere outside of Italy.

Thank you!

http://www.villaconcierge.com
----------------------------------------

Subject:
Author: Diva
Date Posted: 15 December 2003
Message:
knowing the banks here I would bet!!!
they charge so much for everything..
Even taking travellers checks.. it was better to go to the change office than the bank!!!
But each bank has a different fee and many are negoziable!

Cooking in Florence
http://www.divinacucina.com
----------------------------------------

Subject:
Author: Passerotto
Date Posted: 17 December 2003
Message:
OK maybe a work around. supposedly you can now paypal money to your Italian bank for a one euro fee. I have made a test drop. converted USD to 10 euro and slid it over and the site says it is now in my Firenze bank....(which i am too stupid to be able to open up and read on line in Italian -----DIVAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!) as soon as I can get to the bank when they are opened, I will let you know if it made it over and if they deducted anything.....if not, this may be a viable workaround for all of us that tend to go and pull our maximum alloted euros via ATM only to turn around and carry the cash around to avoid the high costs of transfers.

fingers crossed,

~passerotto~

Not all who wander are lost. JRR Tolkein
----------------------------------------

Subject:
Author: Diva
Date Posted: 17 December 2003
Message:
Passerotto,
you crack me up!!!

Cooking in Florence
http://www.divinacucina.com
----------------------------------------

Subject:
Author: Joanna
Date Posted: 17 December 2003
Message:
Is that the sound of flushing?!!? Nope. It's the sound of my monthly wire transfers to Monte dei Paschi di Siena, aka MPS, aka _Millions per Second_! If that PayPal thing works out, puleeeeeeeeezze let me know _subito!!!_

[This message was edited by Joanna on 17 December 2003 at 05:15 PM.]
----------------------------------------

Subject:
Author: Westsider
Date Posted: 17 December 2003
Message:
<QUOTE><HR>Originally posted by Joanna:
Is that the sound of flushing?!!? Nope. It's the sound of my monthly wire transfers to Monte dei Paschi di Siena, aka MPS, aka _Millions per Second_! If that PayPal thing works out, puleeeeeeeeezze let me know _subito!!!]<HR></QUOTE>
I think you should first ask MPS if they accept PayPal payments. Or maybe you can check on http://www.paypal.com/ if MPS is on the list of the vendors they serve.

"Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza..."

"I sing to life, to its beauty, to each of its wounds and each of its caresses..."

----------------------------------------

Subject:
Author: Joanna
Date Posted: 03 January 2004
Message:
http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_help-ext&eloc=264&loc=256&unique_id=4719&source_page=<MAXCODE&flow= with instructions for sending money to one's bank account, but did you find out if it worked, Passerotto?
----------------------------------------

Subject:
Author: Passerotto
Date Posted: 18 January 2004
Message:
OK guys...forgive the more than late reply on the answer to the paypal bank question.

Seems my ADSL Firewall was the problem with viewing my account on line and I actually never made it round to the bank to pester them to see if the test amount made it through.

Catching up on my bills and such today and reviewed my Florence bank statement. Payment arrived without a glitch. There seems to be some talk with PayPal UK (who will be taking over for the US branch operations) to limiting the transfer to 1000 euro per month and you must still keep two seperate PayPal accounts...(one in the US and one in Italy) as the brits do not want to be bothered with US transfers and all the headaches that involves.

In any case, it is a way to move some funds per month without bank charges and for small changes like myself works just fine.

~passerotto~

Not all who wander are lost. JRR Tolkein
----------------------------------------

Subject:
Author: beebee
Date Posted: 18 January 2004
Message:
So can I just check to see that I've understood please? To minimise the amount of deductions I buy some Euros through my commercial agency and ask them to pay it to my PayPal account. Then I ask PayPal to send it through to my Italian bank account.

Does that work?

Beebee
----------------------------------------

Subject:
Author: Passerotto
Date Posted: 19 January 2004
Message:
Nope more simple than that. You open two Pay Pal accounts. (using two e-mail addresses) one tied to your USA bank, the other to your Italian one.

You then pull cash from your USA bank into your USA paypay, then send it via paypal to your Italian paypal. Once it arrives there, you can then dump up to 1,000 euro per month into your bank account in Italy, all for a very small fee (less than 2 euros). The trick is, it isnt something you can do overnight. You must activate both accounts and then verify that you have working bank accounts tied in electronically and then you can begin. If you want fast....then you have to do it directly bank to bank and pay the wire fees that entails.

Hope that makes more sense....

~passerotto~

Not all who wander are lost. JRR Tolkein
----------------------------------------

Subject:
Author: SteveS
Date Posted: 19 January 2004
Message:
<QUOTE> Nope more simple than that </QUOTE> Well, I am afraid not. Paypal "simply" masquerades the charges but giving you an exchange rate that's unfavorable to you. For example, if I were to send �24.50 today, the PayPal's Exchange Rate as of Jan. 19, 2004 is
1 U.S. Dollar = 0.542197 Pounds Sterling

On today's currency market, US dollar is buying 0.55596 / 0.55611 (bid/ask) Pounds Sterling. So the Paypal commission effectively is (0.55596 -0.542197) / 0.55596 = 2.47% Not unreasonable, but still higher than the 1.5% a bank charges.

Is there a more favorable way to transfer money within PayPal that I don't know about?

In terms of charges on transferring Euro into Italian Bank, I don't know what the rules are.

[This message was edited by SteveS on 19 January 2004 at 09:53 AM.]
----------------------------------------

Subject:
Author: Flavia_Australia
Date Posted: 19 January 2004
Message:
has anyone used http://www.cashpassportcard.com

the only thing i know about it is that there is a $3 fee for each transaction.....

it might be the way to go.....let me know pls

Thank you for you time


----------------------------------------

Subject:
Author: Passerotto
Date Posted: 19 January 2004
Message:
Last time I wired bank to bank I got the bank percentage AND a $40 wire fee for the pleasure so to me the paypal commission was the lesser of two evils and better than walking around Florence with all my rent money in cash in my pockets. It really just depends on how tight of a shoe string you are on and what hoops one wants to try and jump through to mitigate the costs.

~passerotto~

Not all who wander are lost. JRR Tolkein

thanks cristina for reactivating this forum.

I hadn't even THOUGHT about the possibility of paying an extra 1.5% tax to the da%@#^% government on TOP of the crappy exchange, transfer fees, bank fees etc!! Has anyone ever found an answer to this question?! wow.

If so many of us are having trouble transfering money, why haven't the banks caught on?!