Wekiva

I'm a newbie at rending apartments and wiring money for the deposit. I recently sent a deposit of 130 pounds to a person to rent an apartment next year. I was charged a $25 fee by my bank. When the money arrived in the recipient's bank their bank also took out a 17 pound fee...so they received 113 pounds.

My question is this...if my total cost for the apartment is 1000 pounds do I deduct 130 pounds or 113 pounds from that amount for what I bring. Obviously I'll be discussing this with the owner but I wanted to have a bit of background on how this is usually handled.

I personally think I should be responsible for my bank's fee and that the recipient should be responsible for their bank's fee...meaning I deduct the 130...not 113.

I'd love to hear from people who have dealt with this before on how it's usually handled.

Thanks

Michel_Paris

Nope. When you send a bank wiure trasnfer, you have the option of covering the receiver's fees. So when I send a tranfer where the person is asking for 1000 euro, I ensure that 1000 euro ends up in their account. Banks sometimes forget to ask, depending on how experienced they are.

So a person renting a place should not have to cover the cost fo you getting the money to them, unless otherwise stated...and especially since you have the option to do so.

StCirq

<<I personally think I should be responsible for my bank's fee and that the recipient should be responsible for their bank's fee...meaning I deduct the 130...not 113.>>

I agree. I own a home in France that I used to rent, and in the event that someone wired me the rental fee, I always expected that I would bear the cost of my French bank's fee.

Christina

I agree, it's your cost as to how to get the money to them, they set a fee and that is what they expect to get. Now if they required you to send a wire transfer (which I have not heard of, it is usually one method available), maybe I could see it but even then, they set a fee that they expect to get for the apartment.

I would say the way it is usually handled is that the owner st a certain fee and expects to get that amount and you should cover all bank costs for getting it to them.

alihutch

I think that if an apartment is available for €500 say, then the person renting it out should get $500 in their account. In the UK it costs nothing to transfer between bank accounts, within Europe not so sure....

StCirq

<<I think that if an apartment is available for €500 say, then the person renting it out should get $500 in their account.>>

That makes no sense. 500 euros and 500 dollars are totally different amounts. A person renting an apartment for 500 euros would NEVER accept 500 dollars - that would be ridiculous.

I do maintain that as a rental home owner, I bear the (onerous, IMO) responsibility of paying my own bank's fees for accepting a wire transfer. Of course, as a rental home owner I can get the money in several ways, including ways that DON'T require paying my bank a fee to accept money.

Michel_Paris

Interesting question. I suppose it is the same as a retalier not expectig you to pay his VISA fees, but then again, you do have to pay the listed price + taxes. I guess in some cases the rate includes fees.

As a B&B owenr, I suppose I would want to spedically state if fees are included or not.

Mara

That is the benefit of using an ACH/EFT transfer instead of a wire transfer like I have done through xe.com - there are no charges for that type of transfer.....
The one time I had to make a wire transfer to a Japanese hotel they told me the amount of their bank fee so I added it to my remittance - in my case it was a cancellation fee.
It should be discussed previous to the transfer imo.....

StCirq

Mara, my French bank charges me 10 euro for an ACH/EFT transfer.

Michel_Paris

Mara,
When my bank does a transfer, there is a cost to the receiver from their bank to process the transfer. So I pay their bank's cost upfront. Not sure if XE has some special deal with european banks to waive the charges.

Sher

The first time I rented apartments (two) in Portugal for the same trip, one owner expected me to cover the bank fee on both ends and the other accepted that he would cover his banks fees.
I did not understand at the time (2004) how bank transfers worked and that the owner could be charged a fee for my deposit. But now I do and get fees spelled out by the receiving party ahead of time.
Since then no one has expected me to cover their bank fees.

Mara

St Cirq and Michel_Paris - That's interesting - I thought there was no charge for that type of transfer. I just called xe and they said it depends on the receiving bank. When I sent my apartment deposit to Paris last year the landlord never asked for any extra so I don't really know....but the xe guy did say North American banks don't charge....forgive me for my assumptions.... ;-)

Michel_Paris

Mara,
I've learnt by doing it. But it is true that the landlord would help by letting us know what is expected.

flanneruk

This is one of those occasions where there's more to the issue than the law or normal procedures.

The law's simple. You've agreed to pay £1000, So far you've only paid £113, so you owe £887. Unless you've agreed different conditions, you've voluntarily entered into a contract and you owe £887. End of story.

As you can see, there's no standard industry practice you could argue overides that. Arguments about credit card commissions aren't just irrelevant, they're downright wrong. If the landlord wanted to enrich the banks at his expense, he'd have allowed cc payment. He didn't - so he obviously didn't want to be the one who funded the banks.

Now we are only talking about £17 - though that's a larger proportion of his profit than of your costs. He's obviously not going to sue you. But, if you don't sort this out amicably and he's taking a deposit off you against wear and tear, I 100% guarantee there'll be at least £17 worth of damage to something. If you behave like a prick over this it'll be more than £17, and he's got the money. And, since tourist tenants rarely visit again, he's got no incentive to reduce his rate by 1.7% just because you don't know what you're doing

Personally (and I pay out internationally far more than I receive) I always assume the payer pays the payee's costs unless I can pre-negotiate them out.

If it matters to you, try to negotiate. But frankly, you're already behaving like a chiseller, even though I'm sure that's not how it looks to you. You'll have a much more relaxing holiday if you just pay what you owe.

He's in this for the money. You're in it for an enjoyable time. You're not being ripped off by ensuring you honour your side of the contract.

alihutch

"<<I think that if an apartment is available for €500 say, then the person renting it out should get $500 in their account.>>

That makes no sense. 500 euros and 500 dollars are totally different amounts. A person renting an apartment for 500 euros would NEVER accept 500 dollars - that would be ridiculous."

Um, that was a typo....hit the wrong key....€500 sent €500 in account......

StCirq

<<Um, that was a typo.>>

Good to know. Given the particular topic, it wasn't obviously so.

And flanner, I don't think the OP is "behaving like a chiseller." He/she's just asking a perfectly legitimate question. Most renters wouldn't even KNOW the recipient might have to bear a charge on his end, for crying out loud!

Wekiva

"If you behave like a prick over this it'll be more than £17, and he's got the money."

"But frankly, you're already behaving like a chiseller"

Wow Flanneruk...always looking on the bright side...aren't you.

I'm happy to pay the 17 pounds. I was just curious about the process seeing that I'm new to apartment rentals and wiring money.

From the responses I've gotten there isn't a standard. I'll simply ask the owner and will be happy either way.

You seem to be fairly bright Flanneruk, not sure why you think being rude is the only way you can make a point.