I pay in cash. Simple economics.
My own dear bank
robber service charges me 4-5% over spot price for converting euros. Then a fee for sending direct. Or £5 to pay into my euro account and another £5 for the pleasure of writing a cheque. Over and above that a Parisienne girl friend was hit a £15 fee from a French bank for just cashing the bloody "cheque bancaire Britanique" it was in euros! I complained hard to my Euro MP about that little scam - I understand it has since been made illegal.
Put another way my 2005 St Chartier tickets for 3 cost me just under 29% of the total in various fees and margins.
.. or I toddle to the hole in the wall, draw my cash (free), toddle to the Co-op, pay 2% over spot for notes. Been doing it all month as I'm not sure we'll see 1.17/£ for ever and I've an accordion to pay for next year. To be clear - when I pay Frans van der Aa in cash only 2% goes to the bank
robber financial services. I don't mind that.
You've probably worked out by now that I trust foreign luthiers a lot more than British bankers. Actually I've never ever heard of a luthier behaving dishonestly. Needed 2 reed plates off Gaillard - slip €30 into an envelope- get reeds 3 days later. Bigger sums I find an excuse to go over. I bought my Mori in cash (IL2,700,000!) from Sandro Castagnari. Wasn't ready and it then came by post 'cash on delivery'. Whoops! So Italians aren't 'Germans' - but we sorted it out amicably
Don't
don't toddle to the Co-op with only your debit card! If you buy 'potatoes' there - you pay for what you get. If you have the temerity to purchase
euros in the same shop - it becomes a becomes a cash advance (like HOW
) - 3% fee!
Non illigitimi carborundum as they used to say in Rome.