I'm going to be selling books in the UK that belong to a friend who lives in Holland. We're not talking big bucks here, just need to send her smallish sums of maybe between £10 and £50 from time to time (we have no idea how often).

We are trying to find a way to do this that will avoid any bank charges. (Also, it would be good to have an account into which I can pay cheques, as some buyers might like to pay by cheque.)

Paypal was my first thought, but they charge you over 4% for every deposit, plus charge to withdraw any amount under £50 and it takes ten days for a withdrawal to reach your bank account. So that's out.

My current idea is to use a dormant Nationwide current account that I have not used for six years. I could get an ATM card and post it to her, and she will only lose 1% when making a withdrawal.

Other UK banks charge 3% for ATM cash withdrawals in Holland.

(I phoned NW and asked could this account be in her name or joint names, answer NO because she is not resident in the UK.)

The only problem with this is that I am self employed and should really show this income on my tax return, though in reality it's not my money.

Can anyone think of a better system than this one for me to give her sums of money from time to time at the lowest possible cost?

THANK YOU

It may not be "your money" as you see it, but the fact that you have income coming in will mean that HMRC will view it as taxable.

Also, don;t mean to sound rude here, but why on earth are you looking to resell someone else's products for them? Is this someone you've known personally for a long time? Simply that there is a common eBay scam where someone asks someone to become the agent for their sales, all runs fine at first, and then after a month or so they clear out leaving the agent holding a lot of sales debt they have to cover personally.

Gosh I was excited when I got e-mail notification that someone had replied, and disappointed to find that nobody has found a better system than the imperfect one I have thought up.

But to respond to your questions:

(1) Yes, the money is taxable income when it comes to me, but when paid over to her as royalties it is a tax deductable expense. But it's not if I put it into another account in my own name.

(2) She is a very close personal friend not a scammer I met on ebay asking me to do a "dodgy" deal for her. No debts will be incurred in her name or in mine, we are selling books not buying books, so there is only income no outgoings.

I still cannot find a way of sending money to Holland without paying bank charges.

Love, Moneyvirgin

If it's not a silly question, why is your friend not taking payments directly? It isn't hard to set up a Paypal account for payment processing, and this is available for the friend in Holland.

You can't avoid all charges, but Paypal's processing fees are very low, plus there may be offers for free banking on opening a new business account (pretty standard here), so the overall result will be minimal charges. I really can't see a system that will remove all possible charges from payments.

She cannot take the payments direct because many of these wlll be cash sales, bookshops sales. If this were internet sales I would not be asking the question

When it comes to Paypal, the fees are high, and we'd have to pay them twice, once into my account and thence into hers, losing almost 10% of the income.