Hi Jeremy, Sure, so do I start a new post?
Perhaps I should extend on my role at American Express, as many just perceive it to be Credit Cards & Merchant Facilities. First of all my business unit, which is similar to Amex Corporate Card, Small Business Card, Merchant, Consumer Card, Business Travel, is called GFES or Global Foreign Exchange Services. GFES encompasses all Foreign Exchange services offered by American Express, such as FXIP (Foreign Exchange International Payments), WCS (Wholesale Cash Services), Retail (Retail Cash Outlets), Prepaid (Amex Prepaid Global Travel Card). My department, FXIP (Foreign Exchange International Payments) is a stand aside provider of International Funds Transfer, essentially normal bank transfers however they mostly involve making or receiving transfers where there is an exchange of currency. A typical scenario is that an Australian Business receives an Invoice from their supplier in China, who invoice in USD. The Australian Business would then use our services to buy USD and send a transfer to their supplier in USD. The other scenario, is that an Australian Business is supplying product overseas and invoices a European Client in EURO (not AUD), which they then would provide our EUR account details for their client to pay Amex EUR on the Aussie Businesses behalf, which upon receiving we would then convert to AUD and pay the AUD to the Aussie Business's account. So more specifically, a payments platform which allows businesses to transact with foreign currencies. In answer to your question: ***DISCLAIMER: The below information has been prepared without taking account of your objectives, financial situation or needs. Because of that you should, before taking any action to acquire any of the financial products or services mentioned below, consider whether that is appropriate having regard to your own objectives, financial situation and needs. You should obtain the relevant Product Disclosure Statements relating to the relevant financial product mentioned on this website (which contains full details of the terms and conditions of the relevant financial product) and consider it before making any decision about whether to acquire the financial product. Product Disclosure Statement relating to the financial products mentioned below are available from the respective product issuer. The views and opinions expressed in below are the personal views of the author and are not necessarily the views of American Express, its staff or employees.*** Now the legal part taken care of: If we were to not look at products from any one company specifically, I would say that any Australian business looking to accept payments online from anywhere in the world would need: 1. Multiple-Currency Internet Merchant Facility 2. Multiple Currency/Foreign Currency Bank Accounts 3. Foreign Currency Conversion facilities 4. Local Bank Account As far as the process is concerned, it would be something like this: Your client purchases the your product on your website in USD using their Credit Card. The Multiple Currency Merchant Facility processes the USD charge to the Credit Card, which is then deposited into your Foreign Currency Bank Account. You would then use your Foreign Currency Conversion Facility to convert the USD in your Foreign Currency Bank Account and then into AUD, then deposit the AUD into your Local Bank Account. As far as costs, you would come across the following: 1. Multiple Currency Merchant Facility, would charge a merchant fee (usually a % of the charge, & maybe a transaction fee) 2. Multiple Currency/Foreign Currency Bank Account, would charge a monthly fee, plus a transfer fee 3. Foreign Currency Conversion Facility, most will not have any fees, however will usually take a small margin on the conversion 4. Any fees and charges of your bank applied to your account. I hope that gives a bit of a 'how to', of course, you need to negotiate the fee & charge structures with each provider of the relevant product/services. In my experience, not one company charges the same for every business/person, each business/person is able to negotiate a fee & charge structure specifically for themselves. Darren Allatt | Business FX Consultant | International Payments American Express International, Inc. | L7, 60 Union St Pyrmont NSW 2009 T +61 2 9271 9442 | F +61 2 9263 6049 | M +61 0438 871 124 | E darren.p.all...@aexp.com To speak to a Dealer or Customer Service please call 1300 554 884 Transact with confidence. American Express FXIP. www.americanexpress.com.au/fxip ***DISCLAIMER: The information has been prepared without taking account of your objectives, financial situation or needs. Because of that you should, before taking any action to acquire any of the financial products or services mentioned, consider whether that is appropriate having regard to your own objectives, financial situation and needs. You should obtain the relevant Product Disclosure Statements relating to the relevant financial product mentioned on this website (which contains full details of the terms and conditions of the relevant financial product) and consider it before making any decision about whether to acquire the financial product. Product Disclosure Statement relating to the financial products mentioned below are available from the respective product issuer. The views and opinions expressed are the personal views of the author and are not necessarily the views of American Express, its staff or employees.*** -----Original Message----- From: silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com [mailto:silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Jeromy Evans Sent: Tuesday, 31 May 2011 10:01 PM To: Silicon Beach Australia Subject: [SiliconBeach] Re: Introduction Hi Darren, That's interesting. It would be helpful if you could share general advice with *the list* about how a new Australian startup can accept online USD credit card payment into an Australian business bank account. Several people on this list have cracked the problem and shared how they did it in thorough posts here. As far as I know, none of the solutions involve AMEX FX. If there's an AMEX solution targeted to internet startups we don't know about yet then please share it. For scoping, the general solution needs to be start-up targeted: potentially low transaction quantity (potential to scale up), low month fees, low conversion fees. We're not looking for a product name/ brochure, but rather a "how to". That would be an *awesome* resource. regards, Jeromy Evans http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeromyevans On May 31, 4:56 pm, "darren.p.all...@aexp.com" <darren.p.all...@aexp.com> wrote: > Good Afternoon, > > A friend of mine, Lyndal Kennedy from Evanscorp in Woolongong NSW has > referred me here to act as a resource for the members. > My name is Darren Allatt and I am a Business Foreign Exchange > Consultant at American Express FX International Payments. > > What I do is work with businesses where they need to pay or receive > payments that involve foreign currencies. I work with them to minimize > the cost of such as well as assist in making the process of > transacting easier. > > I am qualified to provide GENERAL ADVICE on Foreign Exchange products > in Australia and more than happy to answer any questions, and will > provide you MY OPINION, of course each answer will include the > appropriate disclaimers. > > You can contact me: > > Darren Allatt | Business FX Consultant | International Payments > American Express International, Inc. | L7, 60 Union St Pyrmont NSW > 2009 > > Best Regards > > Darren -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. Guidelines on discussion: http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia/msg/351e183e1303508d?hl=en%3Fhl%3Den No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. 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