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Posted on ALFA Coordination
Created 28 February 2012

Dear all,

We are lauching our ALFA project and are facing some issues concerning bank transfers to Latin America. 
Our first meeting will take place here in Barcelona as of tomorrow but the other 8 meetings we have planned shall take place in Latin America.
The problem is basically that we will have to pay invoices via transfer in LA and don't know how much the local bank will charge us. On the other hand, we can't make a transfer without knowing this information for we need to make a transfer that corresponds to the amount of the invoice + the fees.

How do you deal with these issues in the other projects?

Thank you very much in advance for your answers!

Diane

(Network DHES - Universitat Pompeu Fabra) 

(8)

AN
Anonymous

Dear Diane,

from my experience bank transfer costs to LA are quite high: the total costs in our project for each transfer was around 20€, but it depends from the bank. The positive aspect is that those kind of costs are elegible under Other cost - Financial Services (5.6).

Hope this will help!

Michela

AN
Anonymous

Thank you for your answer Michela! Please do not hesitate to ask questions and share your comments and experience (in project management etc.). Have a nice day!
Wishes from Brussels

AN
Anonymous

Many thanks from me too...and sorry for the belated answer! We had our first meeting last week and I am just beginning to catch up.
The remaining question I have concerns the costs in the South American country. How have you dealt with this issue? I mean you can't know how much it will be in advance...
Thanks again!

Diane

AN
Anonymous
in reply to alfa-dhes

@ Pauline: Thanks to you Pauline: I think this blog is an excellent way to share experience and I am glad I have been invited by our tutor in Brussels! Let's keep in touch

@ Diane:I'm nor sure if I understand you doubt. Do you mean you didn't know how to plan the costs for the kickoff meeting or you don't know now how to report them or you have invoices not paid yet in LA concerning the first meeting? It you be my pleasure to tell you how I sorted it out in the past :-)

AN
Anonymous

Dear Michela,
Thank you for coming back to me!
My problem is basically that we are having all our meetings in LA (only the first one took place in Europe). So this means we have the money here and we are going to receive invoices for accomodation, books, publications etc. from LA countries. My point is that when we transfer the money from Europe we will only be able to pay the amount indicated on the bills without taking into account the fact that the local (LA) banks might as well charge for the transfer when the money arrives. Do you see what I mean? How have you dealt with this issue?

AN
Anonymous
in reply to alfa-dhes

Dear All, when we make bank transfers we usually tell the bank to charge all costs of the transfer to us - i.e. the transferring party/sender of the transfer. This shall avoid that the bank of the beneficiary/reciever of the transfer charges any additional fees. For us this worked well and we did not have any problems in PILA with this issue. If the recepient however is charged you may ask the partner to send you the details of the transfer and maybe transfer the amount of bank charges by the end of the year. The other issue here is the variations due to the currencies (when converting from Euros to USD etc.). Our bank allows us to send transfers in Euros or USD which is also very useful. I hope this information is any useful for you. Kind regards, Alexandra

AN
Anonymous
in reply to Alexandra Mayr

Dear Alexandra,

This is indeed extremely helpful: thank you very much!
May I ask which bank you worked with? We are also based in Spain....

Thanks!

Diane

AN
Anonymous
in reply to alfa-dhes

Dear Diane, I am glad that this was helpful! I suggest we can talk about specific banking issues in Spain over the phone. I'll contact you. Saludos