If there's interest in this, I can relay donations via PayPal from my German bank account. I would however have to take some commission (5%?) because of the manual labor involved, in addition to the PayPal fees.
It would be cheapest if Wikimedia itself could process credit card payments directly, although I don't know how complex the necessary software is. There are a lot of CC processing companies, but some of those may end up being as expensive as PayPal.
Regards,
Erik
There are a lot of CC processing companies, but some of those may end up being as expensive as PayPal.
Closer to all of them. PayPal's becoming pretty popular in POS applications due to its costs being A) about half as much as the average and B) proportional to income. The latter's very nice for low-traffic places that otherwise couldn't afford CC support.
-- Jake
Erik Moeller wrote:
It would be cheapest if Wikimedia itself could process credit card payments directly, although I don't know how complex the necessary software is. There are a lot of CC processing companies, but some of those may end up being as expensive as PayPal.
Well, we'll be accepting credit cards directly, but my understanding, which is limited at this point, is that people were saying that Europeans often don't have credit cards. Anthere reports that the French do, but other reports have suggested (if I understood) that Germans mostly don't?
It seems like the easiest thing would be for me to open a bank account in Germany for the purpose of accepting bank transfers from Europeans. If someone could direct me to a web page in English of a bank that could do this, that'd be great.
Possibly one of the bigger multinational financial institutions, like Citibank, would be the best for this, as they are presumably well prepared to handle such international situations.
--Jimbo
Jimmy Wales jwales@bomis.com writes:
It seems like the easiest thing would be for me to open a bank account in Germany for the purpose of accepting bank transfers from Europeans. If someone could direct me to a web page in English of a bank that could do this, that'd be great.
Have you tried to ask Wikimedias current bank "We need a German or French bank account, can you help us?"
Jimmy Wales wrote:
Gustav Foseid wrote:
Have you tried to ask Wikimedias current bank "We need a German or French bank account, can you help us?"
No, I haven't. But I will, that's a good idea. SunTrust is not an international bank, though, it's just a Florida bank.
Many banks (but especially the big ones) maintain correspondence arrangements with key foreign banks. By working through your bank you can be relatively more sure that they will have compatible paperwork processes. US banks tend to almost :-) understand things when the banking relationship is initiated from within the US.
At one time it was even a problem doing banking between two US states because many of the banks were under state rather than federal control. The S&L collapse changed a lot of that when it forced some of the bit players out of the market.
Ec
Jimmy-
Well, we'll be accepting credit cards directly, but my understanding, which is limited at this point, is that people were saying that Europeans often don't have credit cards. Anthere reports that the French do, but other reports have suggested (if I understood) that Germans mostly don't?
Last time I checked, CC coverage was only about 15% in Germany, but quite a few cheap offers by VISA & Co. have popped up in the last couple of years, so things may be changing. Still, there's a lot of suspicion concerning "plastic".
Regards,
Erik
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