Client wants to pay in another currency

[MistressMorgana]

Has anyone accepted foreign currency? It's the Euro.

[mature helen]

Yes I would accept it once I've worked out the exchange rate plus any commission I'd need to pay to have it changed into ?'s. Not sure if your bank would do it for free.

[MistressMorgana]

Yes, it's the commission I'm not sure about.

I'll check with the bank in the morning but money is money. I've never been offered foreign currency before 

[topgirl]

A guy paid me in euros a few weeks back- I just went to my bank and they changed it to pounds for me free.

[Fabulassie]

I would quickly Google the exchange calculator and then round up a touch to cover the bother and commission of going to the exchange.

So I've just calculated 120 pounds to euros - it's 140.46. I would ask for 145 euros to cover the commission as well as the bother of exchanging (and the risk that something momentous happens in the few hours before doing so that sets the Euro plunging.)

[xw5]

Make sure you know exactly what valid notes of any currency you accept look and feel like. Plenty of people have been given fakes or unusable 'old' money.

I'm reasonably sure I could go 'that's a legit Euro note', but I wouldn't touch anything else. And the ?:? exchange rate would be in my favour.

[VoluptuousCurves]

This is interesting - I had a guy ask to pay me in Euros before but I refused because I just automatically assumed he was trying to pass fake notes, and I wouldn't be confident spotting them. (I'm pretty hot on spotting fake GBP.)

[MistressMorgana]

My bank told me today's rate is 1.28, which is surprisingly good for the Euro.

I'll check tomorrow and will round up.

[xw5]

Why not just send them around to the bank first?

[Green Carnation]

I occasionally accept dollars/euros/swiss franks from regular American/european/Swiss clients, but would never accept from a new client. Also makes sense for me as I travel to the us and Switzerland a lot and keep the euros for holiday.
I don't like Scottish or Northern Irish notes as I have never been to Scotland or N.Ireland and I don't know what a legitimate note looks like and definitely could not tell a fake.

[katrina]

I've accepted euro's before, not had a problem. But the clients just had them on them, I would be wary of someone asking in advance if he could pay in another currency, especially if it was a large amount.

[Fabulassie]

That's a good point. Someone just arrived in London with only Euros on them at the moment I guess makes sense. But there's no reason he can't pop to a bank and make an exchange.

[katrina]

That's a good point. Someone just arrived in London with only Euros on them at the moment I guess makes sense. But there's no reason he can't pop to a bank and make an exchange.

The bank could be closed, in my case it was on a Saturday afternoon and he offered to pay extra for taking photo's and another time on an evening when a client wanted to extend his booking but only had euros.

[ladyofthemansion]

If I am about to go on holiday within a few months I will accept foreign currency for the country I am going to.

[VoluptuousCurves]

The bank could be closed, in my case it was on a Saturday afternoon and he offered to pay extra for taking photo's and another time on an evening when a client wanted to extend his booking but only had euros.

Cashpoints are always open. If a punter said "Yes but it'll charge me 5% transaction fee waaahhh waaahhhh" then I'd probably say I was going to charge them ?20 admin fee so it'd still work better to go and draw some cash!