Management Services

Overseas payment service (M5)

This service (M5) is  available with no additional registration fee as an optional add on service to members who have either

•  Have used the full H3 overseas finding service (including those coded as H1 and H2),
• Those who are using the Business management handholding service (M1).
• Some who have used the overseas property handholding service (H4)
• For paying ongoing overseas fees in relation to company admin and similar contract costs when the company formation service M4 has been used to set up an offshore or USA based company
• Some other services using management services through the club.

When you buy a property overseas money can be wired fairly quickly at least in theory, once the information you need to allow this to be done has been achieved.

Without a cheque account in the local currency, it is virtually impossible to pay local taxes without a trip to the area, although you may be able to pay some overseas utilities with a credit card. You cannot for example just pay it into a bank that has the same trading title in the UK as the one you could in another country.

It can take a considerable time to open accounts to be able to pay overseas bills, with some UK banks opening a simple dollar account can take months by the time they have first asked for information on the company even when they have held accounts for the same company for many years, then they want proof of the identity of directors and then other information. If you want an account you may find it quicker to establish an overseas company and then to open an account for it.

This service is all about paying bills and moving cash to pay bills. it is an add on to other services, and not something being offered on its own.

Making sure we deal in clean money

None of this section will effect you if you are using this service to pay routine local taxes and utilities for overseas properties as the amounts involved will be far below the level where we need to become concerned.

One of the problems, why it has become more difficult to move money, is that various countries have put in measures to try to stop money laundering, the proceeds of crime and drug trafficking being moved and they say to stop funds getting to terrorists. In a similar way small offshore companies have been made difficult to form in some jurisdictions, however major criminals, drug dealers or terrorists would be dealing in the sort of funds that larger companies do and the same restrictions do not seem to apply to them, which makes some suggest its more to do with cutting down the use of tax havens by smaller businesses while keeping them open to those who provide political funding.

Having said this we are not obviously going to get involved in laundering money or transferring the proceeds of crime, paying for drug deliveries or any other such activity. So we have had to consider how we make sure that in our desire to help members overcome obstacles we don't get used by those involved in these activities or set up by corrupt promotion hungry members of some authorities in some way.

In most cases we will have developed experience of club members over the period of helping them to find a property, and will have often seen proof of identity when setting up a company for them, so handling transactions for these people is somewhat easier for us than when we are dealing with a new member who wants us to transfer the full value of an expensive property for them. 

Making things easier is all about presenting confidence, if the money you are paying to us is coming from a UK bank, we know that the bank knows who you are and are happy the money is clean or they would not be dealing with you. If wired in from another bank somewhere else we will ask some questions but again the bank will be happy that the money is clean. We will need proof of identity if we have not already had it for larger transactions.

If you turn up with a suitcase full of cash, then that does present us with a problem. We are going to need to know how you came by it and to be able to check out what you tell us. Even if we have got to know you quite well, when we are presented with a large cash sum, we are going to need convincing that the money is clean, and be able to prove it. This will also apply to a series of smaller amounts that add up to become a large sum. If you are into money laundering or have got this cash by some means that you not able to show was legal then you would be better taking it somewhere else. In many cases it would be far simpler where you have cash to deposit it in your bank and transfer it or get a bank draft for the value.

In most cases there will be a perfectly rational explanation, that can be shown to be true, for example you may have withdrawn cash over a period from a credit card, or direct from your bank and in both cases have documentation to show, or will have received the cash as a part of another property closing transaction, and will have a solicitor who can verify where the cash came from, but in any case where cash over £5,000 is involved you should talk to us about potentially presenting us with it at the earliest opportunity. 

Where we are to receive large sums of cash, we will usually meet you at a bank, where we will immediately deposit it, eliminating the risk of forgeries and the security risk of holding large amounts of cash. We can also tell you the name of the bank and account number and you can then select a local branch to you. All large in payments to our account by you we will treat as if it was a cash deposit 

It is just about impossible to define what is Ok and what is not, and we will look at each transaction with the view that if later someone was to come to us with hindsight and say that we should have known better than to have handled the money, we need to have a reasonable and truthful answer and documentation in relation to it. As the situation and requirements are at this time unknown we will tend to ask more rather than less questions. It also follows that you should never even joke about obtaining funds in any illegal way or cash coming from skimming to avoid tax etc, for although we may know that you are only joking, we may feel that having heard it, this could later be used against us if we helped you to move funds.

None of this will effect you if you are using this service to pay routine local taxes and utilities for overseas properties as the amounts involved will be far below the level where we need to become concerned.

Cost of using this service

See rate card below.

All bank charges can add up to more than you might expect as usually you end up paying for both ends of the transaction and in some cases, we can even be billed by local councils oversees later for the cost of clearing cheques, so there tends to be rollover small charges.

You might think that sending money through banks would in this electronic age be simple, well it rarely ever is, and we have loads of problems, extra costs and well lets just say that of you decide never to use this service we will be delighted. Originally it was only available as an add on to to other services to make them possible, but we decided to widen it a bit.

For hand delivered transactions, this might be where we need to send a person to hand deliver a cheque or contract or to make a payment for you in person. This will be very rarely required as a carrier such as fedex will usually be fast enough. The cost of achieving this will be our costs, which will include the cost of hiring a suitable person, air fares, hotel, car hire.....plus £200. 

Where the executive director of H3 is requested to go personally and negotiate a deal, and you are to pay us and at that time he is to make a payment on your behalf and sign contracts on your behalf, advanced arrangements needs to be made and this is done under an extension of either an H3 service or another 'H' service, and the cost are charged through the relevant service rather than as a part of this service.

Questions or to arrange the use of this service call the clubs main number 01242 678988