[E-trademarks] Good, Inexpensive service for bank wire payments

Tue Nov 21 20:43:51 EST 2023

I've had good experience for several years with Corpay

https://www.corpay.com/cross-border

and its predecessor company.

They will transmit a payment on an invoice in a foreign currency for a flat transaction fee of $10.00 and will draw funds from my U.S. bank account via ACH.  They will store the bank details of the recipient so that a repeat payment is a one-click transaction.

I have been assigned a dedicated customer service professional who communicates from Philadelphia in real time and helps me and my team use the system.

So far, so good.

-Gerry
Gerry J. Elman
Elman IP, 6117 St James Pl, Denton TX 76210-0421
610-892-9942   https://elman.com

-------- Original message --------
From: Pamela Chestek via E-trademarks <e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com>
Date: 11/21/23 7:24 PM (GMT-06:00)
To: e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com
Cc: Pamela Chestek <pamela at chesteklegal.com>
Subject: Re: [E-trademarks] Good, Inexpensive service for bank wire payments

But how is their customer service? I gave up on them after I had trouble linking my bank account to my Wise account, it took weeks for them to respond, and the response was one of those where you think "did you read my question???" kind of things.

What do they do if:

You accidentally send money to the wrong law firm?
The foreign law firm doesn't accept the money because they've changed banks, or you transposed numbers, etc. etc.?
How painful is it to send money to Russia? (Very painful with Western Union, I can tell you)

A small transaction fee is a small price to pay for a human being who will help you when something goes wrong.

Pam

Pamela S. Chestek
Chestek Legal
300 Fayetteville Street
Unit 2492
Raleigh, NC 27602
pamela at chesteklegal.com<mailto:pamela at chesteklegal.com>
(919) 800-8033
www.chesteklegal.com<http://www.chesteklegal.com>

On 11/21/2023 4:29 PM, Carl Oppedahl via E-trademarks wrote:

Let me give one example of how I think the Wise system has helped me with client billing and accounting issues.

An invoice comes in from foreign counsel in (let's say) Poland.  The invoice asks us to pay some number of Euros (€).  So I go into Wise and I click to see the last time that I paid money to that Polish firm.  And there is a button to "send again".  (This means that if I somehow had avoided screwing up the IBAN and other recipient information in the past, then I don't need to worry about screwing it up this time.)  Of course the source of the funds is our US dollar balance with Wise.  I click around and I get to pick:

  *   I could pick to send some exact number of USD, in which case the number of € that the Polish firm receives might be bigger or smaller depending on currency exchange rates.
  *   I could pick that I want the Polish firm to receive some exact number of €.  In that case, the number of USD that would get deducted from our US dollar balance might be more or less, depending on exchange rates.

I choose the latter path because I want the Polish firm to be paid the exact number of € that is the amount of their invoice.  I go to the invoice and copy the number of €, let's say it is €916.  The Wise system tells me that to make this happen, I will be using 987.38 USD of my USD balance.  I keep clicking and eventually it goes through.

Oh and by the way the fee charged to me for the money transfer is zero because ... wait for it ... the Polish firm also uses Wise.  And they will not need to incur any fee to receive the money because ... our firm and their firm are both using Wise.  Oh, and they receive the money within seconds.

Back to my main point.  Our accounts-receivable department needs to bill our client (which is located in the US) in USD.  So our accounts-receivable department wants to know just exactly, down to the penny, how many USD were involved.  The point here is I can tell them in real time that it was 987.38 USD, not a penny more, not a penny less.  We can bill the client essentially instantly.

Second example.  Suppose our client is the kind of client where we want our (US-based) client to advance the funds to us (in USD), before we authorize the foreign firm to carry out the work.  What we would prefer is that we ask our client for just exactly the right number of USD, not too high, not too low.  And the foreign firm already told us it will cost (let's say) €916 to do the task.

And we know that there is a time gap.  We might be authorizing the foreign work a month from now.  But we need to know right now exactly how many USD to ask the client to advance to us.  The exchange rate will be different today than it will be for a month from now.  And our accounting department will go nuts if we ask for an advance, and a month from now it turns out the advance was not exactly the same.  A true-up would be needed and our accounting department hates that.  Plus the money was going into and out of our escrow account and the true-up makes it even more complicated.

So what we do is, we use Wise to convert some of our USD into the foreign currency involved (in this case €).  We have a € balance with Wise, and we do what it takes to add €916 to our Euro balance.  And we know, right now, exactly how many USD were required to make that happen.  So we can ask the client to advance that number of USD (plus, if needed, the fee for the wire transfer itself, which is completely predictable down to the penny).   And later when we pay the foreign counsel, we send that exact €916 that we have been holding in our € balance for these weeks.

No need for a true-up later because of changes in the $-and-€ exchange rate.

And we know exactly how much money got charged for converting the $ to €.

So we never need to do true-ups.

Years ago we were constantly having to do true-ups, back when we were using Reusch and then when we were using Travelex and then when we were using Afex.  Oh and heaven forbid for a while we were actually using our local bricks-and-mortar bank for the foreign money transfers (Wells Fargo).  Boy that was a big mistake to use our ordinary bank.  Anyway, we were constantly having to do true-ups because invariably when we quoted to the client how many USD the task was going to cost, to do something in a foreign country in Euros, the exchange rate would have later changed.

Yet another thing is that if we want, we can accept payments from our European colleagues in Euros or pounds sterling or Polish Zlotys.  We have bank details that permit us to receive those currencies.

On 11/21/2023 4:57 PM, Scott Nielson via Patentpractice wrote:
How does Wise help large firm accounting departments in the way you describe? As someone who has all those issues, especially the wire transfer fees, I'm interested in knowing how you avoid them.

Scott Nielson

801-660-4400

________________________________
From: Patentpractice <patentpractice-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com><mailto:patentpractice-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com> on behalf of Orvis via Patentpractice <patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com><mailto:patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2023 4:52 PM
To: For patent practitioners. This is not for laypersons to seek legal advice. <patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com><mailto:patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>
Cc: Orvis <orvispc at gmail.com><mailto:orvispc at gmail.com>; Dineen Wasylik <dineen at wasylik.net><mailto:dineen at wasylik.net>; For trademark practitioners. This is not for laypersons to seek legal advice. <e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com><mailto:e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com>
Subject: Re: [Patentpractice] [E-trademarks] Good, Inexpensire service for bank wire payments

Wise is also great for those at large firms who's accounting department says they cannot figure out how to deliver a dollar certain to a recipient and then tells you that you need to figure out conversions and wire transfer fees along the way.

Nov 21, 2023 6:09:23 PM Richard Schafer via Patentpractice <patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com><mailto:patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>:

Wise has been a godsend for my solo practice. Highly recommended.

Best regards,
Richard A. Schafer | Schafer IP Law
P.O. Box 230081 | Houston, TX 77223
M: 832.283.6564 | richard at schafer-ip.com<mailto:richard at schafer-ip.com>

From: E-trademarks <e-trademarks-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com><mailto:e-trademarks-bounces at oppedahl-lists.com> On Behalf Of Dineen Wasylik via E-trademarks
Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2023 11:14 AM
To: For trademark practitioners. This is not for laypersons to seek legal advice. <e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com><mailto:e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com>
Cc: Dineen Wasylik <dineen at wasylik.net><mailto:dineen at wasylik.net>; patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:patentpractice at oppedahl-lists.com>
Subject: Re: [E-trademarks] Good, Inexpensire service for bank wire payments

I agree with Carlk, though I think they now call it just "wise" but wise.com<http://wise.com/> is what I have based on recommendations from other practitioners.  It is easy and much less expensive than bank-based wires.  It handles currency conversion much better than my bank folks did, too.

Best,

Dineen

On Tue, Nov 21, 2023 at 5:58 AM Carl Oppedahl via E-trademarks <e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com<mailto:e-trademarks at oppedahl-lists.com>> wrote:

See
https://blog.oppedahl.com/eventually-every-patent-and-trademark-firm-will-have-a-transferwise-account/

On 11/20/2023 10:53 PM, voyer--- via E-trademarks wrote:
> A year or maybe more ago, there was elist discussion of a good, inexpensive service for bank wire services.
> At least internationally, perhaps also domestic.  My saved copy is now hiding from me.
> Would appreciate contact info for that service, and it is stlil a good recommendation. Thanks,
>
> Daniel Kegan *  847-452-2599
> Baron Harris Healey, Of Counsel
> <DKegan at BHHLawFirm.com<mailto:DKegan at BHHLawFirm.com>>
> <http://www.BHHLawFirm.com<http://www.bhhlawfirm.com/>>
> Balanced Counsel for Smart Clients®
> 29 Kendal Dr
> Kennett Square PA 19348-2323 USA
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