Foreign
winners in the Aquascaping Contest can face substantial transaction fees of
about $20 or so to process a foreign check. They would like to avoid these
costs, especially when the prize is only $25. These transaction fees are the
result of the prices banks charge for dealing with out-of-country
checks.
We
didn't adequately consider the transaction costs when we decided to offer
prizes. We committed that oversight when we were going to use vendor
donated items and then came upon the shipping costs and related problems. We
did it again when we switched to "cash". This is a Victorian "we;" as the
money guy, the transaction costs are something I should have thought about and
brought up way back when. My apologies to the group.
So, in
belated restitution let me offer the following options for
consideration.
I
think there are four ways to deal with this:
Whistle-past-the-graveyard
options:
1)
Advise prospective contestants that prizes will be award by check drawn upon a
USA bank and winners might
incur
transaction charges when they process prize checks (no added costs to
AGA)
2)
do as we have been, offering Paypal or mailed cash; (no
added costs beyond what we pay now, i.e. paypal);
Bite
the bullet options:
2)
getting a credit card and using Western Union;
or (added AGA costs for card
and WU -- about $20-25
per transaction)
3)
Going to the bank and purchasing cashier
checks. (added AGA costs for cashier
checks--about $20-$25
per transaction)
None
of these will eliminate all transaction costs for all overseas contestants but
the last two will mitigate for nearly all and eliminate for many. The
latter two options would basically mean that the AGA eats about $20 in
additional costs per transaction.
I
don't think it would unreasonable for the AGA to take on an additional
$360-$450 in contest costs to try to absorb most of the transaction fees. I
know contest participation isn't about the money, but sending someone a prize
that is virtually consumed by the winner's acceptance of it, well,
it just doesn't look like our best foot forward.
sh