I'm hoping someone can answer a question for me. I'm about to send a payment to the UK and I'm wondering if US checks or bank money orders are cashable there, or if I would HAVE to wire the money or use Paypal.

I want to say you can get international money orders at the post office or perhaps it was more like a cashiers check from the bank. Check with both. It's been a real, real long time since I had to send any paper payment, but when I started on ebay I had a lot of overseas purchases and would use one of the above. And I only ever used the USPS MO or a cashiers check so it had to def be one of them.

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USPS

http://www.usps.com/money/sendingmoney/sendmoneyinternationally.htm

Thanks Phil, looks like it'd have to be a bank MO then to the UK.

I remember from long long ago when I received a US cheque that I wanted to cash at my bank, I had to pay a processing-fee.

I wonder if the same is true for a bank check in leu of a personal one? I'll ask them today. Thanks Ed.

i think you should be able to transfer the money from your account to a british one, you'd need to ask the british account holder for their account name, number and bank sort code, there may be a small admin fee, but i've done this from the uk to other countries without any charge, you may have to go into the bank though...

Yeah, often times there will be a processing/collection fee for something like this. It's not so much whether it's a personal check, money order or cashier's check - it's more based on where the institution that the item will clear from is located. So since most any of your paper payments will be clearing in the USA, I would guess it's likely your recipient may be charged a fee. Same reason in my ebay dealings I only accept MO/CCK payments clearing on a USA institution.

Yeah you're probably right Paul. Wiring seems too invasive, and services like Western Union charge way too much in fees so, as much as I hate it, it looks like paypal is the best choice. At any rate, thanks for chiming in guys.