Sending Money without Paypal?

My boyfriend owes me about £200 for his half of the plane ticket I just bought (he doesn't have a credit card which is why I bought it.)  I have a Paypal account so he's trying to set one up on the UK site so we could do it electronically, but he's running into some snags with adding his UK bank account.  Hopefully we can get that sorted as Paypal looks to be easiest, but just in case we have to do something else I wanted to know what other options are available to me.  I really don't know much about financial matters (especially in the UK) so any help would be appreciated- would my bank take a cheque written in sterling?  Can he get a money order in the UK in US dollars? Would a wire transfer work (I don't even know what that is exactly?) Help! 

he could go to a bureau de change and get some US dollars and send them to you? and then post them off in a signed for envelope?

there is all kind of options.......

would my bank take a cheque written in sterling? 

Yes, they will take a cheque in sterling -- but, depending on your bank, there will probably be a charge for that. Ring up your bank and ask.

He could get a dollar travellers' check and make it out to you........


I don't see why that wouldn't work......

Paypal's bank account verification is annoying, I have to admit. I'm in the middle of it at the moment. However, when he gets it all sorted out it's by FAR the easiest way to do it. If he knows anyone else with a Paypal account who would be willing to do it for him if he gives them the money, take that route.
Your bank might take a cheque written in sterling, but you might be charged for it.
Sending money is not as difficult as it seems; I ran out of money over Christmas when I was visiting Shayde, and my Mum sent me some over with Western Union; they charge the sender a few pounds but not very much. If he knows anyone with a credit card who he can give the money to, they can do it for him at www.westernunion.co.uk without much hassle. Failing that, a lot of places in the UK will let him do Western Union transfers.
The sender will need your address details and so on (which he wilobviously have!); you will need to find a Western Union place near you (for example, in Sacramento there was a Western Union desk in a Ralph's about 5 minutes walk from Shayde's aprtment).

Hey, just wanted to say thanks guys for your help- we're still hoping to do Paypal, but if that doesn't work out in the next week or so we'll be using one of these other options

Paypal's bank account verification is annoying, I have to admit. I'm in the middle of it at the moment. However, when he gets it all sorted out it's by FAR the easiest way to do it. If he knows anyone else with a Paypal account who would be willing to do it for him if he gives them the money, take that route.
Your bank might take a cheque written in sterling, but you might be charged for it.
Sending money is not as difficult as it seems; I ran out of money over Christmas when I was visiting Shayde, and my Mum sent me some over with Western Union; they charge the sender a few pounds but not very much. If he knows anyone with a credit card who he can give the money to, they can do it for him at www.westernunion.co.uk without much hassle. Failing that, a lot of places in the UK will let him do Western Union transfers.
The sender will need your address details and so on (which he wilobviously have!); you will need to find a Western Union place near you (for example, in Sacramento there was a Western Union desk in a Ralph's about 5 minutes walk from Shayde's aprtment).

If you think Paypal's verification is a pain, try opening an account with XE Trades! It's a bigger hassle but they offer a more favorable exchange rate so I'm trying that.

I deposited a check in £s in my US bank. They didn't charge a fee but it took forwver to clear!

Hope you get it sorted out.

My bf was *finally* able to get his account verified with PayPal and promptly sent me a payment...but it's saying that the funds will clear from his bank account in 7-9 business days!  Is that normal?  I know that it takes a few business days for stuff to get from paypal to my bank account and vice versa, but 7-9 business days- two weeks, basically- seems a little excessive to get a moderate sum of money from his bank to my paypal account.  I'm not in  a huge rush, but I'm wondering whether we should have used one of these other methods after all- is paypal really cheap enough with currency conversion rates to make it worth the wait?

sounds about right rose. It has to check his bank to see if the funds are available. Since its overseas it takes longer

It seems there are two ways to transfer funds....fast and expensive or slow and cheap!