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          COIN CLUB

Reading Coin Club

 

We accept 'foreign' payment

with the online company

Paypal

see our 

Terms

 

Terms & Conditions of Sale

We regret that we cannot accept orders, by POST, for less than £15.00 in value 

of the item(s) - excluding postage. As postage is done virtually at cost.  

(This is due to the time & costs involved !)

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We are not a mail order establishment but are willing to provide a postal service for clients unable to call into our shop. However we will not be liable for any losses or damage caused by the postal services or the customs services.

Reads CLAIMS (below)

We can send to MOST countries in the world with the exception of CANADA & CHINA

The reason for NOT sending to Canada - please see at the bottom of this page !

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TO ORDER: If you find anything of interest on any of our lists you will need to check that it is still in stock. To do this you will need to:

(1) Either telephone on 020 7727 1518, during our business hours, when you will get an immediate reply from a human being! 

(2) By e-mail at michael@michael-coins.co.uk We check our emails through out the day - as long as our server is not having problems delivering them or our computer is playing up - as it is  does from time to time !

* We NO longer have a fax machine and so can only be contacted by the above two methods.

****************************************

The HOLDING  of Coins, Banknotes, etc.

As soon as we confirm that the coins, items, etc. are available to you and that you require them - the item(s) will be held for you. The item(s) will still remain visible on the web site -

 But the item(s) will now appear  boxed in red.

The item(s) will be held for a couple of days whilst we await payment. On receiving payment the item(s) will disappear from our list. However, if we do not receive payment within what we consider a reasonable time for your posting payment and our receiving it - the red [HOLD] will come off and the item(s) will again be available for sale.

Please - Anyone who does not send payment - will NOT have item(s) HELD for them in future.

£££££££££££££££££££££££

PAYMENT: ALL transaction have to be paid for in advance in British Pounds Sterling or whatever currency has been agreed with us, at that time.

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UK:   

We accept:

Bank to Bank transfers (known as BACS). Can be done online from your computer; by telephone or 

                                                                  by going into your branch.

U.K. Bank cheques.  Cheques should be made payable to  -  Michael Coins

Cash. If sending cash by post - please use 'Special delivery'.

PayPal. Acceptable as long as you pay the PayPal fees.

            'PayPal' charge for Domestic transactions (i.e. from a UK or GB based client)

            3.4% commission, plus 20 pence.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Europe & Overseas

There are several methods of payment:

 

1.   A (£) Pound Sterling "Bank draft or money order" drawn on a British Bank is the most acceptable and made payable to  -  Michael Coins.

2.   An alternative is a Bank transfer: This is from your bank directly to our bank - that is as long as you pay ALL of the charges involved - your end and my end - it could be FREE or up to £12.00 + depending on banks and the system used - BACS or CHAPS. 

* 22 Oct 2007 I have been advised that - BACS (= 3 working day transfer) and CHAPS (= (possible) same day transfer) and that BACS are the cheapest way to transfer money and are normally free……CHAPS are (possible) same day transfers and nearly always incur a charge of between £12 - £25.

Therefore - 'BACS' is meant to be the cheapest !  But please check with your bank as originally I was advised that CHAPS was the cheapest ! Seeing that BACS transfers takes 3 days to get anywhere and CHAPS, are meant to be same day I can understand why CHAPS would be the more expensive method !

3.   As of 10th May 2003 - we have signed up with 'Paypal' - which is an 'online' method of payment.

If you have not heard of 'Paypal' or do not already have an account with them it is VERY simple to open one - taking but a few minutes of your time. See www.paypal.com 

Our PayPal account name for payment is michael@michael-coins.co.uk

It is fast (within hours !) and it is (seems fairly) safe !

However, payment using 'Paypal' will involve a small cost.

For International transactions (i.e. Europe, USA & Rest of the World)

PayPal have a sliding scale depending where in the world you are !

The rate commence at 3.9% and climb to 4.9% commission, plus 20 pence, per transaction.

Click on fees, (on the bottom row), then click on transaction fees for cross-border payments. in the box Buyer Country (find your country i.e. AUSTRALIA) and in the next box Transaction currency (find British Pounds) the next box Price per transaction will show you the rate that PayPal will charge.

So for us to receive the correct amount (or a close as possible), after the 'PayPal' charges we need to add to that amount to any order:

* Some clients ask why we add these fees to the final cost: - 

Simple answer - everyone this way pays the SAME price for the items we supply !

When we make out an invoice for say £100.00 we expect £100.00 and anyone paying by cash or cheque pays that £100.00. We also accept bank transfer, as shown above, as long as the client pays the bank charges and we receive the £100.00. Therefore it would be unfair to all those other people that pay in that way if we were accept £95.50 from people that want to pay by PayPal and it would certainly mess up our accounts !  

We are accepting to use PayPal as a payment system to help those people abroad that can find it complicated and / or expensive to pay us. And for amounts under £275.00 it could be more advantageous than paying bank charges on a bank transfer.

This way EVERYONE pays the same price for the same goods. So please do not ask us to absorb the PayPal fees now that the reason they are added is made clear !

Yes, we know that several other companies absorb the costs - the reason being that they normally charge more than we do of the goods in the first place (there is no such thing as FREE - it all has to be paid somehow) !

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The 'Paypal' charges on orders up to about  £250.00 are cheaper than 'Bank transfer' charges. Above that level the bank transfer system could be the cheaper solution!

4.   * Lastly - We will also accept Euros & US Dollars in cash only  but this will have to be agreed with us before hand - due to the exchange rate etc. that we get from our bank!

* If this method is agreed upon then please (we suggest) use insured post sending the cash to us !

£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$£$

Sorry - We do not accept card payment.

The reason: The card companies require a set up fee of £150.00 (the minimum), plus £20 per month as a terminal rental fee (with a minimum 3 years contract), then a 3.5% commission rates on each sale. So even if we did not have a single card transaction in that time it would result in an expense of £870.00.  Sorry but for this reason we accept no cards. We will not load our prices just to line the pockets of the card companies.

Items will only be sent after the clearance of funds.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

APPROVAL: All item(s) except books that are considered unsatisfactory may be returned within six days of receipt for a full refund on condition that the item(s) are returned in the same condition that they were sent.

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POSTAGE: U.K. inland -  For coins & Banknotes. As of 4 April 2011

We advise using Special Delivery for all items sent that have a value of OVER £46.00

 

(1) Special Delivery:

Up to 100gms £6.25 (Insured to £500.00)

Up to 100gms £7.00 (Insured to £1000.00)

Up to 100gms £9.00 (Insured to £2500.00)

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Up to 500gms £6.50 (Insured to £500.00)

Up to 500gms £7.50 (Insured to £1000.00)

Up to 500gms £9.25 (Insured to £2500.00)

*************************************************

Up to 1000gms £7.75 (Insured to £500.00)

Up to 1000gms £8.75 (Insured to £1000.00)

Up to 1000gms £10.50 (Insured to £2500.00)

**************************************************

Above this weight or insured limit - ask!

 

(2) Or Recorded post:  Large letter = up to 353 x 250 x 25mm size.  Anything over that size is parcel rate. As of  6 April 2010 - All mail is normally sent by 1st class post.

 

We have written confirmation by the Post Office that if items up to the value of 100 x a 1st class stamp.

Letter: 2 December 2010   Ref: 1-1644069546

" Currency that has been withdrawn from circulation would be classed under normal compensation terms. Customers can submit claims for loss or damage for inland services"

This is good news as in the past the ' Recorded post ' form stated VERY CLEAR "We do not pay compensation for money, jewellery or other items of value sent by Recorded post." 

 

So we can now suggest that items UP TO £46.00 in value can be sent by Recorded post as it appears to be insured up to that level. However we would suggest that for items over that level Special delivery would be the proper option. The 1st class post however will not guarantee next day delivery but still better than 2nd class post for only a few pence more.

 

Up to 100 grams £2.25  (Large letter)   -   £3.25  (parcel)

Up to 250 grams £2.60  (Large letter)   -   £3.50  (parcel) 

Up to 500 grams £3.00  (Large letter)   -   £4.00  (parcel)

(Above that weight - ask)

 

Please read this part carefully :-

 

CLAIMS:

If any claim for compensation arises due to any loss or damage we will ONLY pay out after and if the claim is successful. Also we will only pay out what monies we can recover from the post office or our insurance company. PLEASE note our insurance company policy has an excess for the FIRST £250.00 of any claim.

E.g. If the packet is worth £3,500.00 and posted to a UK address we can claim up to £2,500.00 from the post office (and hopefully recover that amount from them). The extra £1,000.00 will have to be claimed from my insurance company and the most - if they pay out will be £750.00. There will be a loss, to you, of £250.00.

If the packet is for abroad then the same applies except that possibly only £250.00 or £500.00 can be recovered from the post office and the £3,000.00 or £3,250.00 will again have to be claimed from my insurance company - again there will be an eventual loss, to you, of £250.00.

The payment that we pay for this added insurance cover is NOT passed on in anyway to our customers - we absorb the FULL annual cost.

I understand that may seem unfair as you are not to blame for this loss but then nor are we - we pay a great deal extra for this private insurance, each year. However, that is their terms and we cannot find a company that will provide cover without any excess.

As we mention at the very top of this section - "We are not a mail order establishment but are willing to provide a postal service for clients unable to call into our shop".

We hope very much that any loss will be VERY rare as we fully understand it will leave a 'bad taste' and we will always try and recover any amount we can - for you.

* If at all possible we would suggest sending the items if valued at OVER £500.00 in several packets if they can be split up to keep under the £500.00 level - but if it is only one coin that is worth well over £500.00 then that becomes impossible !

 

For Clients in the UK that wish to pay by PayPal please note my comments after POSTING ABROAD.

 

POSTING ABROAD:  

New  postal prices as of 4 April 2011

Weight Europe Europe Rest of World Rest of World
Compensation Up to £30.00 Up to £500.00* Up to £46.00 Up to £500.00*
up to 40 gms £6.75 £9.25 £7.50 £10.00
up to 60 gms £7.00 £9.50 £8.00 £10.50
up to 80 gms £7.25 £9.75 £8.50 £11.00
up to 100 gms £7.50 £10.00 £9.00 £11.50
up to 120 gms £7.75 £10.25 £9.50 £12.00
up to 140 gms £8.00 £10.50 £10.00 £12.50
up to 160 gms £8.50 £11.00 £10.50 £13.00
up to 180 gms £8.75 £11.25 £11.00 £13.50
up to 200 gms £9.00 £11.50 £11.75 £14.25
up to 220 gms £9.25 £11.75 £12.25 £14.75
up to 240 gms £9.50 £12.00 £12.75 £15.25
up to 260 gms £9.75 £12.25 £13.25 £15.75
up to 300 gms £10.25 £12.75 £14.25 £16.75
Above 300 gms Ask Ask Ask Ask

Note. For compensation above £46.00 to £500.00 the post office charge £2.50 extra

PayPal clients

For clients that pay us by PayPal we are obliged to send items by insured post. 

The level of insurance you  want us to use is up to you ! We have to obtain a signature for any item(s) sent by post - we regret we CANNOT send any items by ordinary post because if it or they go missing we cannot claim any monies and the client can get a FULL refund as there is no proof of the client receiving the packet. We can therefore end up with NOTHING !  So sorry we are OBLIGED to send ALL items by a postal system - that require a signature from the recipient.

Please note if you wish to pay by PayPal you CANNOT collect the items

 

*Compensation for most world countries is £500,

 in Europe, Australia and the U.S.A. 

Otherwise maximum compensation for some other countries is only £250.00

We can advise on compensation rates to other countries !

***

CANADA

We regret but due to several problems with Canadian Customs

over the last couple of years we are now unwilling to send any items

of coins or banknotes - to Canada

A set of gold coins was stopped and opened by the Canadian Customs

and due to mishandling the case and a coin was slightly damaged. 

The client rejected the set and it was returned to the UK. 

*(I believe that the client also stated that an import tax was liable !?)

That part I cannot verify.

When even humble GB pennies, were sent out, they too were rejected

and returned with a very clear label stating 

"NOT ADMITTED TO CANADA". 

The client asked both the post office and the customs why -

both denied responsibility and suggested - try again.

The parcel was sent again, from the UK, with the same result - 

it was again returned - with the same label !?

On the 3rd time the coins were sent - uninsured (clients risk) as a 

simple letter - no customs form, etc. and did arrived safely.

***

As a company we can do without these problems.

Therefore until Canada Customs & Canada Post

get their act together we regret that we cannot supply to 

anyone that has an address within Canada ! - Sorry

 

Letter from a potential Canadian client  (November 2010)

It is an unfortunate situation with the Canadian customs / postal system, one which I do not understand either! 

I have heard so many horror stories about coins being returned and extra charges being levied on the recipient, it just doesn't make any sense. I am a client of a British Coin Company (Name given but for several reason will not list) and I guess he must have had some issues in the past with Canada as he sends me coins (a method is given - again which I will not show so as not to compromise the method, client or sender) and they generally make it !

   Even so a couple of packages have been mauled by customs and poorly taped back together again, I understand your frustration with the system.

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Letter from a Canadian client that bought my book  (December 2010)

I received my coins from the Workman Part II sale and got clobbered for import duty at 6.5 % + GST for the retail value of the coins!  Not a happy camper but what do I do in that situation, send them back to England?

To me it is just another way that a Government can make an easy buck!

 

Letter from a potential Canadian client (February 2011)

Hi, sorry not to get back to you as I have been checking the Canada Customs issue with coins.

What you have advised on your web site is 100% accurate in that Customs are damaging coins and taking no responsibility for their actions. However I know that one collector has initiated a law suit against Customs for damaging a very rare coin.........I am not sure of the details however.

 

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