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If I sell a product for, say, £1000, and a buyer in another country pays me via a bank transfer, should I expect them to pay the bank charges? Is it something that should be explicit on the invoice - e.g., "buyer pays all bank charges"?

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Potentially both parties may pay fees, each to their respective bank.

In other words the person paying is responsible for any fees charged by his bank while the recipient is responsible for any fees charged by the receiving bank.

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That makes sense. Thanks. – swisstony Jan 21 '12 at 15:00
Further complications is that not all banks have a direct relationship so sometimes international transfers go through a 3rd party intermediary (A > X > B) who can also levy charges. Its practically impossible to determine what these fees will be in advance. Banks eh? – Ryan Jan 23 '12 at 8:45
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When you sell something you set the price of that item or service. If someone wants to pay you in a way that incurs fees, they should pay those fees. But you need to specify that to your customer up front.

Both the sending and receiving banks will usually charge a fee to process a wire transfer. In addition, they may also be a currency conversion fee (typically 1%). You need to check with your bank to find out what your fees will be, and you can then ask your customer to pay your fees, or not.

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Every single payment method incurs fees, including physical cash. Businesses that operate with large amounts of cash have real expenses handling it (handling, security, even simply paying it into a bank costs money). So pragmatically some of these costs are simply 'the cost of doing business'. – Ryan Jan 23 '12 at 8:44
Yes, every payment method has some cost associated wiuth it. But some payment methods have very large costs associated with them. For example, in the US, wire transfer fees can range from $15 to over $100 per transaction. So if you sell a $25 product and your bank charges $75 to receive a wire transfer, you don't accept wire transfers, or you make the customer pay the fees. You have no problem depositing cash or checks, or even paying 2% to a credit card company. – Gary E♦ Jan 23 '12 at 17:22

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