Alliance & Leicester sending money to Europe

fakiee

Hi,

I know that I can receive money via bacs from europe for free with my current account. Can I send money to europe for free as well, if so how?

Thanks for your help!
Andy.

agsnu

http://www.alliance-leicester.co.uk/siteinfo/international-payments.aspx

It appears that they are charging you £10 to receive, and it costs £16 to send...

456789

Money can be sent abroad in the following ways:
Electronic transfer (via SWIFT)
Electronic payments provide a fast, simple and cost effective way of sending money abroad.

• Low fixed fee of £16 for foreign currency payments, and £30 for Sterling payments.
• The quickest, most secure way to transfer money to a bank account abroad.
• The money should normally reach the recipient’s bank account within three to five days.

Foreign currency cheque
If you prefer to send your money by foreign currency cheque, we can take care of that too.

• Low fixed fee of £14.
• Ideal when a payment is not so urgent or if you want to hand or post a cheque to an individual or company overseas.
• Your currency cheque will be sent by first class post to your home address.

Eurogiro transfer
If you want to transfer money into a foreign Post Office account, we can send it via the Eurogiro network which operates in a number of European countries and Japan. To take advantage of this service the recipient must have an account with a postal giro organisation that is a member of Eurogiro.

• Alliance & Leicester is the only UK bank who is a member of the Eurogiro network.
• Low fixed fee of £7.50 for each payment.
• The money should normally reach the recipient’s Post Office account within five working days.

Information we need to send money abroad

• Alliance & Leicester account number††.
• Daytime telephone number.
• Recipient’s name and address, including country.
• Name and address of recipient’s bank.
• Recipient’s bank account number.
• Recipient’s Bank SWIFT/Bank Identifier Code (BIC).
• European payments – International Bank Account Number (IBAN).
• Amount to be sent.
• Payment currency.

For more information call our dedicated UK customer service team on 0870 33 33 228†.

fakiee

Actually its free to receive money with A&L, it costs about £2 with Lloyds. All you need is to give the sender your international BACs info and they can send it to us (it doesnt cost them a penny). Now why is this not the case for us?? I have read the A&L link above but this does not mention the option to pay via internationla BACS - most current accounts have them.

Biggles

fakiee wrote: »

Actually its free to receive money with A&L, it costs about £2 with Lloyds. All you need is to give the sender your international BACs info and they can send it to us (it doesnt cost them a penny). Now why is this not the case for us?? I have read the A&L link above but this does not mention the option to pay via internationla BACS - most current accounts have them.

It costs £6 or £7 with Lloyds (plus their little bit of profit on the exchange rate).

As pointed out above, A&L's charge is £10, and you can be sure they will also make a little on the exchange rate.

It costs senders abroad nothing because they are sending Euros and there is EU legislation to ensure sending and receiving is free between accounts in Europe. But that doesn't go so far as to cover actually changing the money from Euros to Pounds, that's what we have to pay for.

fakiee

Thanks for clearing that up, biggles. I guess we are the miniortiy of countries that still has to pay for this service :mad:

"BIC + IBAN is often the cheapest way to transfer money internationally and is now free of charge in much of Europe under EU/EEA directive 2560/2001. BIC + IBAN international bank transfers are faster, more efficient, and low-cost as they are sent directly through the SWIFT interbank network without using intermediary banks (who deduct charges or fees for their service). IBAN will be progressively introduced in most OECD countries to allow Straight Through Processing of cross border payments."

steviejar

I have now discovered the cost to me of transferring money from abroad into my A & L account. My brother received the same sum in euros on the same day but when converted into GBP by his bank he received considerably more. All down to the exchange rate used!