Ridiculous First Direct Foreign Payments/Receipts Charges

lisalou_2

Hi all,
I´m so enraged by this that I´ve decided to post it here to see what other people think and to question if it´s really fair or not.

I have bank accounts in both Sweden and the UK. My bank in Sweden charges approximately £2 to undertake a bank transfer to my bank in the UK and normally it reaches the accounts within around 5 workings days, normally less than that. I have made transfers from the Swedish account to the Nationwide and the full amount has cleared in my account and reached the account fairly swiftly. However on the latest transfer from my Swedish bank to First Direct in the UK I was charged £8 for what appears as CHARGE INTL PYT INWARD. Why do First Direct charge this ridiculous amount whilst the Nationwide do not feel the need to charge anything?

I have also had to make a payment recently from a First Direct Account to my Bank account in Sweden and was charged £21 for this service. How can charges differ so much. Primarily, why does it cost approx. £2 to transfer from my Swedish account to a UK bank yet First Direct are able to charge £21 for the same service. Surely there should be some EU Directive to ensure that banks are not allowed to charge such hefty fees in comparision to other banks within the EU.

It really makes my blood boil. I´m going to enquire with First Direct exactly why this £8 charge was levied on my account but I´m not holding my breathe about having it refunded or at least being provided with valid reasoning for this charge.

Rafter

This is not a penalty charge but a fee, so the rules that are allowing people to reclaim charges do not apply.

Nationwide is a building society rather than a bank so does not have to make profits for its shareholders. Waiving charges for foreign transfers is one way this manifests itself.

The EU is looking at creating a single payments area within the Euro countries, but there are no plans I believe for this to apply to the UK.

I suggest you use Nationwide to make foreign transfers. A lot of ex-pats use a nationwide current account and visa card to avoid the 2-3% charges levied by most high street banks.

R.

bengal-stripe

There is an EU directive in place (since maybe three years) that border-crossing money transfers cannot cost more than a transfer within the same country. Unfortunately that applies only to Euro > Euro transfers.

Neither Sweden nor the UK are in the Euro-zone. Swedish banks have opted to act on that directive, although there is a currency exchange involved. UK banks have opted not to accept that directive (as they don’t have to) and charge whatever they feel is appropriate.

Usually they charge for outgoing, but not for incoming telegraphic payments. But I believe, it's up each individual banks to decide their level of fees. Those are fees, not penulty charges. Check first!

gt94sss2

lisalou wrote:

I have bank accounts in both Sweden and the UK. My bank in Sweden charges approximately £2 to undertake a bank transfer to my bank in the UK and normally it reaches the accounts within around 5 workings days, normally less than that. I have made transfers from the Swedish account to the Nationwide and the full amount has cleared in my account and reached the account fairly swiftly. However on the latest transfer from my Swedish bank to First Direct in the UK I was charged £8 for what appears as CHARGE INTL PYT INWARD. Why do First Direct charge this ridiculous amount whilst the Nationwide do not feel the need to charge anything?

Have you seen First Direct's charges?

They appear to state that no fee is payable for receiving payments up to 50,000 euros or 500,000 Swedish Krona from a country in the EU provided the BIC and IBAN numbers are provided with the payment.

Assuming the amount you transferred was less than this, did the bank in Sweden provide them with all the correct/required information?

Regards
Sunil

lisalou_2

Interesting....after my enquiry to them they now say they will refund the £8 charge as I shouldn´t have been charged this. Seems to me that they automatically apply whichever charges are connected to a transaction, be it if they are applicable or not and then just sit back and wait to see if the customer notes it or not. I will not be using them again for this type of transaction! Thanks for all the replies