Making a payment to a French bank account

Victor_Delta

I need to make a payment of a couple of hundred euros to a friend with a French bank account (for which I have the IBAN number and branch details etc.).

I have accounts with several British banks (including internet and telephone banking facilities) but so far none of them have been able to help me with this payment. The only suggestion so far has been to do it by 'telegraphic transfer' with a disproportionately high charge.

Has anyone any suggestions please? Friends in France and Germany etc tell me they can transfer money across European borders as easily as within their own countries. Are the British banks really still disconnected from the rest of Europe?

V

roger56

British banks are not disconnected at all.

You can make it using a CHAPS cross border payment. Any bank
should be able to do this.
They will need to know the recipient bank details ie
SWIFT code
Bank sort code
Account number
Account name

Do be aware however there are fees, possibly at both ends - French banking is not free like in UK!

This may help:
http://www.apacs.org.uk/payment_options/cross_border_payments.html

jonesMUFCforever

Economy Euro payment should cost you no more than £10.
If the beneficiary has a Paypal account can't you send it that way?

JohalaReewi

Also check out TIPANET transfers and A&L EuroGiro transfers.

http://www.smile.co.uk/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Smile/Page/smView&inifile=futuretense.ini&c=Page&cid=1027951510454

http://www.alliance-leicester.co.uk/otherservices/index.asp?page=international-payments&content=send

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=376060&in_page_id=10

regularsaver1

CHAPS is UK only

Telegraphic Transfer is what you need

paypal is supposed to be a good way

schiff

I have my own French bank account, so it isn't quite the same scenario, but I send money to it via moneybookers very cheaply. The solutions put out on here all cost and MB is really dirt cheap. Is it not possible to do something on these lines - which might involve your friend opening a MB account (which he/she will probably find invaluable in the future!)?

schiff

Gahddenbooi

regularsaver1 wrote:

CHAPS is UK only

Telegraphic Transfer is what you need

paypal is supposed to be a good way

Paypal is exorbitantly expensive, because you pay for every step of the way... transfer, withdrawal, etc. And you need a paypal acc with a registered address in the destination country. (charges depend on the amount sent)

I transfer a few quid across to the Netherlands on a monthly basis, and the cheapest way is via Worldpay. I do it with HSBC, but I'm sure other banks will do the same.

Indeed you need IBAN numbers and the account branch address.. as much detail as possible. Give your branch a call and ask them, they should know best, it's what they're paid for... (note the explicit use of SHOULD know...)

Waldir

I am using moneybookers.com
Good exchange rate and very small transfer fees (~€0.50)

2 drawbacks however:
It is a bit of a pain to set up: both the sender and the receiver need to create a moneybooker account and register their bank accounts
It takes about 7 days for the money to reach its destination.

Waldir

Victor_Delta

Interesting how theory and practice still seem to be some way apart!

Anyway, many thanks for all the responses and suggestions. I'm going to give moneybookers.com a go - it looks as if it should be able to solve my problem quite well.

regularsaver1

IBAN numbers are on your bank statements in this country - supplied to you

M_Thomson

Victor_Delta wrote:

Has anyone any suggestions please? Friends in France and Germany etc tell me they can transfer money across European borders as easily as within their own countries. Are the British banks really still disconnected from the rest of Europe?

The fact that you have to pay a fee is because the Euro is a foreign currency like any other.