Swift Transfers

Transalper

I just used Rational FX to transfer from UK pound to Dollars and send to my bank account I had set up in Cambodia. I'm happy to say no problems and the money arrived safe, well nearly all of it. I'm aware of the charges by my bank in Cambodia on receiving funds from overseas, they charge $10 up to 10k and 0.1% + $15 on anything above. Rational fx do not charge to send money so what they put on the statement in $ should have arrived at my bank the same yes? Or is there another charge for actually using Swift that I haven’t been made aware of? I rang Rational FX and they came up with the same figures as me, I'm $30 short after taking off the bank charge. Anyone else had this experience?

ERICS_MUM

The Cambodian bank would have deducted their charges before they credited your account. Did they receive the full amount from Rational FX ?

If you give us the amounts we can see more clearly:

the Stg debited from yr stg acc
the exchange rate Rational FX used/quoted you (I assume it's US $ ?)
the amount of $ Rational FX actually sent
the charges actually deducted by the Cambodian bank (does it work out as per the scale of charges you were quoted?)

if you follow all this through, can you see where the missing $30 would have occurred ?

I worked with SWIFT payments until a few years ago and at that time there was no direct charge from them to the customer. Customer complaints about charges taken at every step of the payment accounted for at least 20% of all queries, especially to the more "exotic" countries when more than one bank is used in the payment chain.

Another thought - Rational FX might have routed their payment through a UK bank in which case they might have charged Rational FX who might have passed it on to you ? Actually, thinking about it, the payment chain probably went something like this:

Rational FX to their UK bank - to US bankers for credit to Cambodian bank IF they hold an account with the US bank (or to another bank in US or Cambodia that does hold the acc for the Cambodian bank) - to your $ acc with the Cambodian bank . So charges could have been taken at all or any steps in this chain.

Sorry for a long-winded answer but I hope it makes sense.

Linda xx

Transalper

Thanks for reply!,
Ok figures are; Statement from Rational fx exchange to dollars
£13.000 to $20,993.70 I'm happy with that rate. There is no charge to send the money once converted to dollars, So this $20,993.70 is on the statement and confirmed on phone by Rational, that is the figure sent!. As you point out the figure on my Cambodian bank statement probably has the charges their end taken out (although they do not list this debit) but the credit is showing $20,926.94 but after their charges which they emailed me as; over $10,000 is 0.1% + $15 which should of left me with 20,957.70 this is a difference of $30.76 extra taken from my money.

Transalper

A mail came today after I called them, I did not know there was an intermediate bank involved in this transfer as they suggest. If there was and I don't even know who or where it is they should have informed me. when I go over there I will convince them i'm not happy with this practice.:mad:
This is the mail;
Dear Sir,

I got the TT from my intermediary bank amount: USD20,962.94 .
The commission of my bank is amt: USD36 and the other charge is the intermediary bank charge from you.
Regards,
Chan Lyhuot
Accountant | UCBSVB
Tel: +855(0)34 933 833
Mobile: +855(0)90 353 534
Email: ucbsvb@ucb.com.kh

ERICS_MUM

Yes, money going abroad will go through at least one bank and possibly more especially if the "end" bank is a small one or in a "remote" area.

Doing a quick calculation it appears that 0.15% was deducted before the cambodian bank received your money. I'm 70 cents out so it might be a very slightly lower percentage such as 0.1445. don't have a calculator to hand and my mental arithmetic is rusty.

You could pursue it further via the cambodian bank or Rational but you probably would'nt get a refund. Rational might not know about the charge if it's not taken by their bank.

hth

Linda xx