Looking for bank account with cheap EU transfers

Uplink

Hi,

I'm looking for a bank account that includes international transfer services. I'm only looking to send unconverted Sterling to Romania (I'm doing the currency conversion there at much much much better exchange rates), so that excludes all *FX "money transfer" services out there.

I'm currently banking with HSBC and they charge me 17 pounds per transfer regardless of how much I send. I need to send the money straight to a bank account, so MoneyGram isn't an option (if I were to send to Poland, then it would be, because they can put money in any bank there - says their website - but I'm not sending to Poland).

I have a hard time finding bank accounts with international payment services built in, and the ones I find charge upwards of 25 pounds per transfer.

Has anyone seen an international sterling bank transfer service out there for less than 17 quid? They don't have to be free accounts (I pay 12.95 a month for my HSBC account right now, so I'm not necessarily looking for giveaways - just trying to cut my costs a bit).

Bonus points:
- Allow me to do it all online
- Be speedy (From HSBC UK to ING RO the money arrive in half an hour to 3 hours)
- Have two factor authentication with a hardware token

Cheers

Uplink

And as soon I as posted that, this bright idea hit me: Why not take one of those 25 pounds per transfer services on a free account, if I can find one? That's sure to cut my costs...

But I'm still interested to see if anyone knows of a service below 17 quid per transfer, regardless of account cost.

opinions4u

£7.50 from a Halifax current account (that can pay you £5 a month).

http://www.halifax.co.uk/onlinebankinghelp/international-payments/

£9.50 after you've utilised the cut price offer.

Might be worth comparing exchange rates. I don't think the Halifax rate is uncompetitive, but I didn't check the only time I ever used it.

Uplink

opinions4u wrote: »

£7.50 from a Halifax current account (that can pay you £5 a month).

http://www.halifax.co.uk/onlinebankinghelp/international-payments/

£9.50 after you've utilised the cut price offer.

Might be worth comparing exchange rates. I don't think the Halifax rate is uncompetitive, but I didn't check the only time I ever used it.

Holy deal! That does look awesome. Even if I were to go the lazy route and take up their "Ultimate Reward Current Account" it would still be awesome.

I'll do some reading on it. Their leaflet focuses on Euro payments, but they do mention non-Euro currency (which the Pound qualifies as). Since my transfers would fly right over the Eurozone undisturbed, I need to understand their non-Euro terms better.

jonesMUFCforever

To take the offer up I think you have to send the currency of the receiving country otherwise other charges may apply.
Please check the T&C before proceeding.

Uplink

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

To take the offer up I think you have to send the currency of the receiving country otherwise other charges may apply.
Please check the T&C before proceeding.

Halifax's International Payments Terms and Conditions

There's no mention of any special charge for sending unconverted sterling. I'll apply for one of their accounts then.

If anyone knows any similar offers, please share

Thanks.

jonesMUFCforever

SEPA payments can only be done in Euro to say Romania - sterling payments may be done by wire transfer - IMO - will cost you more but you live and learn so go for it.

CKhalvashi

Uplink wrote: »

Hi,

I'm looking for a bank account that includes international transfer services. I'm only looking to send unconverted Sterling to Romania (I'm doing the currency conversion there at much much much better exchange rates), so that excludes all *FX "money transfer" services out there.

I'm currently banking with HSBC and they charge me 17 pounds per transfer regardless of how much I send. I need to send the money straight to a bank account, so MoneyGram isn't an option (if I were to send to Poland, then it would be, because they can put money in any bank there - says their website - but I'm not sending to Poland).

I have a hard time finding bank accounts with international payment services built in, and the ones I find charge upwards of 25 pounds per transfer.

Has anyone seen an international sterling bank transfer service out there for less than 17 quid? They don't have to be free accounts (I pay 12.95 a month for my HSBC account right now, so I'm not necessarily looking for giveaways - just trying to cut my costs a bit).

Bonus points:
- Allow me to do it all online
- Be speedy (From HSBC UK to ING RO the money arrive in half an hour to 3 hours)
- Have two factor authentication with a hardware token

Cheers

We’re HSBC Premier, and don’t pay for ours, however I don’t know if that’s because we’ve got International Commercial accounts with them. The accounts in my home country are also with HSBC.

It may be worth giving them a ring (landline on the back of your card) :money:

Only you know whether the service is worth paying £25 a month for, though (assuming under £50k savings/income under £100k)

CK

Uplink

@jonesMUFCforever

I applied online and waiting for their answer. I'm starting to have some doubts about Halifax. Their documents are written and their website behaves as if Romania isn't in the EU - it is since 2007, and it's 2012 now. So plenty of time to update. I sent feedback to their twitter account and they said they forwarded it. Not enough doubts just to give up though.

I'm sending sterling to Romania because I have a GBP account there with ING. Then I get ING to do the currency conversion to RON after the money gets there. At no point is the money converted to EUR. The Halifax documents don't specify cost differences between SEPA and non-SEPA payments for my case. I hope I didn't miss anything. But if I did, they'll let me know when I try my first transfer. If they don't do it properly, then I'll act accordingly.

@CKhalvashi

I looked at the fees, and it looks like if I had a Premier account it wouldn't change the situation for me much, although if I were to qualify for it, I would scratch the 12.95 a month fee, so it would be an improvement. Unfortunately, I don't qualify (but working towards that goal :P). You probably use the "Global Transfers via Global View" feature of your account, since you bank with HSBC in your other country as well. HSBC has no presence in Romania - that is why a Premier account wouldn't change my situation. If they were operating there and I could use the Global Transfer feature, it would cost me only 5 pounds with my Advance account.


In general terms, if any bank had a presence both in the UK and Romania, I'd probably give them a go, since moving money from a country to another within the same bank seems to always get preferential treatment. But I couldn't find such a bank. ING only does savings and mortgages here (no current accounts, so no payments either). Societe Generale doesn't do retail in the UK, so there goes my second option - can't just apply for a French account, can I?

Since I remembered seeing RBS advertised in Bucharest a while back, I took a look at their website, just for kicks. I was pretty sure RBS wasn't in Romania... but it looks like they're there now. They don't seem to have any special treatment even if I were to hold an account with them though.

Now tell me, what is this common market idea about anyway? I guess when the EU is done with the roaming charges and they're all levelled to local costs across the EU, banks are next?

RetiredInThailand

Uplink wrote: »

I'm sending sterling to Romania because I have a GBP account there with ING. Then I get ING to do the currency conversion to RON after the money gets there. At no point is the money converted to EUR.

You should contact ING in the UK first. They may have a cheap internal system for transfers between their own branches. Many banks do.

Uplink

RetiredInThailand wrote: »

You should contact ING in the UK first. They may have a cheap internal system for transfers between their own branches. Many banks do.

That's an interesting idea. I'm a big fish (to them I might not even be a fish), so they may just say "no", but it's worth a shot. ING is a Netherlands bank both in Romania and the UK, so, if they're not fussy about it, they could help me move some numbers from the UK computer to the RO computer down the hall or something.

Thanks for the idea.