Extortionate cost of transferring EURO between EU countries via SEPA

Pturner11

I am outraged at the costs my Spanish bank (santander) says it will charge me to transfer EUR abroad.

To transfer 75k EUR to UK they said they would apply an FX rate of 1.27 (which is daylight robbery) and charge me 450 euros in charges.

I then investigated this and decided I would use Currencyfair to handle the FX rate by transferring EURO from Santander in Spain to their EURO denominated Bank of America account in Dublin using a SEPA transfer.

I was told that the 450 euro charge would still apply.

Surely this is wrong and goes against what the SEPA scheme is in place for.

Does anyone know if Santander have to apply a fairer charge on a SEPA transaction or if there is an ombudsman or similar I can get to help me.

I have finally sold my house in spain at a big loss and just want to move on but cannot believe that Santander can behave in this way.

Any advice greatly received.

DevCoder

SEPA is all about transparency, its not meant to be free of charges but the bank has to be clear and transparent about how much it will charge (it cannot deduct from the monies transferred for example).

SEPA is also meant to increase the transfer speed of the amounts.

So they can charge you, they just have to be upfront about how much.

Same will apply for Retail Distribution Review (RDR- UK FSA regulation) From January next year.

Pturner11

And there isn't anything that controls how fair their charges have to be? Santander UK charges £9 for a SEPA irrespective of size.

Just seems like it can't be right.

noh

It appears that in the euro zone a cross border transaction must not cost more than a national payment.
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/payments/crossborder/index_en.htm


From the FAQs here:-
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/payments/docs/reg-924_2009/faq-924-2009_en.pdf

3. Is there a limit of how much my bank can charge me for a cross-border payment
transaction?
No. A payment service provider may in principle apply whatever charge it wishes for a crossborder
payment in euro, provided that it applies the same charge for a corresponding national
transfer in euro.

Pturner11

Thanks Noh. Surely they wouldn't charge 450 EUR for same transfer domestically so that should be really helpful when I speak to them in the morning.

:j

dazza.mk

Unless the rules have changed though that used to only apply to upto €50k Euros:

"non-discrimination between corresponding domestic and cross-border
payments in euro, up to EUR 50,000, on the basis of price, with the objective
of reducing the level of charges levied on cross-border electronic payments in
euro; and "

http://www.paymentscouncil.org.uk/files/payments_council/new_website/regulation_924_v3.pdf


You might want to double check the cost if you split the payments so that it fell within the regulations.

System

I've had a quick look at the santander.es and can't find the domestic Spanish transfer cost.

I believe dazza.mk is correct that the SEPA rules only apply to up to €50,000 or SEK500,000. Thank Gordon Brown for opting Pounds Sterling out of the rules as the Swedes opted their kroner in.

dazza.mk wrote: »

Unless the rules have changed though that used to only apply to upto €50k Euros:

"non-discrimination between corresponding domestic and cross-border
payments in euro, up to EUR 50,000, on the basis of price, with the objective
of reducing the level of charges levied on cross-border electronic payments in
euro; and "

http://www.paymentscouncil.org.uk/files/payments_council/new_website/regulation_924_v3.pdf


You might want to double check the cost if you split the payments so that it fell within the regulations.