Sending money overseas discussion area

azp74

Couldn't spot where else this should go ...

Just had an email from Alliance & Leicester. If you are a current account holder with them you can transfer any amount of money internationally for £16.

I've actually been wondering about costs involved in sending money abroad for a while, so this has been quite timely, and a good starting point for further investigation ...

Here's a link!

Alex

traceymcr

Hi there, we used A&L to send deposit for holiday home purchase and didnt realise that the exchange rate made quite so much difference. We were down by approx 300 pounds when the money arrived (we sent just under 13000.00 pounds) than if we had the same exhange rate on the website XE.COM If anyone has any tips on how we can do this more cheaply it would be greatfully recieved! Thanks, Tracey.

wheaty_2

My associate wishes to send me the equivalent of around £2500 (ie about $5000) from the USA to my UK bank account to co-finance a short term business deal.

I will then repay him the money so many weeks down the line when the business venture has recouped its initial outlay (and then pay a cut of the subsequent profits).

His local bank is charging him $80 (£40) or so for the privilege and I don't think he gets too good an exchange rate on top of that.

Is there a more cost efficient way for him to get the required money to me, please?

Thanks.

jonesMUFCforever

Western Union ?

I'm suprised he gets an exchange rate at all to be honest. My dealing with US banks usually goes like this ''we'll send you dollars or we can send you dollars, ok!''

You will be the one to take the exchange rate hit.

wheaty_2

Western Union is well expensive - he is sending me Sterling as it needs to hit my bank in the UK.

cheekymole

HIFX, open an account (free) transfer money (free)

jonesMUFCforever

wheaty wrote: »

Western Union is well expensive - he is sending me Sterling as it needs to hit my bank in the UK.

Your bank in the UK would automatically convert any currency amount received unless there were instructions to the contrary.
I think this is why his bank charges are so high. He is trying to do something that the US banks are not used to (ie deal in anything other than USD).

If he was to ask the how much to send $5000 to you he may find that it will not cost as much(for him to send).

singlemindedly

I'm trying to transfer money to friends in the Ukraine - paypal, which would have been my obvious choice because it's free, doesn't serve that country.

I asked at the bank and an electronic transfer would be £10!!

Now, the recipient and I both have an HSBC account (me with HSBC UK, they with HSBC Ukraine obviously)... it would be a simple, straightforward transfer... any ideas how I could get some money over there?

Many thanks!
Susanne

eden1_2

I will be going to live in Egypt soon. As I will be renting my UK property out I was trying to find the cheapest way to recieve the money that I make from the rental. I was trying to find a bank account that would allow the money to be deposited over here but that I can withdraw from Egypt. HSBS world banking will only do this if I deposit 25k. Does anyone know if there is another option. Thank you.

egamar

I'm surprised not to have read about this in here: it is cheap, reliable and effective. No unregulated third-party money-brokers or "we make our own rules" operators like Paypal.

This service is only available to folks who bank with the Halifax or Bank of Scotland and is actually operated by the BoS part of the group. It is best used to send regular payments, but can be used for one-offs albeit with some effort. The recipient must have a bank account, but since this thread is about sending money to friends and family overseas, I'm assuming they will have. TAPS was originally set up a long time ago to pay pensions overseas cheaply. It is possibly restricted to sending money to destinations in which British retirees are typically found, but may be much wider nowadays.

You set up a TAPS account with BoS (talk to them not the Halifax, this service is not widely known about even inside the group). This is not a problem as they use your existing HBoS account as their checks. You then provide the TAPs department with the details (sort code (called routing code in the US), account number, bank name, recipient's name) for each overseas account to which you want to transfer money. TAPs then give you a 'customer reference' for each account which you will quote every time you transfer money to your TAPS account (e.g. by standing order).

So, you set up a standing order on your Halifax/BoS account to transfer £x to your TAPs account with BoS quoting the customer reference number associated with the person you want to transfer money to. BoS then deduct just £5 as their fee, exchange the money at WHOLESALE rates and transfer to the recipient. As the money moves in the foreign currency there should be no charge by the receiving or intermediary banks (there isn't for transfers to the USA). The money can take about 5-7 days to get to its destination.

You can also make single deposits (Xmas/Birthday gifts, say) and those amounts will get transferred too.

We've been using this for maybe 5 years now, have never had a problem and would certainly put it in our toaster, butter in and spread with jam if it could be sliced.

It's actually the only thing that keeps us banking with the Halifax - we'd sacrifice 0.5% interest rates just to avoid having to deal with their rude and arrogant customer service staff, so we don't have any personal interest in passing this information on - it just does exactly what it says on the tin, and is perfect for transferring regular amounts to some overseas destinations.

I'm afraid you'll have to contact BoS for all the details.