Sending money overseas discussion area

quirin

hi, as i am new to this site but send money home every month and have not found it mentioned anywhere i wonder if anybody uses alliance & leicester giro ( postbank at some stage ) which i have done for many years month after month. all you need is someone you can trust with a postal account abroad. it costs £ 7.50 for any amount within 4 - 5 days. i send sterling and the exchange rate i get from the german postbank is usually better than the rates i can get here. or would the nationwide way still be better? does anybody know?
quirin

grumbler

£7.50 every month is a lot of money! And I think Nationwide rate is better. Next time you make a transfer compare rate to Visa rate (used by Nationwide) and tell us the result.

Lara

We have always used Currencies Direct. Have you tried them?

russellgreeno

One tip from me.

Most banks still charge you if you want to transfer your money to other bank accounts you have with other banks. CHAPS is around £25.

What I do is set up all my other accounts in my name into the PAY BILLS section of my main bank. This was I can transfer money online to other banks without any fees.

Your bank will not charge you if it thinks you are paying a bill. I've done this for years with no problems.

If you have joint accounts this is even better as you can use oppositte names every time to make sure you're not spotted.

Now way I'm paying £25 to transfer my money from Natwest to Halifax just for the privilage of doing it electronically.

santana-mx3

russellgreeno wrote:

One tip from me.

Most banks still charge you if you want to transfer your money to other bank accounts you have with other banks. CHAPS is around £25.

What I do is set up all my other accounts in my name into the PAY BILLS section of my main bank. This was I can transfer money online to other banks without any fees.

Your bank will not charge you if it thinks you are paying a bill. I've done this for years with no problems.

If you have joint accounts this is even better as you can use oppositte names every time to make sure you're not spotted.

Now way I'm paying £25 to transfer my money from Natwest to Halifax just for the privilage of doing it electronically.

But CHAPS, which the banks normally charge for, is for same-day transfers. BACS is normally free (unless you pay for your banking eg. because you are in overdraft) and the banks I use send bill payments by BACS (not CHAPS) in the same way as "transfers" to accounts I have with other banks.

jonesMUFCforever

russellgreeno wrote:

One tip from me.

Most banks still charge you if you want to transfer your money to other bank accounts you have with other banks. CHAPS is around £25.

What I do is set up all my other accounts in my name into the PAY BILLS section of my main bank. This was I can transfer money online to other banks without any fees.

Your bank will not charge you if it thinks you are paying a bill. I've done this for years with no problems.

If you have joint accounts this is even better as you can use oppositte names every time to make sure you're not spotted.

Now way I'm paying £25 to transfer my money from Natwest to Halifax just for the privilage of doing it electronically.

I think you'll find that Antigua is not part of the BACS system and that OP was talking about an International payment.

Mikeyorks

russellgreeno wrote:

Your bank will not charge you if it thinks you are paying a bill. I've done this for years with no problems.

If you have joint accounts this is even better as you can use oppositte names every time to make sure you're not spotted.

Regret you've been making hard work of a simple problem. A SO or a DD works just as well - and doesn't come with a guilt complex.;)

You would need to specifically ask for a CHAPS transfer - and one assumes you would only do that if you need a same-day transfer?

russellgreeno

I guess things must have changed a bit now, but BACS wasn't an option for personal accounts (i didn't even realise it was now) when I started doing this, the only way to send a one of transfer to another account with a seperate bank was with CHAPSS.

Standing orders and DD's are fine, but you can't set up a DD between two of your own accounts can you? and standing orders are a pain online as quite often it says it takes a couple of days to register (well it used to anyway) but my menthod worked great at the time and was very fast, money usually received with 48 hours.

Mikeyorks

No, sorry - I was being too general and really just commenting that there is no need of guilt that you will be 'found out'. Therefore you are quite right that a DD is not appropriate for transfers between your personal accounts (unless one of them is a Credit Card account). In fact, if it's just 'ad hoc' transfers, them setting it as a 'bill payment' is as good a way as any. And particularly if both timing and value are variable.

But if it's regular timing / value (e.g are you transferring to a Halifax Regular Saver?) then a SO is the most appropriate - as, once done, you can leave it. With a 'bill payment' you have to initiate it each time.

But both bill payment and SO (outside your home Bank) use the same transmission mechanisms - so the transmission time is the same. And setting them up normally takes the same time for them to be picked up by the system. But I think what you are referring to is to avoid setting a SO up within 48hrs of needing to make the first payment. But that's just a 'one off' - once the SO is set up you can just forget about it

schiff

Some things I find puzzling here.

For years now BACS has been the best and no-charge route for me. I've always 'known' that CHAPS costs a fortune in comparison - but then I might not be up to date on this. So avoided it like the plague (unless of course you want a quick payment to be made - and some forward planning can nip that necessity in the bud). Therefore I find it odd that russellgreeno and Mikeyorks seem to be talking about CHAPS xfers as if there is no cost element to be considered.

I personally have no need to consider CHAPS xfers but I would appreciate knowing if things have changed in that area -just from idle curiosity!