Charges for euro payments into cater Allen accounts

prino

Cater Allen (in the guise of RBOS) charge GBP 7.00 for incoming euro payments and claim this is legal. I've told them it isn't, as the payments follow the rules set out by the EU, ie

1) Transfer is made in euro and the amount does not exceed 50,000 EUR;<!--[endif]--> <!--[if !supportLists]-->[FONT=&quot]

2) IBAN (International Bank Account Number) and BIC (Bank Identifier [/FONT]Code) of the beneficiary is provided by the originator of the payment. <!--[endif]-->

The saga has been going on for eight week, I'm reclaiming the charges (GBP 28.00), interest on them at CA's own unauthorized overdraft rate (of 25% :cool: - the charges are unauthorized) and sofar three hour of my time, at my overtime rate. To back it up, I've got a letter from the EU telling me that

"<quote></quote>You mentioned that intermediary charges are deducted from the amounts transferred from <st1:country-region>Belgium</st1:country-region> to your company account in the <st1:country-region><st1>UK</st1></st1:country-region> (Cater Allen Private Bank). Article 3 of Regulation 2560/2001 states that charges for cross-border payment transactions in euro have to be the same as for the corresponding national payments in euro. Using an intermediary for international payments is a commercial choice made by banks; it is possible to use other formulas such as an international clearing system. The customer does not have to bear the cost of this choice on the grounds that the international way to perform the payment is different from the national one. Therefore additional intermediary charges applied to cross-border payments constitute a breach of the Regulation."

The emphasis is original!

Got another letter this week telling me that they are investigating further - original reply was basically "We are UK, regulations do not apply!"

I'll keep you posted.

Robert

dzug

Hmm

Are you actually doing a euro to euro transfer or euros to pounds?

And what would be the charge if any for a euro to euro transfer within Belgium?

Or a euro to euro transfer in the UK?

I's be glad to think you are in the right but I'm not convinced.

prino

It's a euro to pounds, euro to euro is free in the entire eurozone or will cost at most the charge for the intra-country transfers for the sending country. Closed an account in Ireland, xfer to Belgium: free, transferred money from Holland to Germany: free, Holland to Belgium: free, Belgium to Holland: free.

Fact is currency doesn't even matter, receiving banks in EU are simply NOT allowed to charge any costs! (From my own experience with UK banks: Abbey doesn't, Nationwide doesn't)

natweststaffmember

I am assuming RBOS are the same as natwest. It is £1 if it is under £100 and £7 on amounts above that.

Beate

It is correct that any Euro to Euro transfer, if you use IBAN and BIC, should not be charged more than the cost of an intra-country transfer by the transferring bank. But then the currency needs to be converted by the receiving bank, so that's presumably what some UK banks (not all) are charging for, calling it a service. I too would sincerely hope that you are right and these charges are just as unlawful as other bank charges as they are disproportionate to the costs (especially when there are some banks that do not charge at all for this). It will be interesting to follow your progress.