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Cannot get my head around what a SWIFTBIC is

I am trying to pay a German invoice.

I have an IBAN for the bank, no problems there.

Barclays wants a SWIFTBIC or else it will charge me £17.

I have tried to find this on the invoice. I have a whole collection of numbers but no idea what they all are. I think I've narrowed it down to this:
HypoVereinsbank München, Konto-Nr. 1830 066 000, BLZ 700 202 70

'Konto-Nr' translated to account number. So I don't think it's that.

BLZ70020270 looks like it might be the BIC number?

I couldn't figure it out. Nothing will validate. I tried looking up the IBAN to see what information it revealed and got a 'BIC' back. Great!
HYVEDEMMXXX

Except that BIC doesn't validate on Barclays either. It seems like I'm looking for SWIFTBIC. What is that? What's the swift code? Where do I find it? It's not on the invoice anywhere. Is it a combination of that BIC and something else? I'm so lost!

Comments

  • greensalad wrote: »
    I am trying to pay a German invoice.

    I have an IBAN for the bank, no problems there.

    Barclays wants a SWIFTBIC or else it will charge me £17.

    I have tried to find this on the invoice. I have a whole collection of numbers but no idea what they all are. I think I've narrowed it down to this:



    'Konto-Nr' translated to account number. So I don't think it's that.

    BLZ70020270 looks like it might be the BIC number?

    I couldn't figure it out. Nothing will validate. I tried looking up the IBAN to see what information it revealed and got a 'BIC' back. Great!



    Except that BIC doesn't validate on Barclays either. It seems like I'm looking for SWIFTBIC. What is that? What's the swift code? Where do I find it? It's not on the invoice anywhere. Is it a combination of that BIC and something else? I'm so lost!

    The SWIFT is the same thing as the SWIFTBIC.

    It's definitely not the Konto Nr or the BLZ. That's the account nr and sort code.

    You've got the correct swift already: HYVEDEMMXXX

    Although I don't know why it't not on the invoice....or why Barclays isn't accepting it.
  • eskbanker
    eskbanker Posts: 37,825 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Googling for that quoted string brings back http://bank-code.net/swift-code/HYVEDEMMXXX.html, so that should validate as what you're looking for. See also http://www.theswiftcodes.com/germany/
  • Ermitteln Sie IBAN und BIC für Konten der UniCredit Bank AG/HypoVereinsbank.* Dateneingabe


    Ergebnis IBAN:
    DE79700202701830066000
    BIC:
    HYVEDEMMXXX
    Kreditinstitut:
    UNICREDIT BANK AG, MUENCHEN

    I entered the account number and sort code into the bank's website and this is the offical output.
    If it still doesn't work, then ring Barclays I guess.
  • Chino
    Chino Posts: 2,031 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Have you tried just entering "HYVEDEMM" as the SWIFTBIC?

    Entering "HYVEDEMMXXX" into the SWIFT BIC online directory returns "HYVEDEMM" as the BIC for UNICREDIT BANK AG (HYPOVEREINSBANK), MUENCHEN, GERMANY.

    http://www.swift.com/bsl/facelets/bicsearch.faces
  • Archi_Bald
    Archi_Bald Posts: 9,681 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    I entered the account number and sort code into the bank's website and this is the offical output.
    If it still doesn't work, then ring Barclays I guess.

    IBAN and BIC should be all you need. BLZ has no longer been in use since February 2014. The BIC is the same as SWIFT.

    Paying by bank transfer will cost you unnecessary charges. Have you had a look at Transferwise?
  • greensalad
    greensalad Posts: 2,530 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Thanks for all your help. I have had confirmation that that is the correct SWIFTBIC but Barclays won't accept it. I will have to call. Their website seems to be glitching on me too.
  • DevCoder
    DevCoder Posts: 3,361 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Could be that they don't hold bke (bilateral key exchange) with that correspondent. This means they wouldn't be able to send payment messages. It's a fairly quick process for them to exchange keys though so shouldn't be a major problem.
  • Ballard
    Ballard Posts: 2,983 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    krisdorey wrote: »
    Could be that they don't hold bke (bilateral key exchange) with that correspondent. This means they wouldn't be able to send payment messages. It's a fairly quick process for them to exchange keys though so shouldn't be a major problem.
    They won't need BKE to make this payment as there's no need to send the Swift MT103 to the recipient bank. In some circumstances it is the best way to process payments but if no BKE exists then an MT103 to the correspondent is a perfectly valid way to pay.

    In Euroland I wouldn't expect payments to be executed by means of MT202/MT103, particularly as Barclays will almost certainly be a EUR clearer.
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