Norwegian wages paid to UK account

hannaby

Hi,
I've recently started working for a Norwegian firm and subsequently I am now paid my wages in NOK.
I enquired about payment in NOK with my current bank, Santander, a few month ago and was advised by them payment can be made by IBAN and there would be no charges and that I would simply be subject to the Mastercard rate of the day.

Now I have started to be paid in NOK I noticed there was a difference between my NOK salary and what I was getting in my Santander account (after calculations I found 2% was being dedcuted).
Because Santander had assured me they would not apply any charges I chased down the Norwegian side through my HR department. The bank in Norway (DNB) advised that they charge a one off fee per transaction of 30NOK (approx £3), they also advised that when they traced the IBAN they could see that after them it went to Lloyds before it got to Santander.

I called Santander again and the agent I spoke to advised me that no they did not charge anything and it was the Visa rate of the day. I questioned this as I was previosuly told Mastercard and to cut a long story short this agent did not have a clue what he was talking about and had never heard of Norwegian Krone before!
I escalated this to a manager and was then told that officially Santander do not charge anything but they use Lloyds as an intermediary and they 'MAY' charge a fee. Santander stated they didn't actually know what this fee was after I asked if it was 2%.

So after I thought I had done my homework so I wasn't losing out on any money it turns out I now need a new bank.

Does anyone have any experience of being paid in NOK and can recommend a UK bank that does not charge for incoming IBAN (or charge a minimal fee at least)?

I looked into Finenco but they are not accepting NOK.
I believe Revolut or Transferwise could be an option but don't have any experience of these and I'm a little wary of 'digital' currencies.

Ben8282

You are being charged £3 per-week (I assume you are paid weekly as you refer to wages not salary). but as you subsequently mention salary perhaps you are paid monthly so it may be £3 per-month
Do you really want to mess about for the sake of £3 per-week/month?
Just accept the charge and be thankful everything is going smoothly and you are getting your money with no problems..

Bexgrossman

Where are you getting the 2% from?

hannaby

Ben8282 wrote: »

You are being charged £3 per-week (I assume you are paid weekly as you refer to wages not salary).
Do you really want to mess about for the sake of £3 per-week?
Just accept the charge and be thankful everything is going smoothly and you are getting your money with no problems..

No I am being charged £3 per month by DNB in Norway to send my wages by IBAN to a UK account.
The £3 I can live with being charged.

Satander then take 2% of my monthly wage by using Lloyds as an intermediary to exchange it. On a flat month this is costing me approx £100 per month.

Bexgrossman

Open a Norwegian bank account?

Ben8282

hannaby wrote: »

No I am being charged £3 per month by DNB in Norway to send my wages by IBAN to a UK account.
The £3 I can live with being charged.

Satander then take 2% of my monthly wage by using Lloyds as an intermediary to exchange it. On a flat month this is costing me approx £100 per month.

WAGES are paid weekly.
A SALARY is paid monthly.
There is NO SUCH THING as a MONTHLY WAGE.

Open an account with a different bank then.
Or have your NOK salary paid into a Norwegian bank and transfer it yourself.
Don't imagine you employer will mess about with anything other than a bank transfer their bank to yours.

You shoud not be charged for receiving foriegn payments into your account. The Santander staff cearly don't know what they are talking about as neither Visa nor Mastercard rates will come into it as bank transfers don't use Visa or Mastercard do they?

hannaby

Bexgrossman wrote: »

Where are you getting the 2% from?

Carrying out conversion at exchange rate of the day then realising there was substantial difference (even if exchnage was slightly worse).
When I then work out the % missing it has been circe 2% on all 3 month I have been paid so far.

hannaby

Ben8282 wrote: »

WAGES are paid weekly.
A SALARY is paid monthly.
There is NO SUCH THING as a MONTHLY WAGE.

No need to shout mate.
I must apologise profusely for using the terms in such an incorrect manner :rotfl:
Also, I am paid an hourly rate so I would have though that would be classed as a wage rather than salary???

hannaby

Ben8282 wrote: »

Open an account with a different bank then.
Or have your NOK salary paid into a Norwegian bank and transfer it yourself.
Don't imagine you employer will mess about with anything other than a bank transfer their bank to yours.

Opening a Norwegian bank account wouldn't solve Santander taking 2% intermediary fee as I would still have to do a bank transfer to them.

hannaby

Ben8282 wrote: »

You shoud not be charged for receiving foriegn payments into your account. The Santander staff cearly don't know what they are talking about as neither Visa nor Mastercard rates will come into it as bank transfers don't use Visa or Mastercard do they?

I agree that Santander staff have no idea what they are talking about.
I sent my issue to the complaints department and they advised Ihave been mis-infomed originally but there is a charge and this is applied by the intermediary they use and that is the only way they will convert the money.

eDicky

hannaby wrote: »

I believe Revolut or Transferwise could be an option but don't have any experience of these and I'm a little wary of 'digital' currencies.

These solutions are not 'digital currencies'. You can learn how to use them to cut your cross currency costs effectively.

To what exchange rates are you comparing the rate you receive from Santander? You will not escape at least a 2%+ margin with transfers directly between mainstream banks, in fact if it's only 2% you're not doing too badly.

Open a NOK account in Norway and arrange your own transfers in order to cut your losses.

Don't bother talking to the likes of Santander staff about such things.