Receiving bank transfer from USA senders bank account to RBS or HSBC. Whats the fee? +How many days?

Danny_G

When receiving money from a sender in America, from a US Bank account as a bank transfer to a UK Rbs / or a HSBC bank account, 

then what are the international receiving fees for receiving money using the bank transfer from them to us?

Will they have a fee to pay in their USA bank? and will we have a fee to pay in our RBS/ HSBC bank?
and how many days does the transfer usually take?



For example, if £5000 was to be sent from the US bank account to the HSBC account, what would the typical fee be?

Here is what I have found,  but there is quite a bit of information to take in.

https://help.bankline.rbs.com/help/payments/international/StandardInternationalPaymentFees

https://www.business.rbs.co.uk/content/dam/rbs_co_uk/Business_and_Content/PDFs/Bankline/2019-12-18RBSInternationalPaymentsTariffBankline.pdf

born_again

They should be paying any fee's. 

maxximus75

As per the RBS document you post above:

Receiving payments - All currencies except Euro – Credits to accounts with Royal Bank of Scotland

Below £101 = £1

£101 and over=  £7

The send will no doubt have to pay a fee to send internationally but they would have to check with their own bank regard this as it depend on their account agreement with their bank - the same goes for the number of days  will depend on their banks processing times.

As for HSBC, you would need to refer to their documentation on receiving internation payments.

sausage_time

Have you looked at Wise (formerly TransferWise)?  Or similar. 
Be very wary of sending US$ to a high street bank and asking them to do the conversion.  I made that mistake once, and could not sit down or walk in a straight line for over a week.

Danny_G

sausage_time said:

Have you looked at Wise (formerly TransferWise)?  Or similar. 
Be very wary of sending US$ to a high street bank and asking them to do the conversion.  I made that mistake once, and could not sit down or walk in a straight line for over a week.

Cheers everyone.

I did not follow what you meant sausage_time, can you or anyone else explain what you mean?

made the mistake? and couldn't sit down or walk in a straight line for over a week?

What was the mistake?


and once the transfer has been done, is there any risk of the HSBC bank holding the funds? /freezing the funds for a while?

Cheers 

maxximus75

I think the reference was regarding to not getting a favourable conversation rate from USD to GBP by his bank - and the term "Getting shafted" hence, not being able to sit down!

You'll no doubt, get a better exchange rate with a Wise, or similar account.

There is always a risk of any funds being frozen/held by any bank due to Anti Money Laundering.  If anything with the transfer is suspect to them, they will investigate.  During which time they could even suspend your account and even close it.

CKhalvashi

maxximus75 said:

I think the reference was regarding to not getting a favourable conversation rate from USD to GBP by his bank - and the term "Getting shafted" hence, not being able to sit down!

You'll no doubt, get a better exchange rate with a Wise, or similar account.

There is always a risk of any funds being frozen/held by any bank due to Anti Money Laundering.  If anything with the transfer is suspect to them, they will investigate.  During which time they could even suspend your account and even close it.

Any financial institution should do the same.

Banks don't offer favourable rates in general, specialist money transfer companies such as Wise do.

PRAISETHESUN

Usually the sender will pay a fee to send internationally, and as you've posted above you'll also be charged a fee to receive it. In addition you'll also lose out by a few % from the unfavorable exchange rate the bank will apply to the USD:GBP conversion - although not strictly a "fee", it's more money you are losing out on.

The best way to maximise the amount of GBP you receive is to handle the international transfer and currency conversion separately. I've used Wise and and can recommend them, although there are a few similar services out there. Open GBP and USD accounts and provide the sender with the USD account details to receive the USD payment. Then do the conversion yourself (transfer from your USD account to your GBP account). Finally transfer the GBP to your HSBC/RBS account.

Danny_G

cheers guys,

did look into Transferwise (Wise), but they have had negative reviews from people who have had their accounts frozen/ funds not accessable, funds returned back.

check out the following links and look at negatives. I know there are positives, but the negatives are saying often that they have had their accounts frozen, funds frozen.

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/finance/transferwise.html?#sort=top_reviews&filter=1

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/wise.com?page=2&stars=1

https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/transferwise-account-deactivated.1186319/

(Although as I said, it will only be £5000 from USA to UK,
so it is not like it is £55,000- £100,000 + or anything higher. so would that mean the risk is less?

Just concerned that they Wise will freeze it.

and with trasnferwise/wise would I need to enable the 'borderless' feature?   as funds will be coming from USA to UK? 

eskbanker

If you're swayed by negative reviews on sites like Trustpilot, how did you end up banking with HSBC and RBS?!

PRAISETHESUN

The problem with online review sites is that people are much more likely to complain when something isn't working correctly but are much less inclined to leave positive feedback when everything is working as intended. By all means it is good to do research and to be cautious, but I'd take the number of negative reviews with a pinch of salt.

As long as you document the source of the funds (eg. a letter from the sender stating it is a gift, a copy of the sale receipt if selling something, copy of the will if from an inheritance, etc) then although your account may get frozen (which could happen with any bank, for any reason if they suspect your account is being used improperly, including HSBC or RBS) you'll be in a much better position to get your account unfrozen in a timely fashion. A smaller amount doesn't mean the chances are any less; I've had an account frozen (not with Wise) for transferring £20 before...