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comperinha

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eskbanker

comperinha said:

Maybe this thread could be a resource for UK based people to reduce the costs of their international money transfers by creating a compendium of charges etc for each UK bank/BS. In the same way as those threads for Regular Saver chasers or etc.

MSE's approach is to publish an editorial article about the cheapest ways to send and convert money, which involves specialist currency brokers rather than high street banks: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/foreign-currency-exchange/

Individual transactions can be benchmarked via comparison sites such as https://www.monito.com/

The_Fat_Controller

Try Wise, they charge a fee but you get very near the mid-market rate so the recipient gets more overall.

The payout is in local currency so no fees at the receiving bank

https://www.wise.com

[Deleted User]

Many UK banks will actually offer free international (European) transfers using SEPA. 

adindas

comperinha said:

I suspect this isn't possible, but maybe it's possible to figure out which bank would offer the lowest fees if a UK consumer is going to make more than 1 payment in foreign currency to international accounts using IBAN/BIC?

Best info I've so far found online is:

• Barclays: no fee online or £25 if you use a branch. They also charge the recipient £6.
• Lloyds: charge £9.50 whether online or in a branch, and the recipient is also charged £12.
• HSBC: charge £4 online or £9 in a branch, and the recipient is charged £8.
• Natwest:  £15 if under £5,000 or 0.3% (max £40), and the recipient is charged £7.50.

I can't post links due to be being a newbie, so I should credit Mike Smith of Key Currency for providing this information. No I don't work for the company or know the guy personally, I'm trying to avoid getting done for copyright fraud or whatever.

It's been said on MSE about Starling being fee-free, but they're not. They allow us to send payments in non-GBP amounts but they charge for this. Maybe this thread could be a resource for UK based people to reduce the costs of their international money transfers by creating a compendium of charges etc for each UK bank/BS. In the same way as those threads for Regular Saver chasers or etc.

Starling is fee fee for foreign currency withdrawal using ATM but I do not remember MSE ever said Starling is Fee-Free International Bank transfer. 

If you have Revolut and you are transferring to major currencies, e.g US$, EUR you could get near zero by exchanging to other currencies within revolt and then transfer to International Bank Account. I have tried this multiples times. I hardly ever pay any fees and I got Mid Marker (similar to xe.com) exchange rate. But this is only for small amount.

MSE has listed International Currency transfer. Bank is not the best way. Have you tried Wise ?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6359831/money-transfer-from-spain-to-uk#latest There are few discussion and people sharing experience using WISE.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/foreign-currency-exchange/?_ga=2.188962985.349351007.1654033431-1156753829.1654033431&_gl=1*9aov6b*_ga*MTE1Njc1MzgyOS4xNjU0MDMzNDMx*_ga_X74CWQS9F0*MTY1NTE5NzYzMC4xMC4xLjE2NTUyMDYzMDEuMTM.

For larger amount is to use the currency brokers

PRAISETHESUN

There's two components to consider here - the transaction fee charged by the sending/receiving banks, as well as the exchange rate used. The high street banks might appear competitive on the surface but the exchange rate they use is atrocious, which quickly eats up any saving from the "fee-free" transfers on offer.

I'd personally avoid these in favour of specialist currency transfer services as discussed above. I've had good experiences with Wise in the past and can recommend.

Daliah

adindas said:

For larger amount is to use the currency brokers

Why pay a broker when you can do it all yourself? They can't beat the deals you can get yourself.

SiliconChip

It's unlikely that a transfer using a UK bank (except perhaps for the SEPA transfers mentioned by Oberoth) will be cheaper than alternatives. Just think about a £10,000 transfer, if the bank has, for example, a 2% loading on the exchange rate that is instantly costing you £200, plus whatever the fees are, using WISE etc. the fees charged will only be a fraction of that.  It cost me £42 to send £10K to New Zealand a few days ago.

Marchitiello

It depend about what currency we are talking about. If speed is not an issue my way to deal with Euro for example is to use my Fineco UK multi-currency account . Transfer into it GBP (from Nationwide to avoid the issues of delays and/or fees that were reported in the past). Then exchange the GBP into Euro and once the amount is cleared into my EURO account, send via SEPA at no additional cost. The exchange rate may be slightly worst (talking about 0.00xx ) then Wise, Starling or others, but the net amount transferred in EURO has been always better in my monitoring over the last 4-6 years as there are no additional fees.

in theory you can do the same for Swiss Francs and USD but not sure if the actual transfer get charged, perhaps at the receiving end, as they use an Italian based IBAN for all transactions. 

I also use Wise for business International payments, again for many years, and it has been quite reliable as well. 

CKhalvashi

Another vote for Wise as a long term customer.

In response to Marchitiello's comments, if there are any bank charges these will be payable, but this will only be a routine domestic transaction fee.

eDicky

OP, you still seem to be confusing foreign card use for payments and ATM withdrawals with transfer of funds to an overseas account, which are two entirely different things. The latter has nothing to do with MasterCard and their daily rates, and Starling Bank charges no fee for the former.

The 'best info' found online that you quote is meaningless for comparison without the markup that banks put on the interbank (mid-market) rate at the time of transfer, for which the high street banks display no transparency and which makes up the majority of cost for any substantial transfer, their quoted 'fee' being a fixed amount per transfer.

Also there's no way a UK bank can charge a foreign recipient, I guess you mean the fee they put on receiving an international transfer into your UK account.

You would probably have to contact a banks FX department to find out what rate they will give you for a transfer at the current moment, and you maybe can negotiate a better rate for a large transfer - good luck if you try...

Your idea of a complete comparison list is a nice idea, but probably impractical to compile if you want to include bank-to-bank, which (excluding Starling and Fineco UK) is only for mugs and those who need the supposed extra security.