BACS or CHAPS vs "bank transfer"

Brie

I'm in a year long endeavour to transfer some dollars from Canada to the UK. 

I have set up a WISE account but I've yet to see that that would actually save me any money as it will cost the same amount for my Canadian account to transfer money to WISE as it would to the UK.  And the FX rate isn't much different so not a lot of saving there.  And I'd have the WISE fee as well.

So the only thing I've got to sort out now is how much it would cost for an account in the UK to accept a GBP payment from a Canadian bank.  Now my bank has said a payment from a foreign account would cost me £7 unless it was made by CHAPS or BACS in which case it's free.  The bank in Canada keeps saying that it would be making a "bank transfer".  

Does anyone know what the difference is please?

TimSynths

Before you use Wise look at Atlantic Money- might save you a lot on fees.

Sending money abroad, finally done right. | Atlantic Money

GeoffTF

I expect that the Canadian bank would send the money by SWIFT (you could ask them) in which case you would have to pay pay your UK bank the £7 fee. Is that a significant percentage?

Brie

TimSynths said:

Before you use Wise look at Atlantic Money- might save you a lot on fees.

Sending money abroad, finally done right. | Atlantic Money

There doesn't seem to be a CAD to GBP option available.

Brie

GeoffTF said:I expect that the Canadian bank would send the money by SWIFT (you could ask them) in which case you would have to pay pay your UK bank the £7 fee. Is that a significant percentage?

Fortunately the £7 is rather trivial to the amount currently needed to be transferred.  But I was going to make this an annual event (Canadian state pension being paid into the account plus other money coming to me over the next few years) so how significant it will be in the future will vary.  

wmb194

Brie said:

GeoffTF said:I expect that the Canadian bank would send the money by SWIFT (you could ask them) in which case you would have to pay pay your UK bank the £7 fee. Is that a significant percentage?

Fortunately the £7 is rather trivial to the amount currently needed to be transferred.  But I was going to make this an annual event (Canadian state pension being paid into the account plus other money coming to me over the next few years) so how significant it will be in the future will vary.  

I'm still surprised you cannot just send it as a domestic Canadian transfer to your Wise account:

SiliconChip

BACS and CHAPS are UK payment methods so not relevant to the transfer of funds from outside the UK, which means that the only way you wouldn't incur the £7 charge is if you're able to get the money transferred from Canada to an account at a UK bank that doesn't have the charge first, then transfer by Faster Payments (which is what they mean by BACS) to the end bank, or by CHAPS if that can be done free (some now offer this, although many still charge in the region of £20 - £40).

[Deleted User]

wmb194 said:

Brie said:

GeoffTF said:I expect that the Canadian bank would send the money by SWIFT (you could ask them) in which case you would have to pay pay your UK bank the £7 fee. Is that a significant percentage?

Fortunately the £7 is rather trivial to the amount currently needed to be transferred.  But I was going to make this an annual event (Canadian state pension being paid into the account plus other money coming to me over the next few years) so how significant it will be in the future will vary.  

I'm still surprised you cannot just send it as a domestic Canadian transfer to your Wise account:

Domestic wire transfers (akin to UK CHAPS) are unlikely to be used for pension payments.
EFTs/Direct Deposit or Interact are much more common day to day payments.
International bank transfers are almost certainly SWIFT.

[Deleted User]

Brie said:

I'm in a year long endeavour to transfer some dollars from Canada to the UK. 

I have set up a WISE account but I've yet to see that that would actually save me any money as it will cost the same amount for my Canadian account to transfer money to WISE as it would to the UK.  And the FX rate isn't much different so not a lot of saving there.  And I'd have the WISE fee as well.

So the only thing I've got to sort out now is how much it would cost for an account in the UK to accept a GBP payment from a Canadian bank.  Now my bank has said a payment from a foreign account would cost me £7 unless it was made by CHAPS or BACS in which case it's free.  The bank in Canada keeps saying that it would be making a "bank transfer".  

Does anyone know what the difference is please?

The Canadian bank could have access to domestic UK bank payments i.e. BACS/CHAPS/FPs via a subsidiary or banking partner but it more likely just an international SWIFT bank transfer. 

Brie

wmb194 said:

Brie said:

GeoffTF said:I expect that the Canadian bank would send the money by SWIFT (you could ask them) in which case you would have to pay pay your UK bank the £7 fee. Is that a significant percentage?

Fortunately the £7 is rather trivial to the amount currently needed to be transferred.  But I was going to make this an annual event (Canadian state pension being paid into the account plus other money coming to me over the next few years) so how significant it will be in the future will vary.  

I'm still surprised you cannot just send it as a domestic Canadian transfer to your Wise account:

I can send a transfer to my Wise account and that will cost me $50.  And then there's the fees Wise will charge.  It just seems simpler given the rates are almost identical to cut out one layer and get it direct bank to bank.

wmb194

Brie said:

wmb194 said:

Brie said:

GeoffTF said:I expect that the Canadian bank would send the money by SWIFT (you could ask them) in which case you would have to pay pay your UK bank the £7 fee. Is that a significant percentage?

Fortunately the £7 is rather trivial to the amount currently needed to be transferred.  But I was going to make this an annual event (Canadian state pension being paid into the account plus other money coming to me over the next few years) so how significant it will be in the future will vary.  

I'm still surprised you cannot just send it as a domestic Canadian transfer to your Wise account:

I can send a transfer to my Wise account and that will cost me $50.  And then there's the fees Wise will charge.  It just seems simpler given the rates are almost identical to cut out one layer and get it direct bank to bank.

That's as a Canadian domestic transfer using the equivalent of faster payments ie. EFT or Interac? That sounds like a wire fee.