Ron Avery Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 I have just had a charge of 15€ debited to my HSBC account for a cash transfer via the internet from my HSBC account to my CA account. This is in addition to the standard transfer fee already charged by HSBC . HSBC say that this is for a charge they say, was made by Crédit Agricole Nord Midi-Pyrénées for accepting a euro cash transfer from HSBC in the UK.CA's terms say that such euro transfers are free but HSBC say that as I agreed to pay all charges I must pay the additional charge and HSBC refuse to refund it. CA are investigating it but agreed that there should not be a charge as they don't charge. Is this HSBC playing silly buggars or a new belated policy to look after the pennies? Anyone else had a charge made recently for a credit to CA N M-P or not if that was the case? This is the first time in over 6 years that I have received such a charge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyh4 Posted December 16, 2008 Share Posted December 16, 2008 Cannot speak from N M-P but CA Alsace Vosges have never charged for accepting payments in Euro whether from the Uk or from Germany.Hope you get it sorted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Avery Posted December 16, 2008 Author Share Posted December 16, 2008 Andy, its not CA that have charged me, HSBC have charged me twice, once their standard transfer fee, and now "passing on the charges we received from CA"[8-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunday Driver Posted December 16, 2008 Share Posted December 16, 2008 It's quite normal for a UK bank to give you the option of paying the foreign receiving bank's processing charge so that the payee receives the full value of the transfer. It sounds like you agreed to this and HSBC have applied the standard CA charge to your transfer. Once CA have checked your account, they'll find the 15€ paid to them by HSBC and give you a refund. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Avery Posted February 19, 2009 Author Share Posted February 19, 2009 [quote user="Sunday Driver"]It's quite normal for a UK bank to give you the option of paying the foreign receiving bank's processing charge so that the payee receives the full value of the transfer. It sounds like you agreed to this and HSBC have applied the standard CA charge to your transfer. Once CA have checked your account, they'll find the 15€ paid to them by HSBC and give you a refund.[/quote]Not at all what happened. CA denied point blank making any charges to HSBC and demanded paper proof. All HSBC could produce was the charge to me with the CA N M P branch reference on it. CA were adamant that the receipt into my account with them was free and their Paris international section confirmed that no charges had been passed to HSBCDespite this HSBC still insisted the charges were passed to them, all I got was " you agreed to pay all the charges" and as I had, I ended up paying £33. In the end and after calls to India to people who had no authority to make decisions and kept going away to talk to a "supervisor" and trips to town to CA costing more than the amount in dispute, I finally spoke to somebody in my UK branch, who then spent 30 minutes on the phone to their call centre and stiil could not get an answer, so she made it a "head office" complaint and finally HSBC refunded the charges, but still claimed that they were fairly charged to me.So if you do a transfer from your HSBC bank to a French bank that says such transfers are free, do not agree to pay the charges of the recipient, that way if your French bank do make any charges you can aim your sights at them and not be caught in the middle of an international ping pong game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BJSLIV Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 Many years ago I used to send money from Midland to Soc Gen. I used to be charged by Soc Gen about 100 Francs for every dollop of Francs that arrived. So I was paying at both ends.I got round that by sending money by Tipanet from the Coop Bank to Soc Gen. They used Banque Populaire as an intermediary, which meant that when it arrived at Soc Gen it was an internal French transaction so no charge at that end.In your case I think logic suggests that the HSBC version of the story is more plausible CA. I don't really think that the HSBC computer would have levied a charge without something provoking it. We have all know that the French response to an unusual query is "Pas possible". Its quite likely that though the local CA hasn't levied a charge, one of the CA central processing computers has. I imagine that HSBC have decided its easier to waive the charge rather than waste more time trying to sort it out. It will be interesting to see what happens next time if you don't accept the charges on the HSBC form. Will they be redirected to your French account? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phylisbide Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 I recently received a letter from Nationwide, relating to a transaction of euros last autumn - they were advising that they had just received a charge from CA Normandie which they would debit from my UK account. pb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suein56 Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 [quote user="Ron Avery"]Despite this HSBC still insisted the charges were passed to them, all I got was " you agreed to pay all the charges" and as I had, I ended up paying £33.[/quote]This I find intriguing as I bank with First Direct - HSBC's no-physical-branch off-shoot - and I transferred some money to our French Bank last week using SEPA - the recentish cheaper way to transfer funds. The transfer cost me £9 deducted from my FD account, the transfer took 2 or 3 days depending on how you look at 'days'. From ringing up to sort out a rate sometime Monday around midday to in-our-account-here Wednesday afternoon. There were no other charges to pay and all the euros FD advised me would be sent arrived at this end intact. When I used to pay FD £25 the money would leave the UK am and arrive in France pm the same day. Still with no other charges. Strikes me there is quite a difference between the 2 kinds of HSBC.Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 I have had that also with HSBC Ron.You have to say a very firm NO! and tell them that you will pay any charges at this end yourself should there be any, I have never yet been charged at this end.Yes it is a HSBC scam but you probably were, or at least should have been asked "would you like to pay the other banks charges from this end?" - you must answer "NO YOU ROBBING B*****S", to avoid any confusion.If you interrogate them they admit that they cannot tell you what the charges would be or even if there would be any but for £35 you get total peace of mind.I bet you feel better knowing that [:P] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Avery Posted February 19, 2009 Author Share Posted February 19, 2009 I think the difference now is that HSBC are looking to get every penny in that they can, and I'm glad to see its not just me who had had this problem. I have transferred money before although doing it yourself is quite new, before it had to be done via a phone call however no other charges were raised until now........ and it took them 3 months to do it!!up to £10k HSBC charge £20 for the transfer which includes any inter bank charges and it seems where they can they are now passing those inter bank charges on as an extra. As I said earlier do not agree to pay the recipient charges and that way HSBC cannot charge any more than the initial fixed fee. With the poster who uses CA Normandie, get on to your HSBC branch, you might have to do this via Calcutta or Mumbai, talk too your branch and either get them to refund the charge or make it a head office complaint for further investigation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 Actually Ron I have a recollection that I did in fact pay a small receiving charge at my French bank but it was only a few euros not the £15 that HSBC wanted to relive me of for "my peace of mind"!I got a French telesales call today from India, I am assuming that it was telesales as the caller did not speak until long after I had said "Allo!" (as they all seem to do) and I could hear all the other operators giving their spiel in the background, the problem was this persons accent made their French totally unintelligible to me, and mine vice versa probably. I got fed up and hung up and the guy (I think) called again twice more, each time when I wobbling on the top of a very tall and rickety step ladder trying to weld a poutrelle. Each time the same unintelligible conversation, me not understanding him and he not undersanding my "ca m"interesse pas" In the end I got so frustrated that I told him to go forth (very unlike me) whereapon I discovered that his English was better than his or my French [:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suein56 Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 [quote user="Ron Avery"]up to £10k HSBC charge £20 for the transfer which includes any inter bank charges and it seems where they can they are now passing those inter bank charges on as an extra. [/quote]Why not ask them why did not tell you of the new SEPA system of transfer at £9 with no other charges, provided that IBAN numbers are correctly used.Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clair Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 [quote user="suein56"]Why not ask them why did not tell you of the new SEPA system of transfer at £9 with no other charges, provided that IBAN numbers are correctly used.Sue[/quote]SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) is for electronic payments within the Eurozone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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