Should I be charged for this transfer?

[Judith]

Just in the process of organising my [UK occupational] pensions to be paid later in the year, and asked one provider if they would send it in euros to my French account.  They replied that yes, they could, they would use TAPS and that each monthly payment would cost £3.35 per monthly payment. (The monthly pension is in the region of £130 pm)

Now hubby already has all his pensions in payment, (like me a mixture of occupational, money purchase and state) and they come here, to the best of his knowledge, without such a charge.

I have a memory of reading about what costs banks are allowed to charge on the forum, but a search did not find it.

Can anybody advise if this charge is (a) allowed and (b) justified?

Thanks

[just john]

Nationwide charge me £20 transfer per swift transaction (but free with card at cashpoint), and Halifax have just offered £10 per swift , so it seems not bad by comparison on the swift level. BUT what exchange rate do you get; bit like the no commission offers for currency exchange at exhorbitant rates.[8-)]

 

[Judith]

It seems that this is the charge the bank make for small payments (not that it says this on their literature about this particular process).  I think I will have it payed into  my NW account in the UK and withdraw the cash in the usual manner when required.  The exchange rate would have to be very poor before I lost the £3 odd per month they want to charge me.

I don't mind paying for transferring large sums infrequently (well I do, but I can't avoid that it seems!), but paying that every month to transfer a pension is silly.  I gather that it is the same process that DWP use to transfer state pensions across, but some providers will pay the bank charge (as I presume DWP do), but this one doesn't and passes on the charge to me!  Typical.

[rockstitch]

Surly if you give the pension provider the new bank details they just pay into that account, at least that's what I thought. Sue

[Baz]

It might also be worth checking if your French Bank will be making a charge for receiving the payment.

Baz

[Judith]

[quote user="rockstitch"]Surly if you give the pension provider the new bank details they just pay into that account, at least that's what I thought. Sue[/quote]

That's what I thought too, but no, it seems (on questioning) that they pass on the charge made by the bank.

[Judith]

[quote user="Baz"]

It might also be worth checking if your French Bank will be making a charge for receiving the payment.

Baz

[/quote]

Point taken, though the leaflet says they should not! 

As I said, I think I will be having it paid into the UK account, otherwise it all seems to be fraught with difficulty.

[cheminot]

If you want a UK pension paid to a foreign bank some pension providers use a bank transfer service to do this.

 In this case there is usually a charge levied by the bank for this service.

The figure you quote is about the norm for this. Whether you are charged by the receiving bank depends on who you bank with.

cheminot

[Ron Avery]

Same with my PRIVATE pension, Cheminot, my PP uses  RBS for these transfers and they charge a flat discounted fee, of course having it paid into a UK account is possible but totally pointless if you live in France and don't have a Nationwide account.

[ausibattler]

If finances allow, consider a quarterly (every 3 months) transfer. The loss of interest is of no consequence in today's financial circumstances.