Transfer money with SWIFT

[Jamesdee]

This is my first post so can I apologise in advance if it touches on something that has come up before, though I have had a good look through and I can find no reference to Swift as a transfer agency.

As has been pointed out on many posts Nationwide are ideal for debit card withdrawals at ATMs in France. Taking this a stage further I have always assumed that Swift, as an agent for Nationwide would be the best option for transferring large sums so I have always used them. Am I wrong? Does anyone have experience of using them?

Also when I transfer whatever amount they make a standard charge of twenty pounds, then my CA bank in Charente Maritime charges 13.90 and then 59.00. to convert to Euros. I must be doing something wrong, can anyone advise?

[Quillan]

Welcome,

Why not send it in Euros rather than sterling, you will probably get a better rate as well.

[Pierre ZFP]

Hi and welcome.

SWIFT is just the messenger not an agent, they just send secure messages between banks and other financial institutions for the transfer and settlement of money and financial instruments of all kinds.  Although to play the game is expensive, and therefore only the big boys play, the cost per message is only a few cents (I work on a computer system that sends millions of these every day).  Also, the message to deliver money is one of the simplest, there's not much to it just receiving bank/account currency and amount, your bank sends an MT303 message and receives back a MT300 as confirmation, all automatically so not justification for huge fees.  Your bank should also specify you are sending Euros not pounds and therefore should be received with minimal cost, in fact, if the money was transferred from any EU country EXCEPT UK then it would have to be free.

If you are transferring less than 4000 pounds at a time there is a thing called a 'Low value payment' you can ask for.  Don't know if Nationwide offer this but Barclay's do for a flat fee of 10 quid.

Hope this helps

[Hoddy]

You might consider opening a euro account with your UK bank. I've found it helpful to have one and transfer money into it when the exchange rate is good. I can then transfer it into my French account as I need it. At the moment I have enough in my French account to cover my bills for a while and I won't be putting anyting into my euro account at the present exchange rate unless I absolutely have to.

If, like me, you are only part-time in France this might work for you too.

Hoddy

[andyh4]

The process you are using is bank to bank transfer.  Under EU laws banks can charge the same rate for international transfers as they do fo national.  Because the UK banks do not use this system - prefering cheques - they charge exhorbitant rates.  If you did the transfer the other way round it would cist under 3€. 

So don't do it from the UK to Europe.

 

PS I dounbt that openning a Euro account will help - but you could and should ask them what they would charge for bank to bank transfers.

[united]

I have transferred money using swift from my UK bank, a currency dealer Moneycorp.

 However, last time I paid a sterling cheque into my French local bank branch. CIC Banque CIO-BRO. The charge was 27.6 euros and a I received a reasonable exchange rate.

My preference was to use Moneycorp for the transaction having had a good experience with previous transactions but their minimum was £5000 and I wanted to transfer less than that.

I spoke to my branch in advance and they said there would be no problem in doing this. I will use this method in the future for transactions under £5k.

 

[Phil & Pat]

For transferring smaller amounts from  the UK to France I have found HSBC's WorldPay system very useful. 

Transactions are limited to £2000 a time, it costs £9.00 at the UK end, you can ask for the transfer to be made in euros so no currency conversion fee, and my French bank (Bred BP) makes no charge.  Having said that, they do charge 2€ to send me a letter confirming receipt.

So far it has never taken longer than 2 days to make the transfer.

Regards,

Phil.

[Andyphilpott]

Other threads expand on this, but I use Moneybookers.com for small amounts - up to £5k and their charge is less than £3 with Credit Ag making no charges at all. Exchange rates are pretty good too. You upload to them in sterling and they remit in Euros. Can only be used to send money between your own UK bank and your own French bank.

For large amounts I would use a currency broker like Currencies Direct. No fee for transactions over a certain level although CA will charge for receiving

Andy

[Jo]

I have a UK current account with the HSBC and I also have a Euro account based in the UK with them, I can transfer money from my UK to the Euro account for free, and the exchange rate is quite good. I have a cheque book with the euro account which I then use to pay the bills in France. I have also used the cheques to pay for goods with no problem.

[LBV CharenteNW]

Jo,

I had a good look around  and found Interchange on the web, I now transfer anything from £500-3,000 for a flat fee of £10. The company is only small but the staff are really good.

However having read the replies, I am going to look into opening an Euro account.

[Jamesdee]

Thanks for the feedback I will look into all the suggestions that have been made.

Completely overwhelmed by the response. Many thanks to you all.[:D]