NickB

What are other posters using for (small) bank transfers to Eurozone countries?

We occasionally need to make bank transfers to French and Irish bank accounts for smallish sums (around 500 to 2000 Euros).

I used to use my bank (Natwest) but have now moved to using Thomas Exchange Global (which I also normally use for cash currency), which has somewhat better rates. Have you experience of others? Others which are within my radar Would xe.com or moneybookers but I don't know much about them.

Gaz

I use XETrade - the rates are good, the system's efficient, and with the new instant BACS transfers, it's fast too.

Only problem is it was quite a hassle to sign up for as I remember - lots of forms, phone calls from the US to verify identity, etc.

Traveloguy

I'm going to second XEtrade. Great rates and fantastic customer service over the past few years.

barnetda

I use AXIA FX.

Great service and excellent rates.

I have a vested interest as my son works there !!

www.axiafx.com

TLardner

And I'll third them....! Never had any problems with them...

gum

Just think about the European Payment area. Ask your bank about the costs for a bank transfer with a sum of lower than 12,500 Euros and using a standard form. Important is to state the COMPLETE International bank account Nr. (IBAN) and Bank identifier Code (BIC). @:-)

I think this should also be able to/from France. I think but couldn't guarantee that this is also valid between France an uK or from UK to France. Just ask them.

For me this has worked between Germany and Austria. Hope this helps. fees are the same as for a domestic payments.

Land-of-Miles

The payment type is SEPA (Single European Payment Area) which guarantees turnaround time and fees (if not exchange rates) at similar levels to domestic payments. It is like a big BACS system covering the whole of the EU and EEA. IBAN and BIC are critical though without them the payment will not qualify as a SEPA payment.

As I understand things SEPA only becomes mandatory once the Payment Services Directive (PSD) comes into force in November this year (and later in some circumstances). Many banks are however processing SEPA payments now.

NickB

That is what I have done in the past, but that still works out more expensive due to the exchange rates the bank charges.

In addition to that, Natwest have downgraded my account from private banking to ordinary, which means that I have to go into a branch to make the transfers rather than doing it over the phone. I don't know how often you go into bank branches in the UK but that is an experience which is reminiscent of wartime rationing/queuing (well, that is how I would imagine it to be as I was not born then ). In addition, I am fuming that they downgraded my account and I certainly want to minimise my business with them.

Just a clarification about XE: they are Canada-based. From what they say on their website, I can use the BACS system and therefore pay nothing to transfer funds to them. To send to the Eurozone, however, it seems that electronic funds transfer are not possible, which means a €15 wire fee. In addition, since this is not a SEPA transfer, the receiving bank will typically charge higher fees. Our bank in Ireland charges nil for SEPA transfers but they charge €6.35 for incoming international payments, which means I would start off with €21.35 in fees (not sure what it would be to France, but presumably higher as, IME, French banks tend to charge extortionate fees on international operations). Now, that can be compensated by better exchange rates (how much compared to mid-market rates do they typically operate at?) but the smaller the sum, the less compensation there will be.
Am I missing something here?

Axia looks potentially promising. They are London-based, so presumably can do SEPA transfers, generating no fees (or very small fees) at the receiving end. They say on their website that they do not charge anything for transfers, so presumably do EFT at no cost?

Thanks for the suggestions. Keep them coming!

bounty

I use a basic account from the Cooperative Bank for this purpose. They charge £8 per transfer and the money is generally in the Irish account within two days, sometimes the next day. I can make the transfers over the phone, and no setup (other than BIC and IBAN information) was required.

Another plus to all this is that the basic account from the Coop comes with a much sought after Electron card - this allows fee free booking on airline websites.

HarryBA

I can never understand this I have done it many times from my Irish account with AIB to my UK account with RBS and HSBC

AIB charge me ZERO if I do a IBAN transfer online and 75cent if I go into any branch and it takes 1-2 days but If I send it to RBS they charge my UK account a commision and then giive me the rate of the day, but HSBC its just the rate of exchange on the day so no complaints.

When I tried to do this from the UK to Ireland it was nearly £20 per transfer and it was going to take about a week, needless to say I declinded and just brought the cash on the plane with me when I went back to Ireland

Have you though of asking AIB in london about transfers to Ireland. I now that Bank of Ireland (UK) could access Irish accounts and it was possible to withdrawl cash in the branch without the costs that a ATM would charge.

NickB

sounds like they might be treating it as a standard international transfer rather than an intra-EU euro transfer.
Natwest charges £10 for an intra-EU transfer in Euros but £20 for an international transfer.
For it to be treated as an intra-EU eurozone transfer, it has to be in Euros. If you tell your UK bank to transfer £1000 to your Irish account, they will treat it as a standard international transfer whereas that if you ask them to transfer €1100 euros, it will attract the lower fee (assuming that you give IBAN and BIC details).
Timewise, it is pretty quick with Natwest (same as coop for bounty: 1 or 2 days to an AIB account) but the exchange rates they use are not that great, which increases the cost.
Never thought about going to AIB locally in London. Not a bad idea. I'll give it a try next time.

arpiuk

if you're transferring it to yourselves (ie: have a second mortgage in both countries), then it's worth opening a Citibank account in all 3 countries (UK, France and Ireland). This is what I did, but different countries (Spain, Hungary , UK and US). Once you do that, you log onto online banking and transfer it. The funds are transferred instantly and FREE of charge.

After that you can just transfer it to other recipients in the relevant country, usually for 1 Euro or 1 USD fee. But, Citi to Citi transfers are free and instant.

Traveloguy

XEtrade works by making a normal local transaction. For example if transferring money from the UK to France, you would do the following:

1. Login to the XEtrade website to set up the transfer
2. Transfer the money to XEtrade to their local UK account with a standard BACS transfer
3. 3-5 days later, the funds will appear in your destination account in France.

There are no wire fees or anything like that as all the transactions are done domestically with the international bit done internally within XEtrade.

I hope this helps.

frankvb

Not free as you've advised, but what I occasionally do is 'send' myself a cheque (from my UK account in GBP), and then send it to my bank in the Netherlands, who only charge 12 euros for processing it (and use the mid-exchange rate without any markup). Of course it depends on what the receiving bank charges. Then if I need to pay anyone inside the Eurozone the bank transfers are free (for transfers under €50K ).

arpiuk

transferring from Citibank online UK to other Citibank in Spain, France, Belgium and some other 30 countries is definitely free. But you do have the hassle of opening Citi accounts in the countries that you want to send to, as well as UK. Pretty straightforward though.