# Receiving money from abroad - bank charges



## Annacabana (Nov 7, 2009)

Hello,

I am paid by my employer from a foreign bank account and whenever money is transferred to my Greek bank account (Eurobank) I am charged a receiving charge. 

Does anyone know if there are any banks here in Greece which do not charge for receiving payment from foreign banks?

Thank you,

Anna


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## MartinKearns (Nov 8, 2009)

Annacabana said:


> Hello,
> 
> I am paid by my employer from a foreign bank account and whenever money is transferred to my Greek bank account (Eurobank) I am charged a receiving charge.
> 
> ...




Hi Anna

You will be very lucky to find a bank anywhere in the world which does not charge for international money transfers.... I don't believe that such a bank exists, but good luck!


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## Annacabana (Nov 7, 2009)

MartinKearns said:


> Hi Anna
> 
> You will be very lucky to find a bank anywhere in the world which does not charge for international money transfers.... I don't believe that such a bank exists, but good luck!


Hi,

When I used to live in Cyprus and transfer money to my British bank account, I wasn't charged by my British bank for receiving the money. I just hoped that I'd be able to find one here so i didn't lose money each payday!


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## tpebop (Nov 2, 2009)

Hi Anna. Dont know if this is the answer for your problem. We have our British pensions paid into our Nationwide account. We then use ATMs to draw cash in euros. There are no fees involved.


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## Cairokid (Sep 15, 2009)

tpebop said:


> Hi Anna. Dont know if this is the answer for your problem. We have our British pensions paid into our Nationwide account. We then use ATMs to draw cash in euros. There are no fees involved.



Wow! that is good. we get charged a couple of euro every time we withdraw money from an ATM. Which bank's ATM do you use?

Anna, are you being paid in euro or another currency?


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## tpebop (Nov 2, 2009)

hi. We use any Greek Bank .Which ever is nearest when we want CASH


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## Cairokid (Sep 15, 2009)

tpebop said:


> hi. We use any Greek Bank .Which ever is nearest when we want CASH


How much do you get charged for withdrawals from an ATM? It will tell you on you bank satement. I thought this was an expensive way to operate but maybe I am wrong.


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## tpebop (Nov 2, 2009)

hi As I said earlier we DO NOT GET CHARGED for using ATMs


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## Cairokid (Sep 15, 2009)

tpebop said:


> hi As I said earlier we DO NOT GET CHARGED for using ATMs



That sounds great.I would like to investigate this for ourselves as we get charged on every transactions.

Which bank are you with? 

What sort of account is it? What account charges do you pay?

Do you have a euro account with them or a sterling one? If a sterling one what sort of exchange rate do you get?

Can you withdraw from an ATM at any bank without charges?

Is there a maximum daily amount you can withdraw?

Sorry for all the questions but we pay a lot in bank charges each year so any way of reducing them would be fantastic.

Many thanks.


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## tpebop (Nov 2, 2009)

Hi . As I said BEFORE we have a Nationwide account. Its a Flex account in Sterling.Which is how it shows on our internet banking statement. We of course with draw euros. There are no charges for operating the account or for making withdrawls if you live in an EU country.No Greek bank we have used has charged for using their ATM.We have a daily limit of £300 . The exchange rate is the one for the day you use an ATM


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## Cairokid (Sep 15, 2009)

tpebop said:


> Hi . As I said BEFORE we have a Nationwide account. Its a Flex account in Sterling.Which is how it shows on our internet banking statement. We of course with draw euros. There are no charges for operating the account or for making withdrawls if you live in an EU country.No Greek bank we have used has charged for using their ATM.We have a daily limit of £300 . The exchange rate is the one for the day you use an ATM



Thanks a lot. One more question - is it with a UK branch or an offshore one?

Most UK banks seem to require that you are a UK resident to open an account with them. Do you know if this is the case with Nationwide. I am not really familiar with them.


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## tpebop (Nov 2, 2009)

hi Nationwide is a building society , so not really a bank as such. We were UK residents @ the time of opening the a/c .
You can only open an a/c by visiting a branch , which will of course be in the UK


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## Cairokid (Sep 15, 2009)

tpebop said:


> hi Nationwide is a building society , so not really a bank as such. We were UK residents @ the time of opening the a/c .
> You can only open an a/c by visiting a branch , which will of course be in the UK


Well that may not be much use for expats. I suspect you will have to be UK resident. I doubt if you can just pop over to the UK to open an account at a branch!

However I did an Internet search this morning and Nationwide do have offshore accounts. The bank is called Nationwide International and I think you can set up a euro account with them as well as a sterling one.

Unfortunately I couldn't see anything about withdrawing money from ATMs but I will email them and find out and post here.

I would quite like to buy an apartment in the UK for when I retire so I am genuinely interested in having money in a UK building society anyway.


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## Cairokid (Sep 15, 2009)

Yes folks, their regulations state:

"If you want to open an account with Nationwide Building Society and live abroad, your main residence must be in the UK. "

and the International account has telephone banking but does not let you make withdrawals from an ATM.

Pity


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## IaninParga (Nov 24, 2009)

If you go to my thread about no charges, you find everything explained.


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## JimDavid1972 (Dec 3, 2009)

Hey guys...

in regards to getting no charges on recieving your funds... there are certain foreign exchange companies which can take all the recieving fees on their shoulders... i know 'currencies 4 you' can do this, as my uncle used to get bank charges each time he sent money overseas, but this company managed to get rid of this. Im sure there are other companies which will do this aswell..


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## wigwam (May 28, 2009)

Thinking laterally...if the Nationwide solution doesn't fit.

You could use a company like caxton fx who specialise in money transfers and work out a lot lot cheaper to wire money here. But the minimum is £5k each time and I don't know what your salary is and if thats worthwhile.

Also consider using Paypal. Set up an account using linking Greek bank account. Their exchange reates seem reasonable - no commission in changing the currency - and i download funds without it costing anything.


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## Jim Hennington (Dec 15, 2009)

Yes why not consider a currency broker?

You need to already have a bank account to receive the transfer, but currency exchange brokers normally give a better deal than banks. 

But please note - it's not just the fee they charge, but the margin they all take when setting the exchange rate (whether a bank or a broker). What they do is give you an exchange rate which is not quite as good as the rate THEY get. And hence they make some extra money from that.

Eg. Transfer 10,000 pounds to euros. The inter-bank rate might be 1.62 but you only get 1.58 (and a 15 pound charge). So they actually make 215 pounds.


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