# €50 bank transfer fee for some pocket-money :(



## RonJeremy (Sep 17, 2009)

Hello all, one or two months from now I'll return to Cyprus for another 6 months of warm cyprus living!

But one little issue I have is how I will take my rent&pocket-money with me, the last time I transfered a little sum of 1000 euros my banks charged me 50 euros!!!! (20 for sending, 30 for recieving) that's insane!!

*Transfering from*: EU bank with €-currency. (sending-fee: 20€, which is quite normal for SENDING money).
*Transfering to:* My Hellanic bank in Cyprus in €-currency. (receiving-fee: 30€, which is very odd for just RECEIVING money).

The strangest thing is that if I send Swedish Krones from my Swedish account they don't charge any receiving fee whatsoever (altho they probably make a fortune on the added-rate when they convert it to euro), but anyway that's irrelevant since it's not my abandonded swedish account I wish to send from but from my EU savings account.
*
Has anyone come up with any more clever ways of sending money?*

The problem is:
a) 50 euro per transfer is very expensive.
b) I don't always know exactly how much I will spend during my half-year in Cyprus (or even exactly how many months I'll be there), so it would be better for me to send smaller amounts like 4 times during these 7 months, but that would come to a fee of 200 euroes (4x50)! ridicolous!

Unforunately my EU savings-bank can only wire money to other banks, not withdraw from cashmachines, in other words I can't simply withdraw 3000€ in some other country and then put it all in my jacket on my flight. (and even then it would be annoying as again I don't know exactly how much I'll need)


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## steveg63 (Sep 5, 2010)

currency solutions, transfer to them via BACS cost £0, Currency solutions charge 10e to transfer into your account.


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## dave&carrie (Oct 20, 2010)

I use a pre-paid Euro currency card and load it whenever there is a good exchange rate (always better than bank). It can then be used at all cash-points and anywhere that accepts MasterCard.


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## zin (Oct 28, 2010)

When transferring do you have different options about who takes the cost of the transfer? I think if you take the whole cost as the sender it comes out to less.


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## RonJeremy (Sep 17, 2009)

@SteveG: BACS only works from British banks, I assume you're talking about exchanging pounds from your UK bank to have in Euros for Cyprus, but in my case I already have them in Euro's, 
but currency solutions might have a service for sending € to them with euro-transfer (which always costs 20€ to send), so if their recievers fee is 10 euros then atleast I would save 20 euros (assuming that my bank wouldn't charge me again for then recieving those money from Currency Solutions).
Not easy to tell since their website only says "contact us for qoutes blabla".

Zin: No unfortunately not (I wasn't even aware such option existed, perhaps that explains why my sweidsh transfer was free to recieve, tho super expensive to send), my bank just says that the fee for sending to EU countries is 20 euros and that the bank you're sending to may charge an additional fee.


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## siobhanwf (Mar 20, 2009)

See if the bank you have in Cyprus have a branch in London.
You can generally transfer from a UK bank to an overseas band with a branch in the UK (generally you use the BANK CODE and you overseas account number) there is no change for with transfers and you get the official bank rate of the day


For example http://www.bankofcyprus.co.uk/


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## RonJeremy (Sep 17, 2009)

soib: I'm not sending £ from UK, I'm sending € from a euro-currency country.


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## berni109 (May 28, 2010)

How can they justify such exorbitant charges for what is an electronic transfer in the same currency.
find another bank!
might be cheaper to convert to uk£ then back to euro.
have a look at currencyfair.com who i have used without the slightest problem.
half a percent off interbank rate and a 3 euro transfer fee plus 3 euro charged by my cyprus bank.

bern


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## RonJeremy (Sep 17, 2009)

I've finally figured out what the charge is for, Hellanic charges 20 euros for receiving each of my transfers (sorry I mistakingly wrote 30 before, but it's 20 actually) because the bank I'm sending from isn't in a SEPA-country (a EU concent for banking).

so the fees for receiving are:
€10 for transfer in EUR up to €1.000
€20 for transfers above €1.000 up to €50.000

Berni: Thanks, I do actually have a bit of money left in my old UK account (not enough for my full cyprus visit but a good enough start) so with a 0.5% off interbank rate that might actually be a good option to begin with!
The website looks like it might be really confusing (the whole part about bidding, I don't like complicating things) but if you say you had no problem with it that's interesting.


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## RonJeremy (Sep 17, 2009)

@Berni: Bah, I tried that currencyfair.com finally, but after a insanely intrusive long registraiton process at the end of it after you've posted every detail about yourself and hit register then they tell you for the first time of the things you need to do to next, like sending them several utility bills with your name and address etc, many of which are impossible for me to provide, I can't believe not one review of the site mentioned this.


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## berni109 (May 28, 2010)

Hi again,
forgot to mention that you need to register and since its in uk/eu they have to comply with money laundering regs which require you to identify yourself.
send them an email to ask how! they are very helpful or where with me.
bern

i dont have anything to do with this company just found them very useful for me.


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## Miss Daisy (Jan 24, 2011)

I think your situation has more to it than you are telling us. If you have a Euro bank account somewhere, why not just use an ATM to get the money? 

Why not withdraw the money from your bank before you leave to come to Cyprus and redeposit it here? You said you don't know how much you'll need, but you could estimate it and if you bring too much, then just withdraw it before you leave Cyprus and redeposit it when you get back home.

I use my HSBC ATM card all the time here in Cyprus. My account is such that they charge no fee and the exchange rate is the current market rate. I also have an account here in Cyprus with Hellenic Bank. When the exchange rate is favorable, I will exchange money using Moneycorp (I have no affiliation with them whatsoever) in London. They use HSBC as their receiving bank so the fees for me to transfer $ from HSBC USA to HSBC in London are minimal and then I do have to pay the Hellenic Bank fee, but I usually change $25,000 or more at a time (I live in Cyprus now 100% of the time) so Hellenic bank's fee is reasonable for such a large sum.

I think that for samll sums of money, wire transfers are not cost effective and your best bet is to use an ATM. If your current bank does not suit your needs in this area, then perhaps you might consider a different bank.


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## RonJeremy (Sep 17, 2009)

I think I will be able to get that currencyfair thing possible when I arrive to Cyprus when I have a fresh rental-agrement to show them, so hopefully things will work out  

Miss Daisy: There are many savings-banks (such as mine) where withdrawl is not possible, it only allows you to wire-transfer money from and to other banks, but I agree with what you're saying that wire-transfer is mostly used to larger sums but unfortunately very impractical for pocketmoney.


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## trev1947 (Aug 31, 2009)

*Money transfer*

Hi Ron

I have recently paid for a holiday direct to an owner in Cyprus. I have not had any charges levied against myself but I do not know what happened at the Cypriot end.
I used the Post Office International exchange. When I get there on Wednesday 12th October I will enquire from mine host if he was charged anything. If he wasn`t charged then I think I will be using this method in the future.
I made two payments using this method (Deposit & Final Payment), I repeat no charges this end.

Good Luck

Trev Jones


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## Miss Daisy (Jan 24, 2011)

RonJeremy said:


> Miss Daisy: There are many savings-banks (such as mine) where withdrawl is not possible, it only allows you to wire-transfer money from and to other banks, but I agree with what you're saying that wire-transfer is mostly used to larger sums but unfortunately very impractical for pocketmoney.


I have never heard of any bank where you are not allowed to withdraw your own money. That seems odd to me. How could you close your account then? 

In any case, I hope you find a solution.


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## trev1947 (Aug 31, 2009)

*Money Transfer*



trev1947 said:


> Hi Ron
> 
> I have recently paid for a holiday direct to an owner in Cyprus. I have not had any charges levied against myself but I do not know what happened at the Cypriot end.
> I used the Post Office International exchange. When I get there on Wednesday 12th October I will enquire from mine host if he was charged anything. If he wasn`t charged then I think I will be using this method in the future.
> ...


Hi Ron
I am now in location at Miliou Cyprus. I have minutes ago spoken to the recipient of my deposit and final payment and can assure you there was no charges or fees in the UK or here in Cyprus.
As I said previously the likely result is that I will be using tyis method in the future.

Regards
Trev Jones


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