# Bankers draft



## Ann Jay Cee (Dec 10, 2014)

Can anyone tell me how much a bank charges for a bankers draft please? I haven't got a bank account in Spain yet and would like to know which bank will charge me the least. Thanks.


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## stevesainty (Jan 7, 2011)

Ann Jay Cee said:


> Can anyone tell me how much a bank charges for a bankers draft please? I haven't got a bank account in Spain yet and would like to know which bank will charge me the least. Thanks.


They will charge you around 4% of the amount of the draft; outrageous I know.

This was from two different banks, so I don't suppose it would be much different elsewhere.


We tried to get one to buy our place in Spain. In the end we got a bankers draft from our UK bank and had it sent to us by special delivery. £20 charge for the draft and £7.50 for the special delivery.


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## Ann Jay Cee (Dec 10, 2014)

Thanks for your reply stevesainty. I thought it was going to be expensive. 

Did you get your UK bank to make out the draft in euros and if so what was the exchange rate like compared to using a foreign exchange company?


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## 90199 (Mar 21, 2010)

Ann Jay Cee said:


> Thanks for your reply stevesainty. I thought it was going to be expensive.
> 
> Did you get your UK bank to make out the draft in euros and if so what was the exchange rate like compared to using a foreign exchange company?


Use a currency exchange to transfer money, no commission over 3000 GBP and you get a far better rate of exchange. I use a firm in London called Smart Currency Exchange, there are many similar, and they will save you lots of dosh, Banks will cost you lots of dosh.

Transfers take less than three days.


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

Hepa said:


> Use a currency exchange to transfer money, no commission over 3000 GBP and you get a far better rate of exchange. I use a firm in London called Smart Currency Exchange, there are many similar, and they will save you lots of dosh, Banks will cost you lots of dosh.
> 
> Transfers take less than three days.


Yes, but how do they then pay for the house?

Transfer funds but then timing is an issue (before notary but no checks or after all is OK but then there's a delay)?

Personal cheque - if you can get hold of one.

Cash - mmmmm, not the best idea.


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## Isobella (Oct 16, 2014)

Good points. As a seller I would only accept a bankers draft. Have heard some scary stories.

4% is extortionate.


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## 90199 (Mar 21, 2010)

snikpoh said:


> Yes, but how do they then pay for the house?
> 
> Transfer funds but then timing is an issue (before notary but no checks or after all is OK but then there's a delay)?
> 
> ...


We paid using our Spanish bank cheque, on both occasions, after the Notary.


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## Relyat (Sep 29, 2013)

Talk to the Bank.

Ours reduced the rate quite considerably if we took out house insurance with them. The policy was more expensive, but the overall package was cheaper than buying them seperately.


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## stevesainty (Jan 7, 2011)

Ann Jay Cee said:


> Thanks for your reply stevesainty. I thought it was going to be expensive.
> 
> Did you get your UK bank to make out the draft in euros and if so what was the exchange rate like compared to using a foreign exchange company?


We had two drafts made, one from our sterling account in sterling, our seller lived in UK and we had a written agreed exchange rate, and one from our Euro account for all the bits and pieces that needed to be paid in Euros.


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## larryzx (Jul 2, 2014)

Isobella said:


> Good points. As a seller I would only accept a bankers draft. Have heard some scary stories.
> 
> 4% is extortionate.


I have had bankers drafts lost by the bank on two occasions. Each time because a bankers draft cannot be cancelled I had to wait until their validity expired, 6 month on each, before I could get replacements and get my money. On both occasions I had handed the drafts into the Abbey National Office in Gib. I made the trip and did it by hand for security !

With another Bankers Draft, (for £25,000) drawn on a major UK bank, think it was HSBC, it bounced. I know that can never happen but it did to me. Neither my bank nor one else I knew had ever heard of that happening. I made a lot of enquiries but failed to discover what had happened. I did not report it to the police as it was replaced quite quickly.

Inter-bank transfer might be a better way, as if 'lost' they should be able to put it right and not need to wait 6 months.


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## Megsmum (Sep 9, 2012)

We HAD to use a bankers draft , plus cash.. We had no choice. (I would like to add here that the draft + the cash were both declared on the forms and we paid tax on the full amount, its just the way it is done here.)

The cost was originally 1% and then negotiated down to 0.5%. 4% seems very extreme


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## stevesainty (Jan 7, 2011)

The fee for a banker's draft should be a flat fee not a percentage of the amount of the cheque.

A draft after all is, normally, a cheque that represents cleared funds and once deposited should be available straight away.

To this end the bank will not issue one unless they have earmarked the funds in your account.

The only cost to the bank is to print and sign the cheque, surely more than covered by a flat fee of say 25€.

It is sheer piracy on the bank's part to claim even one percent (1,000€ on a 100k€ cheque) for what is a couple of clicks on a keyboard.


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## larryzx (Jul 2, 2014)

stevesainty said:


> The fee for a banker's draft should be a flat fee not a percentage of the amount of the cheque.
> 
> .


We are in Spain. It is normal. 

As too is charging up to 0.5% on the total amount to transfer money to another bank.

Sol Bank charged me £800 to transfer £160,000 from a Sterling saving account to any other bank anywhere. The charge would still have been 0.5% on a euro transfer too.


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## Megsmum (Sep 9, 2012)

stevesainty said:


> The fee for a banker's draft should be a flat fee not a percentage of the amount of the cheque.
> 
> A draft after all is, normally, a cheque that represents cleared funds and once deposited should be available straight away.
> 
> ...



%age it is though, and can be negotiated


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## The Skipper (Nov 26, 2014)

Barclays Spain charged us 0.5% for a banker´s draft in 2008. We were outraged and complained and the manager credited back half of the charge as a gesture of goodwill because, she said, we were good customers! She said, however, that 0.5% was the Bank of Spain approved rate for a banker´s draft. Our friends were buying their house in Spain at around the same time as us and they were charged a flat rate fee of €4 by Bancaja, on a much larger amount than us. Also, their charges for running their bank account were lower than ours, so we closed our Barclays Spain account and opened an account with Bancaja. But, of course, Barclays Spain and Bancaja no longer exist so this story is rather academic although it does perhaps highlight how things have changed over the last seven years.


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## fevmor (Jan 10, 2014)

We transferred money into a moneycorp account we had opened, got an exchange rate much better than the bank then opened a Spanish account and paid about10 euros for a bankers draft to take to the notary. 
We flew in on a Tuesday, met our lawyer at the police station got an Nie number,then opened a bank account, transferred the money in over the internet for about 8 euros then bought the house on the Thursday evening and flew back to the UK Friday morning.
This seemed much better than dealing with my UK bank whose rates were extortionate. They charged me 20 euros to transfer 100 when we went on a property hunt/holiday and rented a cabana on a Spanish rentalia site !


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## Expatliving (Oct 21, 2013)

Hepa is right for speed on transaction. UK banks stripe you up big time, why on earth do you want to pay massive commission for very little work? The reason ... is utter fear.

Meanwhile back in 2015, transferring money using accredited brokers has highlighted what a thieving bunch the UK banking institutions are ... I thought we all worked that one out by the end of 2009? 

I would go nowhere near those UK High St banks.


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## The Skipper (Nov 26, 2014)

Apologies for reactivating an old thread but I thought some of you may be interested in my latest experience of making arrangements for a banker's draft. I asked my bank to arrange a BD for the purchase of an apartment on the coast. They quoted €50 which I thought was reasonable. However, when I asked if I could collect the BD a day before going to the Notary's office (70km away in Alicante city centre) they said that was not possible. BDs could only by issued on the day of the transaction, they said. As my Notary appointment is 9.30 and the bank doesn't open until 8.15, we agreed this would be a problem. So my bank said they would make arrangements for me to collect the BD from another branch close to the Notary's office. However, there was a catch: the charge for the BD would now be over €700 - 0.4% of the cheque value! But there was a solution, they said. They could still charge just €50 if I took out home insurance on the new apartment through the bank. Sorry, I said, already arranged. Perhaps then I would like private health insurance? Sorry, no, already have that. After about 40 minutes of discussion I left the bank with an agreement that I could collect the BD from the Alicante branch of the bank on the day of the transaction for just €50 ... without the need to buy any insurance! Surely such sharp business tactics should be made illegal?


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## xicoalc (Apr 20, 2010)

The Skipper said:


> Apologies for reactivating an old thread but I thought some of you may be interested in my latest experience of making arrangements for a banker's draft. I asked my bank to arrange a BD for the purchase of an apartment on the coast. They quoted €50 which I thought was reasonable. However, when I asked if I could collect the BD a day before going to the Notary's office (70km away in Alicante city centre) they said that was not possible. BDs could only by issued on the day of the transaction, they said. As my Notary appointment is 9.30 and the bank doesn't open until 8.15, we agreed this would be a problem. So my bank said they would make arrangements for me to collect the BD from another branch close to the Notary's office. However, there was a catch: the charge for the BD would now be over €700 - 0.4% of the cheque value! But there was a solution, they said. They could still charge just €50 if I took out home insurance on the new apartment through the bank. Sorry, I said, already arranged. Perhaps then I would like private health insurance? Sorry, no, already have that. After about 40 minutes of discussion I left the bank with an agreement that I could collect the BD from the Alicante branch of the bank on the day of the transaction for just €50 ... without the need to buy any insurance! Surely such sharp business tactics should be made illegal?


Indeed. When i bought my house we had something similar. It had to be a BD obviously as part was a mortgage and I sat with my manager the morning of the notary and thr cashier girl asked the manager what to charge. This clearly has discretion. My manager said the minimum. I cant remember how much but it was perhaps 15 or 20 euros. She explained that there is a fee always but its scalable. All a bit odd. But they are a business. Just insist on minimum rate or you'll do a transfer instead to your account with another bank and then move your business


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