# Transferring money



## Imy85

Hi I'm new to the forum and have been in Cairo for about 6 weeks now.

I need to access some money (not a huge amount) from my UK bank account and despite banking with Barclays and there being Barclays here, I can't access my money other than through a cash point which won't let me take more than 1000 LE. Rather than get stung with numerous bank charges, can anyone suggest any cheaper alternatives?

Someone did suggest Western Union. A quick quote on their website says that I'll get charged £50 but then caveat it by saying the Agent charges may be more. Does anyone have any experience with this.

Many thanks in advance guys,

Imran


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## Jamjoom

Wire transfer from UK if you have someone in UK who can transfer to you.


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## Imy85

I don't see how a wire transfer would help. The money is in my account and I can access it in bits without a problem through the ATM but I'd rather get it all in one go as I probably have a limit of 3000LE a day which would mean numerous transaction fees etc.


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## hurghadapat

Imy85 said:


> Hi I'm new to the forum and have been in Cairo for about 6 weeks now.
> 
> I need to access some money (not a huge amount) from my UK bank account and despite banking with Barclays and there being Barclays here, I can't access my money other than through a cash point which won't let me take more than 1000 LE. Rather than get stung with numerous bank charges, can anyone suggest any cheaper alternatives?
> 
> Someone did suggest Western Union. A quick quote on their website says that I'll get charged £50 but then caveat it by saying the Agent charges may be more. Does anyone have any experience with this.
> 
> Many thanks in advance guys,
> 
> Imran


I would phone Barclays UK and explain what you want to do....tell them you are phoning from Egypt and ask them to call you back...you will also need the address of the bank you want the money transfered to.
But here is Barclays info on how you can do it.
Always a good idea to have an egyptian bank account as a back up.


International payments and transfers – How do I send money abroad?
– Barclays International Payments Service

This service provides a flexible means of sending funds overseas and has been designed to meet your needs in terms of cost and speed. Payments are sent using an electronic bank-to-bank transfer, which is suitable for both urgent and less time-critical payments. Find out more

Payments from sterling or currency accounts or against forward contracts
Payments made in any freely traded currency to virtually any destination
No maximum value
Flexible, reliable, secure and competitive
Make payments online, over the phone or in branch
Choose between standard and priority service

Standard service

For non-urgent payments – Payments are dispatched on the working day following receipt of your instruction (at the very latest)
Number of working days for funds to arrive (indication only): 3-4 for sterling or local currency to EU/EEA (not available for euros, see SEPA Credit Transfer below); 4-5 for the rest of Europe; 4-5 for North America; up to 8 for the rest of the world*
Not available for euro payments to the EU/EEA – see SEPA Credit Transfer below

Priority service

For urgent payments – Payments are dispatched same-day following receipt of your instruction by the 2pm cut-off time
Payments dispatched with earliest possible Value Date
Number of working days for funds to arrive (indication only): usually same day or next working day for euros, sterling or local currency to EU/EEA; 1-3 for the rest of Europe; 1-3 for North America; up to 7 for the rest of the world*

Ways to pay 

Online – available for Online Banking customers who use PINsentry
By phone – available for Telephone Banking customers with their Telephone Banking passcode if the destination account is in their own name and the payment is for £5,000 or less; call 08457 165 921*** (+44 01202 648 921 from outside the UK).
In branch – visit your local branch for full details.


– SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) Credit Transfer

This service is for non-urgent payments in euros only to any of the 27 European Union countries plus the 3 European Economic Area Countries (Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway), Monaco and Switzerland:

No maximum value
Euros only
Payments reach the beneficiary the working day after processing*
SWIFTBIC and IBAN are mandatory
The option to ‘pay only Barclays charges’ must be selected

Ways to pay

Online – available for Online Banking customers who use PINsentry
By phone – available for Telephone Banking customers with their Telephone Banking passcode if the destination account is in their own name and the payment is for £5,000 or less; call 08457 165 921*** (+44 01202 648 921 from outside the UK).
In branch – visit your local branch for full details.

– Other methods of international payment

If you wish to send funds yourself, you can use our paper-based international payment product, International Drafts. Once you've got this item from your branch, you send the payment by post to the beneficiary. International Drafts take longer than electronic payments but you don't need to know the beneficiary's account details.

Are you a Barclays Wealth customer?
As a Barclays Wealth client, you could make online payments to overseas beneficiaries through the international online service (up to £20,000 per payment). Find out more about international banking services from Barclays Wealth.
Table of charges

Barclays charges	Beneficiary bank charges
Payment 
type	Timing	Channel	Barclays	Missing SWIFTBIC/IBAN	Cover bank 1	Overseas delivery 1
SEPA 2
All All £15 N/A N/A N/A

International
Standard Branch / Telephone £25 N/A 

Yes


Yes
International Future-dated Branch / Telephone £25 

N/A


Yes


Yes

International (outside Europe)
Priority Branch / Telephone £25 N/A 

Yes


Yes
International (to Europe) Priority Branch / Telephone £40 

N/A


N/A


N/A
International All 3 Online £25 £7 

Yes


Yes


1. These only apply when you choose to 'pay all charges'. Cover bank and overseas delivery charges may be requested by foreign banks involved in the transfer. The charges are fees imposed by the foreign bank to process your payment. The amount of these charges can vary from country to country and even from bank to bank.

2. Euro payments to an account in the Single Euro Payment Area (the 27 EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway). SWIFT Bank Identifier Code (BIC) and the International Bank Account Number (IBAN) of the account you’re sending the money to must be provided.

3. All non-future dated payments made in Online Banking are treated as Priority at no extra charge

*Payment instructions received via Royal Mail are not subject to these dispatch timescales described. These timescales only affect payments received via Online Banking, Telephone Banking and our branch counters.

** Overseas delivery charges cover the costs and charges for delivering the payment in the destination country. They may be a flat fee or a percentage fee


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## Liralen

I use Audi banks ATM.. 4000 LE per transaction. I have noticed many of the other banks have lower per transaction limits, just to get those fees out of us.


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## hurghadapat

Imy85 said:


> Hi I'm new to the forum and have been in Cairo for about 6 weeks now.
> 
> I need to access some money (not a huge amount) from my UK bank account and despite banking with Barclays and there being Barclays here, I can't access my money other than through a cash point which won't let me take more than 1000 LE. Rather than get stung with numerous bank charges, can anyone suggest any cheaper alternatives?
> 
> Someone did suggest Western Union. A quick quote on their website says that I'll get charged £50 but then caveat it by saying the Agent charges may be more. Does anyone have any experience with this.
> 
> Many thanks in advance guys,
> 
> Imran


and after all that i forgot to say Hi and welcome to the forum.....and hope the info is of some use to you.


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## Imy85

Fantastic thanks for the help!

I'll try the Audi Bank ATM as there appears to be one near me, I'm hoping they accept my card. Failing that I'll try the bank that I've used for the last 15 years!


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## hurghadapat

Imy85 said:


> Fantastic thanks for the help!
> 
> I'll try the Audi Bank ATM as there appears to be one near me, I'm hoping they accept my card. Failing that I'll try the bank that I've used for the last 15 years!


Your bank will have set the limit you can withdraw per day so no matter which atm you use you will not be able to draw any more. My account is Barclays and my limit is £300.....take care if trying to draw money from various atm's in one day you could end up having your card blocked by the bank.


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## expatagogo

hurghadapat said:


> Your bank will have set the limit you can withdraw per day so no matter which atm you use you will not be able to draw any more. My account is Barclays and my limit is £300.....take care if trying to draw money from various atm's in one day you could end up having your card blocked by the bank.


My credit union (I stopped giving barnksters my money decades ago) has an online chat feature, which I used to let them know I would be in Egypt so they wouldn't block my account, and I've never had a problem.


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## Liralen

I have a similar arrangement with my bank, that has to be renewed once a year. I pop on skype, call my bank branch and speak with the account manager, and they update it 

As hurghadapat mentioned though, find out what your banks per/day limit is as well, and adjust accordingly. Mine has no problems with 4000 LE a day (which btw, if your card is on the visa network, is egypt visa network's per/day ATM limit). 

My banks per/day limit is actually much higher, as its a business account, but VISA wont let more than 4000 LE through in 24 hours. Annoying at best.. but I appreciate the security behind it.


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## hurghadapat

Liralen said:


> I have a similar arrangement with my bank, that has to be renewed once a year. I pop on skype, call my bank branch and speak with the account manager, and they update it
> 
> As hurghadapat mentioned though, find out what your banks per/day limit is as well, and adjust accordingly. Mine has no problems with 4000 LE a day (which btw, if your card is on the visa network, is egypt visa network's per/day ATM limit).
> 
> My banks per/day limit is actually much higher, as its a business account, but VISA wont let more than 4000 LE through in 24 hours. Annoying at best.. but I appreciate the security behind it.



These limits are set by banks for a reason....fraud...so not a good idea to set the limit to high.

I also let my bank know that i was living in Egypt but still on many occasions my card was blocked...maybe because i had used it quite a few times in one day for maybe higher than normal transactions...annoying,yes but all it took was a call to Barclays and 10mins later i could use my card again....would rather have that inconveniance than have some fraudster clear a large amount of cash from my account.


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## canuck2010

I think HSBC allows higher withdrawals through the ATM.


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## Imy85

My only reservation with ATMs now, having looked through some previous withdrawals I made, is the exchange rate. Whilst I can get 9.45 LE in a good bureau de change, Barclays was around 9.34 LE and but another bank only gave me a criminal 9.12 LE. It seems like nothing at first but it begins to make a difference when it's £1000. 

I can't believe it's so expensive to access your own money.


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## txlstewart

Imy85 said:


> My only reservation with ATMs now, having looked through some previous withdrawals I made, is the exchange rate. Whilst I can get 9.45 LE in a good bureau de change, Barclays was around 9.34 LE and but another bank only gave me a criminal 9.12 LE. It seems like nothing at first but it begins to make a difference when it's £1000.
> 
> I can't believe it's so expensive to access your own money.


Welcome to Egypt!

Sent from my iPhone using ExpatForum


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## Jamjoom

YOu can use it to pay for a purchase if someone wants to buy something for the amount. then they pay you cash. You pay with the cc/debit.
usually on purchases there is no limit except your credit limit.

I did the same thing with one of my friends who wanted to buy 2 laptops and 2 iphones and it worked fine. I paid by cc. he paid me cash.


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## Liralen

canuck2010 said:


> I think HSBC allows higher withdrawals through the ATM.


The HSBC here in Hurghada, I have seen go as high as 3000 LE.. but its hit and miss. Everytime I go there, its different.. sometimes as low as 1300 LE. 

I dont care for HSBCs exchange rate either. Audi tends to be quite a bit higher in my experiences.


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## Liralen

hurghadapat said:


> These limits are set by banks for a reason....fraud...so not a good idea to set the limit to high.
> 
> I also let my bank know that i was living in Egypt but still on many occasions my card was blocked...maybe because i had used it quite a few times in one day for maybe higher than normal transactions...annoying,yes but all it took was a call to Barclays and 10mins later i could use my card again....would rather have that inconveniance than have some fraudster clear a large amount of cash from my account.


I agree about the limits needing to not be too high. Just stating that being a business account, the default limit was higher than most.

Speaking of blocking, I did have a block pop up in the middle of my one year. When I called the bank, they told me it was because egypt had been flagged nationwide by US banks, due to a recent extreme increase in fraud from egypt. Once I confirmed that it was indeed me making the transactions (they got visa on the phone in conference with us), visa lifted the flag on my card.

Still all very annoying, but over time, you learn how to deal with these things when they crop up.


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## hurghadapat

Liralen said:


> I agree about the limits needing to not be too high. Just stating that being a business account, the default limit was higher than most.
> 
> Speaking of blocking, I did have a block pop up in the middle of my one year. When I called the bank, they told me it was because egypt had been flagged nationwide by US banks, due to a recent extreme increase in fraud from egypt. Once I confirmed that it was indeed me making the transactions (they got visa on the phone in conference with us), visa lifted the flag on my card.
> 
> Still all very annoying, but over time, you learn how to deal with these things when they crop up.


Lol....not only US banks....i had that problem all the time i lived there so it's not a recent problem.When i first went there the only sort of card machines they had was the manual ones so you always had to check statements carefully to make sure they hadn't altered the amount after you left the premises.


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## Liralen

Indeed... I dont use my US ATM card for direct charges at all, and only deal with ATMs from banks I know well.

I have a low limit egyptian visa credit card for direct charges and internet access to it to check it quickly, but even that is rarely used... mostly for emergencies.

I have noticed, that actual direct charges on my husbands egyptian ATM card (not ATM withdrawals) , take a loooong time to post. My theory.. the shops wait to turn them in and/or their own bank only processes them twice a week. Even then I have seen it take up to 3 weeks for a direct charge to show up on the egyptian bank account. They show up in bursts.. all showing the same date, not the actual date of the charge. Weirdness.


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## hurghadapat

Liralen said:


> Indeed... I dont use my US ATM card for direct charges at all, and only deal with ATMs from banks I know well.
> 
> I have a low limit egyptian visa credit card for direct charges and internet access to it to check it quickly, but even that is rarely used... mostly for emergencies.
> 
> I have noticed, that actual direct charges on my husbands egyptian ATM card (not ATM withdrawals) , take a loooong time to post. My theory.. the shops wait to turn them in and/or their own bank only processes them twice a week. Even then I have seen it take up to 3 weeks for a direct charge to show up on the egyptian bank account. They show up in bursts.. all showing the same date, not the actual date of the charge. Weirdness.


Well you should have learnt by now....nothing happens fast in egypt


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## haycj

good information, I'm about to open an account and need to direct debit, standing order monthly to uk


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## Julianne

Hi Imran,

Have a look at HSBC as they have a link between the UK and Egypt, you can bank on line to move money across and if you fit the criteria for their PREMIER account, you'll be able to move money through their global banking system free of charge and make withdrawals free of charge - have a look as HSBC.co.uk for more information - my experience has been setting up the UK side was very easy, the Egyptian side of it took a little longer but I can vouch that the two do talk with each other and it seems to work well - you can opt for a sterling and LE account in Cairo and link it to your UK sterling account very easily knowing you can still leave the bulk of funds in the UK but access them easily enough from Egypt - hope this helps 

QUOTE=Imy85;879157]Hi I'm new to the forum and have been in Cairo for about 6 weeks now.

I need to access some money (not a huge amount) from my UK bank account and despite banking with Barclays and there being Barclays here, I can't access my money other than through a cash point which won't let me take more than 1000 LE. Rather than get stung with numerous bank charges, can anyone suggest any cheaper alternatives?

Someone did suggest Western Union. A quick quote on their website says that I'll get charged £50 but then caveat it by saying the Agent charges may be more. Does anyone have any experience with this.

Many thanks in advance guys,

Imran [/QUOTE]


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## Whitedesert

Just wondering, why not just use the internet banking facility of Barclays? Thats what I do with my bank. I can control the daily limits myself. With my bank I can even raise it just temporary for 24 hours to get an amount transfered larger than my normal set daily limit, then it returns automatically to the previously set amount. I transfer using SWIFT.


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