I need to pay a Dutch company €1395 for a forthcoming holiday.....my bank, Santander, inform me that the transfer, whether done online, in branch, or over the phone, will cost me £25.
That seems exorbitantly expensive... can anyone with more brain cells that I tell me if there is a cheaper way of paying this holiday company please?
Apart from changing my bank to another
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On this page:
www.santander.co.uk/uk/web/santanderuk/international-payments
They say you can get them to draw up a bank draft you send to the recipient. That's a tenner instead of £25, if that's any use.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Wed 24 May 17 at 15:59
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My Tesco credit card works out really expensive, or it did the last time I used ot for foreign payments. Crappy exchange rate + commission.
Get a Revolut card revolut.com/ , it makes paying in foreign currencies (well, $ and €) so much easier - also using ATMs abroad - and you get top exchange rates and no commission. Manage it on your phone. I used it to withdraw cash from ATMs also to pay restaurant bills in Egypt and there is no charge whatsoever.
Only drawback is that as it's a prepay card some places in the States weren't keen on it. Also where they put a hold on an amount of money but don't actually take it out, (e.g. hotel deposit I think, or was it car hire?) the money has to be on your card, and is then locked till it is unheld.
Last edited by: smokie on Wed 24 May 17 at 16:12
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Barclays
Barclays charges Beneficiary bank charges
Payment
type Channel Barclays Cover bank 2 Overseas delivery 2
SEPA 2 Branch / Telephone £15 N/A N/A
SEPA 2 Online £5 N/A N/A
On line Account is the cheapest- there is something in the back of my mind that says that the Android App transfer charge is actually free - but I cannot find it documented!
The Barclays exchange rate will probably sting you though.
Probably the best deal for (charges + FX rate) will be with one of the specialist FX transfer companies.
eg
www.ofx.com/en-gb/t/hp-c/
www.torfx.com/index2.php?utm_expid=1533145-66._r9bmkL-RDeMaxq0Qy47YQ.1
www.telegraph.co.uk/financial-services/currency-exchange/
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Did same thing with same bank on Monday. Cost of Mrs B attending an education research summer school in Czech Republic next month.
Paid a £25 fee but had impression that there was a cheaper, less speedy, option.
As her ladyship had left it until last minute to address issue less speed wasn't an option.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Wed 24 May 17 at 16:45
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Are you sure that you are paying a legitimate co by transfer? With all the press on frauds recently it is good to double or triple check.
Credit (not debit) cards may provide extra security via Section 75 of the CCA.
No idea what the cheapest method to make a payment is but eldest used a pre-paid Post Office card whilst travelling to NZ and Aus and it was accepted everywhere and I could top it up from here (ouch).
Last edited by: zippy on Wed 24 May 17 at 16:58
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Probably too late now but a credit card without a currency transaction fee will get you a commercial currency rate as long as you pay in currency.*
The Halifax Clarity card is one such. I think my other cards all charge a 2.5% currency transaction charge which would be more than the £25 on over £1000 of payment.
*Shops and hotels, when presented with a card in a different currency to the one they are charging in, will sometimes say "do you want to pay in [your own currency e.g. GBP]?" The answer to this should always be no. They use an intermediary who pays them the currency, builds in a conversion charge, and pays the shop/hotel a commission.
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Thanks for your replies.... it is a legit company I am travelling with, but they charge 3.5% commission if paid by credit card.
My old Mum banks with Barclays, but unsurprisingly doesn't bank online. Purely as an exercise, I'll look at the above options out of curiosity.
I'm reluctant to change from Santander, seeing as I get fee free cash withdrawals, with a decent exchange rate, when I use their ATMs in Spain. Where I spend increasing amounts of time.
But that £25 fee is a rip off.....
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Use transferwise. If you use this link it should save you the price of a beer if you're transferring more than £200 and give me a beer too if I can find anybody else who will do it.
transferwise.com/u/jamesm738
I've used them several times. They are brilliant. Give you an excellent rate as well as low charges. Pay by debit card tonight and the cash will have arrived by tomorrow morning.
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It's no good for you now as you don't want to change banks, but I keep banging on about Metro Bank to anyone who'll listen ( and anyone who won't). Open an account in a branch any day of the week except Christmas Day and walk out with a debit card in 25 minutes.
For Euro transactions there is no charge and they use the 'real' rate of exchange (it varies by the minute).
I am a happy and contented customer of many years standing.
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> I am a happy and contented customer of many years standing.
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I had a look at them, i remember them being on the tv when they arrived here, somewhere from across the pond? The decent fx rate appeals, however looking at their website they seem to only have branches regionally rather than nationally.
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>> Use transferwise. If you use this link it should save you the price of a
>> beer if you're transferring more than £200 and give me a beer too if I
>> can find anybody else who will do it.
>>
Yep, I can second that - good rate and much cheaper than my bank
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Did you check out the Revolut link? I know it's a bit modern for many here, internet only and all that :-) but it knocks spots off standard bank rates.
E.g. today, right now Natwest says 1 GBP = 1.24 USD
Santander says 1GBP is 1.2454
XE.com says 1 GBP = 1.29312 USD
Revolut would give you 1.2933 dollars for your £
You top up your card and exchange your money into whatever currency you want in real time on your phone. I once shopped in France and at the check out my card was rejected so I topped it up there and then and re-tried and it worked.
Revolut has no other charges. Not sure about the banks. With Revolut you get a chip and pin card on which you can disable functions when you aren't using it (e.g. completely, or disable ATM, or Internet use etc). There is a monthly ATM (or cash, I can't remember) limit of £500, and you can't do some other things which you could with a normal bank account. But as a travel card it is amazing.
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>> But that £25 fee is a rip off.....
Don't pay it then. Already given you a link to Santander's own info showing you can do what you want for £10.
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HSBC: £4 online, £9 in branch.
I had a small problem a few years ago when I sent some money to Switzerland for a holiday. The Swiss receiving bank charged their client a fee to accept the transfer - which I ended up having to pay.
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It's not just the fee - £5 or £25. It's the exchange rate where the banks really stiff you. I was sending more cash than you, Legacy, and spent some time researching the cheapest deal. I'm a cheapskate like that...
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Thanks Crankcase
Unfortunately the company do not accept cheques, so I've used my old Mums Barclays account @£15 in branch with her....rotten exchange rate but after driving her to the bank and she getting confused with her own accounts and other stuff I took the easiest course of action
I'm going to register with 'transferwise' who after a quick look, gave a better rate of exchange.
When I'm in Spain next Feb I'll make several commission free cash withdrawals from a Santander ATM to pay for the May accommodation.
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isn't transferwise for businesses?
Revolut is your friend. But I guess you've looked at it and discarded fro some reason. :-)
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>> Revolut is your friend. But I guess you've looked at it and discarded fro some
>> reason. :-)
>>
Thanks for this heads up.
I had a look and it certainly seems very tempting.
A few things put me off for the time being:
1. verification of ID
2. verification of debit card used for top-up
3. owners of the business, Nikolay and Vlad, appear to be new to this fintech game.
4. comments by users in their community blog highlight problems/bugs of a new fintech startup venture.
Problems such as uk.businessinsider.com/fintech-revolut-issuing-new-cards-delay-europe-international-waiting-list-paysafe-2016-11 may now have been ironed out, but I'll wait another few months before I pluck up the courage to try this revolut-ionary currency app.
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LOL OK well I'm, in my 2nd year of use (or maybe 3rd). Had some issues but mostly "user error"
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I was about to register for the Travelex Supercard but they have now pulled the plug on it.
"Regrettably, as of 00:01 GMT on Monday 24th July 2017, Supercard will be closed."
"25 MAY 2017
Travelex announced yesterday that it is closing Supercard, its 0% foreign exchange fee payment card. Your card will cease to work on 24th July.
Supercard was an innovative payment product which has, I think, been ruined by poor implementation – primarily the high failure rate of transactions when you tried to use the card.
In theory, it was great. You link any other Visa or MasterCard to your Supercard.
When abroad, you swipe your Supercard and Travelex automatically converts your purchase into £ without any FX fees. It then recharges the transaction to your underlying Visa or MasterCard in £.
This meant that you could earn rewards on your underlying Visa or MasterCard without paying the 3% foreign exchange fees which are attached to almost all loyalty Visa and MasterCard products.
No more."
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>> I was about to register for the Travelex Supercard but they have now pulled the
>> plug on it.
>>
That's a shame - I was part of the original trial and was travelling in Europe on business quite often so saved quite a bit.
Never had any issues using it, and liked the app that showed all your transactions just after you had made them
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Thanks smokie.... I heard more good stuff about Revolut whilst chatting with friends over the weekend, so I've now downloaded the app and applied for a card (£5 fee).
I needed to pay the Dutch holiday company pdq as they couldn't reserve my place on the gulet without payment, but future payments to overseas ( accommodation owners etc) will be used via my card... and I assume I can top it up with euros whenever I consider the rate to be 'favourable' !
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Or dollars. You just switch ££s onto the card using the app and they are instantly available there to swap to either currency whenever you want.
The only thing I can remember was a problem was the first time I used it in an ATM abroad. It needed to be a "mainstream" bank, one which took Mastercard IIRC. So to make sure it activates correctly and it's working put some ££s on it then go to a bank here and withdraw them, before you go...
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Thanks for the advice...I've deposited some Sterling onto the 'card', so when I receive it I'll do just that.
I use my Santander debit card when in Spain... fee free & a decent exchange rate, or at least better than the foreign exchange bureaus
Should I venture to the USA then I'll convert £ capital on my card into $ to get fee free ATM withdrawals
Last edited by: legacylad on Tue 6 Jun 17 at 16:48
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Bank charge ( overseas transfer) - Runfer D'Hills
