Comments on: Rant about International Bank Charges

By: Ben

Ben — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 18:19:09 +0000

Update – it seems the system has changed in the last few months.

The last time I used my broker my funds arrived via a different intermediary and they didn’t charge me anything for it.

Also it seems that my broker has started giving me the the option to specify a receiving bank for my transfer in the case that I have a preference.

By: Robert

Robert — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:35:44 +0000

Make the payment in euro, even though your account in the UK is denominated in Sterling. You’ll generally attract far better exchange rates at the receiving end and lower fees.

Always make cross-border payments in euro within the EU, even though none of the countries involved are in the eurozone.

By: Guardian

Guardian — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:10:25 +0000

I never bother with all that nonsense. I use my UK online banking with RBS to transfer money from my main UK account to my UK debit card account then if I need money I just use the local ATM to draw a wedge of cash. I do this in Germany, Poland and Slovakia and although their is a charge, it’s fixed.

By: Gosia

Gosia — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:10:15 +0000

Hi Ben,

What about all those bank accounts for Poles living in the UK who send money home? I heard NatWest has some scheme with Polish PKO and you can send money directly to your Polish account quite cheaply . Might be worth checking.

Regards,
Gosia

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:47:37 +0000

What about xe.com — I find they have the best exchange rates, and if you are able to deposit a bank draft without fee then the cost would be rock bottom.

By: Michael

Michael — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:20:53 +0000

I’ve got it.

http://www.moneybookers.com should be your friend. As far as I can gather, it should be a pretty painless and very cheap way of transferring money – as far as I can see, current costs are about 10PLN plus 2% exchange costs – which is pretty reasonable if they’re offering a good exchange rate. At the moment from EUR (they’re not listing GBP for some reason) – they’re offering 4.48EUR to PLN – the xe.com rate is saying 4.51, so it’s a good deal.

As far as I can work out, on 1000GBP, you’ll get hit for around 35PLN using this method, which works out cheaper than the sending fee from the UK alone.

Hope this helps :)

By: Epitomo

Epitomo — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:13:24 +0000

Hi.
Without getting into much detail, for 2 banks to transfer directly your money, they have to be… hmm… “friends”. This means they need to have nostro/loro accounts opened for eachother. Your bank is obviously not a direct correspondent of mBank, therefore sends the money to some other bank, that IS the mBank’s correspondent. Of course they will charge you, because there’s some work involved (and their PR didn’t decide it’s good to be the first Mother Teresa of the industry). ;)
It works like this: You send money. The bank A says “he wants to send money to B. Oh, hell, I don’t have B’s account here in my books… But C has their account… I think. Ok, I’ll put it into C’s account here. Hey C! I put some money onto your account. Can you please take it and give it to B? Thanks. *ka-ching*” Bank C: “Ok, ok, got the money… Hmmm… B you say… Jeeeeeez, Central-Eastern Europe and in PLN. Ah, right, got it. Hey B! Got some money here for your client, you can take it from your account. *ka-ching*”. A: “Got it… Mr.Ben… here’s the account, there you go Mr.Client sir. *ka-ching*”
Check other banks for this information. Of course the biggest ones have a lot of contacts with other institutions, the smaller ones not necessarily.

Have fun in the System! ;)

By: Jack

Jack — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 04:55:42 +0000

I agree with EuroPete. I have similar issues when wiring USD from the States. When I send from a small bank I can see that the cash has flowed through a number of intermediaries (the bank can give you a print out of the flow). If I send from a large US bank to an international bank in Poland it is typically just 1 or 2 hops and the fees are smaller. For example if I send USD from Bank of America (largest bank in US) to Citibank Poland I am only charged 28zl on the receiving end, and there is only one intermediary used (I think Wachovia).

By: EuroPete

EuroPete — Wed, 27 May 2009 22:55:18 +0000

Hi Ben,
I would guess that mBank is not a direct “Transferer” of international money.
What I am saying is that if (mBank) was the one doing the transaction, receiving GBP and on their own creating Polish Zloty then you would not have an extra charge. But since they are small and “internationally challenged” (like Mr. Tiny) they need help (Viagra) in this transaction and the helping bank charges them and they pass that along to you.
In today’s international economy (collapsing maybe but..) banks should be able to do a simple transfer like that without an intermediary. Maybe mBank is too small for you?

By: Ben

Ben — Sat, 16 May 2009 19:29:56 +0000

Hi Jason

Actually I checked with them and mBank has no facilities to withdraw GBP because you can only get PLN from Polish cash machines and they have no physical branches. I am tempted to go to Millenium bank to get a GBP account – my local branch told me I can withdraw GBP from the branch if I give them notice up until 12 noon on the day before….

I wonder if both Poland and the UK will ever just get the euro and be done with it….