Rip off Spanish Bank Charges - Page 2

Thanks for all the responses, as Ciny pointed out I was not referring to UK to EU transfers...:

(1) Euro Transfer from Hong Kong to Sabadell in Spain, I have since found out that a 3rd party intermediary bank was used (Cost 160 Euros) and the standard Sabadell bank charge for inward Non-EU remittance over 50K Euros is 0.4% to a max of 150 Euros. So my own stupid fault for not reading the small print !

(2) Euro local transfer from Sabadell to Caixa Bank (within Spain) free up to 20K Euros and then 0.4% thereafter, the amount was 25,500 and hence the charge applied. Once again if I had had the common sense (or wisdom of hindsight !) to read the small print and made two payments, I would have saved 102 Euros...

Yes, guilty as charged for being a muppet.

When I completed on our house purchase last year Sabadell charged me a similar amount, I queried it and was told those charges are normal in Spain.

Just had to put up with it, generally Sabadell have been very good.

Andy

“Muppet” may be a bit harsh; the small print around SWIFT payments (assuming that HK$ to € payment was SWIFT) is extensive and not entirely clear to many, even within the bank you select.  I’ve had several inconclusive telcons around moving Malaysian ringgits to £ or €.  Extra complexity arises as to who pays a fee; my sender chooses (not me) to “share the fee” so I pay half fee.   So, then I scrabble about looking for the cheapest fee from the sender’s bank, to one of my banks and tell the sender.  Months go by... and the fees change...

For a € transfer, a UK or Spain based organisation will operate under SEPA which is speedy and apparently free.   Of course, SEPA has caps to transfers, above which you may be charged for another type of EFT.   Depending on the Brexit agreement, the UK may drop out of SEPA, so £ transactions may get swapped to... er, SWIFT perhaps, whilst negotiations continue.  The SEPA area contains non-EU countries so maybe the UK could rejoin after leaving.   One to watch in the coming months to avoid extra fees.

I use Smart for transferring.  I transfer one amount for two separate payments in Spain and pay £5 in total charges

Since my last post, the European Payments Council has approved the UK’s application to continue in SEPA in the event of a no deal Brexit.   SEPA approval source.  This may appear tedious but is critical in keeping our costs down in making payments, such as using Transferwise and various UK credit cards.   In the event of some other Brexit, this decision will not apply.

I transfer all euros for free with torfx and they also give a good rate of exchange