Sending money in Euros cost effectively???

[kirkster501]

Hi all, I have bought something from Baader Planetarium in Germany, something they had to order in from Astro-Physics for me (three adapters).

I have the bill - 130 Euros - which is fine.  However, they only supplied their bank details.  From my bank, Santander, it costs an eye-watering £25 to transfer this money over.  I could swallow that if it was an expensive item.  But as a percentage of the amount I am paying that is scandalous.

I have asked Baader if they will accept Paypal or VISA and I await their reply.  However, anyone have any other cheaper options please?  I have used XE before to send money to the USA.  I will investigate that in the meantime.

Rgds. Steve

EDIT:  HiFX looks a good way.  It was those that I used to buy my TEC, not XE that I mentioned earlier.  I will use that way if Baader wont accept VISA or Paypal.

 

[LightBucket]

Hi,

i use Santander, and buy thing from abroad quite a lot, and use bank transfer and have never been charged by my bank...!! Not sure what’s going on there, just set them up as a new person payment and put details in and send funds....simples...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mick J]

HiFX looks good if you can, don't see why not.  Avoid paypal or standard credit cards - exchange rate plus charges can be painful, check both.

Good advice on moneysavingexpert site.

[ollypenrice]

Most of my GBP-Euro transactions I do via TransferWise. This will Google.

Olly

[kirkster501]

1 hour ago, LightBucket said:

Hi,

i use Santander, and buy thing from abroad quite a lot, and use bank transfer and have never been charged by my bank...!! Not sure what’s going on there, just set them up as a new person payment and put details in and send funds....simples...

Thanks guys for the responses.

Yep, Santander state a £25 charge will be imposed for sending money abroad......  So agreed, I don;t know either

Anyway, rather than risk being stung by bank charges and a rubbish exchange rate I used HiFx - who I rate highly and never had a problem - who I have used before to send money to the US.  I thought there might have been an "completely free" way within Europe.

[LightBucket]

30 minutes ago, kirkster501 said:

Thanks guys for the responses.

Yep, Santander state a £25 charge will be imposed for sending money abroad......  So agreed, I don;t know either

Anyway, rather than risk being stung by bank charges and a rubbish exchange rate I used HiFx - who I rate highly and never had a problem - who I have used before to send money to the US.  I thought there might have been an "completely free" way within Europe.

No, never had that with Santander, as long as you use normal online bank transfer...I have done it loads..you need to just “pay a new person” and not send it as a payment  abroad, even though it will be going abroad.. 

[kerrylewis]

I have a SAGA credit card (not sure if you have to be a certain  age to get one ). I chose it deliberately as they do not charge a fee for foreign currency transactions. I only use it for these and pay the balance immediately to avoid interest. Their  exchange rates seem reasonable so it is a good way to pay in Europe or the US. My bank were charging a fee every time. 

There may be  other cards that do the same.

[Owmuchonomy]

That's unusual.  As said above, just pay via the IBAN number.  Natwest charged me 40p for a 130 Euro payment to TS in Germany.  I think your bank may have interpreted your request incorrectly.

[kerrylewis]

7 minutes ago, Owmuchonomy said:

That's unusual.  As said above, just pay via the IBAN number.  Natwest charged me 40p for a 130 Euro payment to TS in Germany.  I think your bank may have interpreted your request incorrectly.

I was using the bank's debit card. Often if you pay for something online there appears to be no alternative to using a card. 

[JOC]

I've just transferred cash in Euros to a foreign bank this morning to pay a speeding fine a partner got in my car abroad!!!  (Boy am I making hay with this!).

Anyhow I digress, the paperwork provided an IBAN number.  I Googled Barclays and how to pay international payments - if you go into a branch you could get charged £40 for the privilage!  However, it said that you could do an international transfer online at no cost through online banking - which I do have for my account.  It took some finding, but in the big menus once logged in I found make an international payment.  As part of the process it asked for the IBAN number and from this is got all the information it needed.  It then gives you a window to complete the transaction at a given exchange rate.  I was surprised at how straight forward it was - Barclays online software took me through from start to finish.  I find it likely that other big banks will have similar systems in place - try searching once logged in for 'international transfer' in their top level menus.  the best bit is if you can do it online it will quite likely be free based on my experience.   NB.  If you do need account details they can usually be worked out if you have an IBAN number (sort code and account are usually the last numbers), but with the Barclays software the IBAN in its entirety was all I needed.  I hope this might help.

[JOC]

36 minutes ago, kerrylewis said:

I chose it deliberately as they do not charge a fee for foreign currency transactions

NB.  I've got a Halifax Clarity credit card for the same reason - free foreign money - no commission charges.  FWIW really decent interest level if I don't want to pay it all off in one hit too - though I normally do!

[Erla]

I've done quite a number of transfers from Barclays and Lloyd's  to foreign accounts (both business and private) and there is no extra charge as long as you do it using online banking.  

[LightBucket]

1 hour ago, Owmuchonomy said:

That's unusual.  As said above, just pay via the IBAN number.  Natwest charged me 40p for a 130 Euro payment to TS in Germany.  I think your bank may have interpreted your request incorrectly.

Yes I think so too....I used to have shares in an American company and the dividends cheques were in dollars, and my bank used to charge £15 to cash and convert them...but this is completely different, I would contact them again as this may happen in the future..

[fozzybear]

Baader do accept payment via paypal it is on their website under payment methods. So I cannot see why they could not send you a request to pay via paypal.

[Stub Mandrel]

Just never try sending money to Australia. A company I do work for gets more failed payments sending money to Australia than the rest of the world combined, yet they are only about 5% of the payments made. You seem to need the full address of both the branch and the payee as well as swift, IBAN, local account details and a written testimony from a suitably qualified local kangaroo that it's all above board.

[Merlin66]

Neil,

It's not as bad as that........

I do get some funds from O'seas with no problems.

 

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, Merlin66 said:

It's not as bad as that........

I may exaggerate the data required, but not the problems with making payments! I can't remember the last time we managed to pay an aussie first time. We did have a problem with a Kiwi a year or so ago, but it turned out he was checking the wrong bank account

[SteveA]

We certainly had the same issue when trying to pay one of our suppliers in Germany from our Santander account. In fact it was imposible to set up the payment details in Internet banking, it recognised the account details (presumably the sort code) as being overseas and wouldn't allow to complete the transaction. We made inquiries to Santander and were told the transfer needed to be set up as an International transfer, we were also quoted £25 fee for doing this. Ours is a business account, I'm not sure if maybe this differs from a domestic current account...or maybe it's just Santander.

Steve

[LukeSkywatcher]

You have to love the irony of the situation. Santander is a Spanish bank, in the UK and they make it difficult to send money to mainland Europe. 

[kirkster501]

16 hours ago, fozzybear said:

Baader do accept payment via paypal it is on their website under payment methods. So I cannot see why they could not send you a request to pay via paypal.

I asked them this and they replied that yes they do (bare in mind that mine was a custom order, not on their website [they will order anything for you from practically any manufacturer]).  But they add 3-5% to cover the PayPal charges...  Do I not like bank charges.......

[sloz1664]

4 minutes ago, kirkster501 said:

I asked them this and they replied that yes they do (bare in mind that mine was a custom order, not on their website [they will order anything for you from practically any manufacturer]).  But they add 3-5% to cover the PayPal charges...  Do I not like bank charges.......

Do I not like Banks...........

 

Steve

[Gina]

I've had no problems with Lloyds Bank

[LightBucket]

44 minutes ago, kirkster501 said:

I asked them this and they replied that yes they do (bare in mind that mine was a custom order, not on their website [they will order anything for you from practically any manufacturer]).  But they add 3-5% to cover the PayPal charges...  Do I not like bank charges.......

Surely that’s much better than £25 also you could send as the other paypal option, then no charges either way..

[kirkster501]

Next time I will try direct bank xfer from Santander current account:

However:

https://www.santander.co.uk/uk/international-payments

Says it there quite clearly.

[Stub Mandrel]

I'm with First Direct :-)

https://www1.firstdirect.com/1/2/travel-and-international/international-payments