Calis Beach and Fethiye Turkey Discussion Forum

Information and Services in Turkey Section => Banks, Interest, Money Transfers, Insurance => Topic started by: suec on November 05, 2007, 11:44:31 AM

Title: Bank Charges
Post by: suec on November 05, 2007, 11:44:31 AM
We have just had a bit of a shock. We transferred money over to our Garanti account in Turkey to pay part payment on our villa. We were charged £30.00 From this side and 3 weeks later just received a charge from Garanti Bank for £49.00 for handling the money. We have to pay our final payment in a couple of weeks does any one know of a cheaper way of transferring our money. Would you recommend changing accounts if so to which one. We will be moving permanently in January and will be having my husbands pension transferred every month but we are a little surprised at the costs. Any help would be gratefully received.  :o
Title: Bank Charges
Post by: pookie on November 05, 2007, 11:58:56 AM
 :o   We pay £25.00 to transfer from Abbey, each transaction.  But as yet haven't received a fee from the otherside to receive it !  -  How bizzare !
Title: Bank Charges
Post by: Diverbaz 1 on November 05, 2007, 12:14:06 PM
UK HSBC account and a Turkish HSBC account. £10 per transfer no matter what amount.

Baz 8)
Title: Bank Charges
Post by: farry on November 05, 2007, 12:38:43 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Diverbaz 1

UK HSBC account and a Turkish HSBC account. £10 per transfer no matter what amount.

Baz 8)



With their Premier account have been told no transfer fee.  :)
Title: Bank Charges
Post by: Liz 101 on November 05, 2007, 13:47:33 PM
From Nationwide to Finans, approx £40 regardless of amount being transferred - a flat fee of £20 this end & a further £20ish from Finans
Title: Bank Charges
Post by: lindacarl on November 05, 2007, 14:50:51 PM
Set up a Nationwide account quickly. Get a debit & credit card & open up an esavings internet account. Have husbands pension paid into esavings or current account. Pull it out of any ATM using a debit card & transfer any balances online, pay credit card bills etc.

With Nationwide there are NO charges - hidden or otherwise for cash using debit card & you get around the mid bank rate for TL - much better than elsewhere. Use the credit card for purchases ONLY - same great exchange rate & no charges if you pay it off in full using esavings to flexaccount & then to credit card. Sounds complicated BUT it's dead easy once you have done it once.

HSBC may say there are no charges BUT read MSE - Moneysavingsexpert.com for the TRUE cost of using - including dismal exchange rates.
Title: Bank Charges
Post by: Diverbaz 1 on November 05, 2007, 15:49:30 PM
Having used HSBC I think I know the TRUE cost, not hearsay from a web site. The Premier account is free to transfer monies, but you have to meet certain criteria, such as earnings of £75,000 a year or similar such things. I don't have a premier account and pay the £10 per transfer. 4 Transfers a year, £40, not that bad considering.

Baz 8)
Title: Bank Charges
Post by: kenkay on November 05, 2007, 23:36:16 PM
In all, over two payments, we paid about £62K to Garanti, costing us £21 twice with RBS. However we paid directly to our builders account and incurred no charges from Garanti even though we were account holders there. There is always the possibility that the builder had included his charges in our price.
Ken
Title: Bank Charges
Post by: bewva on November 06, 2007, 11:54:46 AM
Same thing happened to us a few years ago, on one transaction we transfered from Barclays to Garanti and it cost us about £25. The next transfer we ticked the wrong box on the transfer form & paid about £18 to Barclays and about £30 to Garanti.
We were told there were 3 payment options on the form 1. Pay to UK bank only. 2. Pay reduced UK bank & Turkish bank. 3. Pay Turkish bank fee only.
First and last transfers we opted for pay uk bank only. Second time we ticked pay reduced fee in both banks.

Worst thing of all was wife worked for Barclays.
Title: Bank Charges
Post by: flying scotsman on November 08, 2007, 16:16:40 PM
we tranfered money from our rbs account to our garanti account the first time got charged by both banks the second time we ticked the box in the rbs form that we would pay all charges and it worked out much cheaper . hope thats a help
Title: Bank Charges
Post by: suec on November 10, 2007, 17:36:03 PM
Many thanks for all your replies and advice given. We are now looking to open a HSBC account asap. Regards Sue & Mike
Title: Bank Charges
Post by: julesbob0303 on December 04, 2007, 19:15:38 PM
We opened a HSBC account in the UK and in Fethiye on our estate agents advice.  The first payment we made was a transfer for £45,000 - we used our own bank, Barclays, to transfer the money to HSBC in Fethiye.  Big mistake!  My husband ticked the wrong box, and we were charged more than £250!!!  I complained (big-time!) and they have just refunded us with £212 after a lot of fuss.  The second payment was put through both HSBC accounts.  No charge at this end, though when we cashed £1000 in October in Fethiye, they charged us £67!  We tried to work out what this was for, but eventually gave up because of the language barrier.  Must learn a bit more Turkish - financially, it will be woth it in the end!!