Cash transfer to Turkey

[kevin b]

I am looking to transfer some cash to Turkey is it better to use UK bank & send to GBP account in Turkey then transfer into Lira account or will I get a better deal from a money broker.

[tribalelder]

Not all Brokers will deal in Turkish Lira and are probably not worth dealing with unless you are talking of Meggabucks. Check with your UK bank on their fee to transfer the money to GBP account here. Finans TEB and Fortis should not charge you at this end to receive the money and transfer to a Lira account(May be others as well) but if you are using HSBC in the UK watch out they may try to charge you a fee they claim to have been raised by the Turkish bank which is fraudulent when it has not been charged at this end. They tried it on me but dropped the charge when I asked to see proof of the charge been made.......especially as I already knew it had not:-\

[kevin b]

We have used our UK bank before & it is £25 but we are talking large amount so hence thought I might get better exchange rate from a broker.

[captainjon]

Hi kevin,What do you mean better exchange rate?.Are you not transfering sterling to sterling account.The exchange rate is only relevant when you choose to change that sterling figure into your Lira account.If you are in the UK when the first transaction happens,the you should watch the bbc business forex figures for the best rate and email bank accordingly.good luck

[kevin b]

John I have been told money brokers will offer a better exchange rate than the bank in Turkey when changing money from GBP to YTL.I would be transfering gbp to gbp account then converting into lira for lira account.
Hope that makes sense.

[captainjon]

Hi, yeh thats good, just a small point if its of interest. (no pun intended)I find it is not possible to beat the banks offering,at least with Teb or Fortis."no receiving charge"as it were as it were and best exchange rate.But if you were to change it in a bank in which you did not have an  account,there probably would not be a charge,but the cashier would  not give you the maximum as it were.So my account manager at Fortis does it from his screen and I then go to the till.good luck Needless to say my acct manager is Alper at Fortis

[tribalelder]

My Account Manager.......Sounds like delusions of grandeur:D

[TheBruces187]

Being a relative novice at transferring cash to Turkey, I can only add my single experience from early this year.

In March we transferred some cash to our Finans GBP account, to use it to open a YTL account on our next visit. Finans charged us for receiving the cash (more than the charge in the UK) but told us to call ahead next time and they would likely be able to convince head office to waive the charge. I am about to try that, so fingers crossed.