tranfering money uk - turkey

[TheBruces187]

You want to speak with Finansbank first, if you intend to send money by SWIFT transfer. They needed to get head office approval to waive the costs of receiving the funds before it was transferred. This was a couple of years ago but certainly worth checking if you plan to send the proceeds of a house sale.

[captainjon]

The money transfer system using swift code is really old if not obsolete,in that the transfers will probably go to the head office of the bank in question and have to be transfered to the branch you actually want to use.(hence the oncost referred to above with finans.Just use the IBAN identification of the bank/branch you want it to go to.Get this from the Turkish branch you are using.Your English bank can confirm it to you with their own Bank ID list.Your account number will be the last numbers of the ID as has been stated.Really quite simple.just make sure you have a £ sterling!!! account open in Turkish bank to receive the money.

[TheBruces187]

Not sure about other ways to transfer money but when I used SWIFT about 18 months ago, you could use either the SWIFT code or IBAN number for the transfer. We used IBAN and it went direct to the Fethiye branch in a couple of days. The branch told us to ensure we contacted them in advance, in order to waive the receiving charges. Hope this helps

[Patience]

Watch out for the costs of the "middle man" - my bank (Nationwide) charged me £20 for the transfer - the receiving bank (Garanti) waved costs (very good of them to let me invest in them for free don't you think?) - but a "middle bank" in Turkey charged me some £70 from my home bank to make the transfer - and there was no way I could know about the cost before hand and Nationwide's system is set up to do it without reference to me.

[mrs caglar]

thanks guys, good info, especially about the hidden costs of nationwide who i currently bank with

[wickwilly]

Try Moneybookers.com. They appear to have some very reasonable transfer fees.

WW

[Julesp]

Every transfer to Turkey now has to be to an IBAN number by law Swiftcodes are obsolete, IBAN is very easy and safe though