Calis Beach and Fethiye Turkey Discussion Forum

Information and Services in Turkey Section => Banks, Interest, Money Transfers, Insurance => Topic started by: KORKY on February 24, 2005, 23:15:17 PM

Title: Money transfer
Post by: KORKY on February 24, 2005, 23:15:17 PM
Any ideas as to the cheapest way of transfering money to turkey.
I have just paid £120 to transfer £20,000, by bank transfer. Perhaps I'm out of touch but this feels like a rip off. Think of how many Effs this could buy !!

Title: Money transfer
Post by: lindi on February 24, 2005, 23:33:23 PM
Hi Korky

Nat West charge £18 for a standard transfer and £25 for an urgent transfer irrespective of the amount.  I have taken this info from a leaflet which I have from Nat West and I know this to be right as we have transferred 2 amounts recently and this is what we paid.

You can find this info on their leaflet which is called "How to Complete an International Payment Request Form" (NWB 1388)  

Hope this helps.

lindi :)
Title: Money transfer
Post by: kanga on February 25, 2005, 00:45:27 AM
lloyds tsb was £35 for premium transfer for £50,000
Title: Money transfer
Post by: Sinbad on February 25, 2005, 08:02:36 AM
£21 from First Direct.
Title: Money transfer
Post by: Dippey on February 25, 2005, 08:36:16 AM
£25 Abbey. Standard service £50k+.
Title: Money transfer
Post by: JG2004 on February 25, 2005, 10:32:30 AM
Does it take longer for money to clear if you take a bankers cheque/draft?
Title: Money transfer
Post by: KORKY on February 25, 2005, 22:01:18 PM
Thanks for your replies.
Looks like I'v been overcharged. I did ask that the turkish bank charges were were taken out at this end but I can't imagine their costs to be excessive.

Title: Money transfer
Post by: soz on February 26, 2005, 07:52:23 AM
Hi Korky, I'm going to be transferring a large amount of money in the next few weeks. I'm interested to know whick bank did you use. Also, does anyone know if it is works out any cheaper to pay the turkish bank charges from England or wait until it arrives in Turkey?
Title: Money transfer
Post by: kim on February 26, 2005, 09:51:51 AM
First Direct charged us £52 ,3yrs ago ,they said that was standard fee.
Title: Money transfer
Post by: KORKY on February 26, 2005, 21:46:04 PM
Hi Soz, I used Barclays, I will call them next week and get a breakdown of the amount they charged me.
Title: Money transfer
Post by: Harley on February 27, 2005, 09:55:42 AM
Hi Korky

I used Barclays to transfer £40.000 over last January and they only charged me £20.  Someone somewhere has definitely messed up...

Put your foot down and get your refund...:D

harley
Title: Money transfer
Post by: amca on February 27, 2005, 15:16:53 PM
nationwide do a SWIFT transfer ...........£20 last time I used it
Title: Money transfer
Post by: Nige and Lynn on February 27, 2005, 18:08:52 PM
We also used Nationwide, £20 for SWIFT transfer regardless of how much money you are transferring.

Nationwide flexaccount card is the cheapest way of paying by credit card / drawing out from cash machines abroad, they just charge 1% on the amount.
Title: Money transfer
Post by: leeds utd on February 28, 2005, 08:19:42 AM
Money transfers with Western Union were very expensive our bank Hsbc charges 22 regardless of the amount
Title: Money transfer
Post by: lorna young on February 28, 2005, 12:22:02 PM
I used Clydesdale Bank (scottish) and was charged 22pounds
Title: Money transfer
Post by: JG2004 on February 28, 2005, 13:25:15 PM
The Turkish banks also charge some money at their end as well, but £120 does still sound excessive!
Title: Money transfer
Post by: glennat on February 28, 2005, 13:36:20 PM
Hi Korky,

If transfering large sums, the Turkish banks charge more than the UK ones and it tends to be directly linked to the amount of money being sent.  I bank with Garanti (in Turkey) and HSBC (in the UK).  HSBC charged me about £21 to transfer £19,000 and Garanti charged an additional £47 to receive it.
So, the complete transfer cost £68
Then, when I transfered £1500, HSBC charged the standard £21 but now Garanti charged £11.

It appears the Garanti charge around 0.5% - 0.75% commission.

Glen.
Title: Money transfer
Post by: KORKY on March 02, 2005, 22:20:47 PM
I have now confirmed that Barclays charged £20 and my turkish bank £100 !!
this is 0.5% and apparantly there is no upper limit so £100,000 will cost £500.
Sounds like an excuse for an extra week away with a case full of cash.
Title: Money transfer
Post by: glennat on March 03, 2005, 08:29:04 AM
How about Traveller's cheques, in large denominations?
Can you bank those in Turkey?
Title: Money transfer
Post by: Sinbad on March 03, 2005, 15:16:58 PM
Yes you can but only cash in so many a day. Our bank had to come up with a plan of their own in the typical 'no problem' attitude - at least it worked.
Title: Money transfer
Post by: seagull007 on March 04, 2005, 09:32:11 AM
Just reading the above and as Im planning to send some money out to Turkey at the end of the week I am interested in finding out some gen' on any charges payable when the money reaches Turkey. I am sending the money via Nationwide (and yes its still £20), Thay have said I can pay the overseas charges at their end. The questions I have are: Do Finansbank charge you for sending Sterling out to them. If so how much for £50,000 + and finally would it be cheaper to pay the charges in UK.
Title: Money transfer
Post by: seagull007 on March 04, 2005, 09:36:15 AM
Ops sorry I didnt realise that there were 2 pages so I asked the above question before reading the 2nd page. However does anyone know how much Finansbank charge. If its as much as Garanti I would be better off paying the charges in UK.
Title: Money transfer
Post by: Dippey on March 04, 2005, 10:03:31 AM
I know I am a bit slow on the uptake now and again, but i've just realised that when transferred 4 different amounts I got charged £25 each by the Abbey and my agents in Turkey who have POA the other end received the total amount I transferred.

Therefore my bank in Turkey has not charged anything for receiving the transfer, as the balance of account is zero and the agents received the full value (the costs were not built in either). Did my agents pick up the charge somehow, or is there no charge??? I'm not sure - and will try and find out.

Dippey
Title: Money transfer
Post by: seagull007 on March 04, 2005, 16:06:00 PM
Dippey

Which Bank are you with in Turkey. Heres wishing its the Finansbank !
Title: Money transfer
Post by: Jamieo on March 04, 2005, 18:05:21 PM
Hi All,

I too bank with Finansbank in Fethiye and belive they do not charge to receive funds into an account that you hold with them. If you transferred money to an account that was not in your name, I believe you will be charged by the bank transferring the money and again by the bank receiving it. (I think this is correct)

Where's Stoop when you need him?

Regards,

Jamie
Title: Money transfer
Post by: lynne on March 04, 2005, 20:57:45 PM
I recently transferred a relatively small amount to our account with Finansbank and was charged £10.00 to receive it!
Title: Money transfer
Post by: alanw on March 04, 2005, 21:48:59 PM
I have recently sent funds to finansbank (17K) and was charged £30 by lloyds tsb and £19 by finansbank.
Alan
Title: Money transfer
Post by: johnners on March 05, 2005, 15:05:59 PM
Just sent £25000 and it cost £18-00 with Nat West but the Turkish bank charges about £75-00 that is Garanti bank in Fethye using their swift code it is routed through the main branch in Istanbul. other than cash this is the cheapest. Johnners
Title: Money transfer
Post by: KORKY on March 08, 2005, 21:55:29 PM
Below is reply from Isbank concerning charges. It appears that if you transfer money to your Turkish account and then withdraw it in TL its free, unless you ask for turkish charges to be paid at GB end, then they charge .5%. Dosen't make sense to me either ?


I'm sorry for the lack of tariff in my answer. Our tariff is as follows : 0.5 % being minimum USD 25 (or eqiivalent), maximum USD 500 (or equivalent) is requested from the sender bank if the sender bank has included the expression OUR in the MT103 Swift message. In other words, GBP quivalent of USD 500 would be requested from Barclays Bank for your transfer of GBP 120,000. But let me repeat my previous answer : You can avoid this charge if the sender bank does not write the expression OUR in the Swift message. Then the charges belong to the beneficiary. If the beneficiary draws the money in Turkish Lira, he doesn't have to pay anything.
Title: Money transfer
Post by: The Crinklies on March 09, 2005, 18:36:48 PM

We have recently transferred £5000 sterling from our Nationwide account into our sterling account at Finansbank. We opted to pay any charges due at this end. The Swift fee was £20 and in addition to this, Nationwide have advised us that there are additional charges of £13.33 which have been applied by the Turkish bank. There is also a note from Nationwide that we may be subject to further charges from the foreign bank over which they have no control. As this was the first time that we had done this, we had thought that perhaps sterling a/c to sterling a/c might not incur any charges - silly us!
As we are due to send further funds this month for a much larger amount(in sterling)and are likely to get charged alot by Finansbank to do this, please does anyone know :-
(a) would it make any difference if we opted to pay for the charges through the receiving bank?
(b)have any other useful tips for transferring money?
Thank you in advance for any help.
The Crinklies
Title: Money transfer
Post by: mikeh on March 09, 2005, 20:00:19 PM
Aiysha at Finans said the charges on our transfer of £20000 was 0.01%
Title: Money transfer
Post by: Ty Tannick on March 14, 2005, 11:22:50 AM
I have also used 'ABBEY'. they charge £25 whatever the ammount.
TY.
Title: Money transfer
Post by: Steve B on March 14, 2005, 13:26:16 PM
Yep Natwest are pretty good and reasonable.
Title: Money transfer
Post by: Dippey on March 15, 2005, 16:51:51 PM
quote:
Originally posted by seagull007

Dippey

Which Bank are you with in Turkey. Heres wishing its the Finansbank !



Sorry for delay, the bank in Turkey was Isbank, Fethiye Branch.
Therefore Abbey £25 to send, Isbank £zero to recieve, no matter what value.

Dipps
Title: Money transfer
Post by: KAS on April 01, 2005, 11:38:19 AM
Hello All

We currently do not have a Turkish bank account but are going over on the 10th April and will open one then. Meanwhile, I have heard that it is possible to obtain a SWIFT transfer number from a UK bank prior to going to Turkey and then money can be transferred once the Turkish account is opened.  Barclays have said that this is NOT possible but can anyone advise of a bank that can help?

Regards

KAS
Title: Money transfer
Post by: Dippey on April 01, 2005, 20:05:35 PM
Hi Kas,

Afraid the answer is simple, no bank can set up any payment and put it on hold until you give them the details of where to pay it into. They will just say come back later when you have the account set up. Soory.

Ali
Title: Money transfer
Post by: alanw on May 02, 2005, 17:45:13 PM
Has anyone tried a bankers draft?
If you are travelling to Turkey anyway, whats to stop you taking a draft along and paying it into a sterling account?
Don't know what the cost implications are - anyone else know?
Alan
Title: Money transfer
Post by: kenkay on May 02, 2005, 21:32:38 PM
Hi
Royal Bank of Scotland do Royworld for £18 stating delivery in 7-10 days and Royworld Express for £25 with a 3-5 day delivery. Both of these are irrespective of the size of the sum, certainly up to £60,000.
Ken
Title: Money transfer
Post by: Anne on May 02, 2005, 22:14:54 PM
Never offered that to us Ken.  Cost us £40 per time. :(
Title: Money transfer
Post by: Libby on May 23, 2005, 18:50:20 PM
Hi Have just joined Forum and just bought in Calis. Halifax charge £25 to transfer money, but what they don't tell you is that not all branches can do it there and then but worse still they don't tell you that the Bank of Scotland take a charge as well. I transferred over just enough to cover first payment only to find that Bank of Scotland took over £30 making my first instalment short. Anyway sorted now and refund, amazing what threatening to remove your account can do, but will need to sort out before next payment due.

Elizabeth
Title: Money transfer
Post by: puma on May 23, 2005, 21:51:00 PM
they have got you all way`s .barclays tried it with me and took £120 out of my account but i complained and they put it back in dribs and drabs don`t know why they could not put it back in one go
Title: Money transfer
Post by: davido on July 26, 2005, 03:13:28 AM
Hi I have just transferred money from the abbey to garanti bank in Fethiye  I ve been told it takes 2-4 working days to transfer, abbey charge £25 whatever the amount ( a word of warning make sure all the details for the receiving are correct i.e the swift code,account number and branch code, because if it comes back you have to pay again)and garanti have told me they charge 0.2% but I have not seen the statement yet,but I will let you know.Hope this is of some help.Cheers Dave:D
Title: Money transfer
Post by: NIG99999 on August 17, 2005, 10:55:37 AM
I have accounts with HSBC both here in UK & in Turkey.
It costs £10.00 to transfer any amount from UK to turkey.
I now have a Turkish Visa Electron card linked to my Lira A/C
I can go to a HSBC in UK with cash & that card & it is credited without charge
This seems a good solution to me!!!!!
Title: Money transfer
Post by: AOK on August 17, 2005, 15:40:21 PM
Hi Korky.I recently sent £6000 and paid the following charges.Lloyds TSB Express tfr fee £20.UK agent charges(Standard Chartered)£35,Turkish bank charges £23.total £78.A lot depends on if the uk sending bank have to route the money through an agent.
Aok
Title: Money transfer
Post by: Elsa Padfield on September 15, 2005, 18:32:17 PM
We got charged £25 by NatWest for rapid transfer (2 working days) and around £30 by Garanti bank the other end.  I have spoken to the UK branch of Garanti bank and they told me that theres no easy way to transfer money from the UK to Turkey but you can transfer online from Turkey to UK???  I'm not sure about that though.
Title: Money transfer
Post by: livinginthesun on September 26, 2005, 23:31:59 PM
Hi

I'm currently doing some research into Foreign exchange / money transfer for some advice pages on this subject which we'll be publishing soon on our Moving Overseas Guide (http://"http://www.moving-overseas-guide.com") website.

From what I've seen so far, if you need to exchange money into a different currency & transfer it, if you use a specialist foreign exhange agent you can make large saving on the actual exchange rate over high street banks, as well as getting the funds transferred for free (& that includes for free at the receiving bank).

I'm not sure yet if the trasfer is fee free if there's no currency exchange, but I suspect not.  The fee's may be lower however.

If you'd like to know when we've published our research or wants if you'd like links to the foreign exchange agents whom I've researched, e-mail me & I'll let you know

Regards
Pete Adams
Title: Money transfer
Post by: loz on September 27, 2005, 00:29:22 AM
Hi Kas, all banks have a swift code, barclays is BARC GB 22 or just pop into your local branch and ask them for their swift code, dont give them info, if they try to pin you down just tell them it is to let some transfer some money to your account, I just don't know why the banks try to hold info back from clients.  or look up on the internet and find the swift codes for any bank and and branch.
Title: Money transfer
Post by: stuart on September 27, 2005, 09:33:22 AM
alan no one seems to be responding to your question about a bankers draft, or maybe i missed it,am not shure but i dont think bankers drafts are used here. i know a cheque can take a month to clear here..
also if anyone wants to transfer monies to my account here i wont make them pay any charges!!(that is meant to be a joke bye the way!!)
Title: Money transfer
Post by: wallace on September 27, 2005, 12:03:16 PM
Bankers draft takes as long to clear as a cheque
so I was told

Carol
Title: Money transfer
Post by: alanw on September 27, 2005, 19:44:07 PM
Stuart - nice to know these things get read! - Thanks
Title: Money transfer
Post by: Di and Barry on October 06, 2005, 18:00:19 PM
Hi everyone, We have just (today - Thursday 6th October) transfered £90k from HSBC in the UK to our sterling account with AKBANK in Fethiye and the only charge we incurred was a standard £21.00 fee by HSBC at this end.  We had checked with AKBANK before sending the money over as we read some of the high charges some of you were charged with other Turkish banks and were concerned.
Feray at The Golden Moon Estate was the bank manager at AKBANK (until joining Mete at The Golden Moon - clever move Mete!!)and she was very helpful in setting up the account for us and advising us on a whole manner of topics in relation to bank and money matters.
Hope this helps out but it does pay to check at each end regarding money transfer.
Di and Barry xx
Title: Money transfer
Post by: xanadu on October 08, 2005, 18:21:50 PM
In my experience you need to pay all transfer charges in the uk when tranferring money to Turkish bank account !!!
Title: Money transfer
Post by: lynne on October 08, 2005, 22:39:53 PM
Heidi, Finansbank charged us to receive money....
Title: Money transfer
Post by: russab on December 06, 2005, 23:40:45 PM
I used a Intelligent Finanace for the first payment earlier this year on a new build. They charged me £30 but on top of that they could not
- print and give me a receipt that showed that they had sent it to the exact bank and accont number I had specified
- trace the payment and tell me where it was along the chain of banks that a SWIFT payment sometimes takes.

So for the next payment I did a normal UK electronic funds transfer to a specialist payments company - Trancentrix (Now merged with Ruesch)
http://www.ruesch.com/na/services/internationalpayments/

They then not only give you a low fee - in my case £10 - but they also track the payment and give you a written confirmation of where the SWIFT payment is going. This is better than waiting days to find out that some keystroke error has sent your money to the wrong country - yes it can happen!.
Title: Money transfer
Post by: Ingol Angel on December 07, 2005, 09:26:13 AM
Lynne, we too were charged by Finansbank for 'receiving' the money transfer.  Apparently it all depends on which 'box' is crossed in the UK transaction as to whether the receiving bank have the authority to deduct 'their share'.  In our experience we were charged £127 in total to transfer £60,000.
Title: Money transfer
Post by: johnners on February 01, 2006, 13:36:40 PM
I talked to garanti bank about this and |I was told that the money is transferred to garanti in Istanbul and they charge £75-00 to transfer to the recipients local bank this means it costs about £90-100 to transfer any amount including UK cost natwest is£18-00.

hope this is helpful Johnners
Title: Money transfer
Post by: 1crow on February 01, 2006, 14:32:56 PM
quote:
Originally posted by livinginthesun

Hi

I'm currently doing some research into Foreign exchange / money transfer for some advice pages on this subject which we'll be publishing soon on our Moving Overseas Guide (http://"http://www.moving-overseas-guide.com") website.

From what I've seen so far, if you need to exchange money into a different currency & transfer it, if you use a specialist foreign exhange agent you can make large saving on the actual exchange rate over high street banks, as well as getting the funds transferred for free (& that includes for free at the receiving bank).

I'm not sure yet if the trasfer is fee free if there's no currency exchange, but I suspect not.  The fee's may be lower however.

If you'd like to know when we've published our research or wants if you'd like links to the foreign exchange agents whom I've researched, e-mail me & I'll let you know

Regards
Pete Adams

Title: Money transfer
Post by: Jules1 on February 01, 2006, 17:09:33 PM
Just sent my payment by Halifax and it cost £30 but because it was direct to the developer I'm not expecting any other charges.
Was just wondering though if there was a quicker way that anyone knows about?   I was quoted 3-5 days by the Halifax.   Does anyone know of any payment method that would get it there same day?
Cheers
Julie :o))
Title: Money transfer
Post by: coldkeys on March 15, 2006, 15:02:11 PM
Hi, new here. We opened HSBC account here and in Bodrum. Have transferred two large sums of money and only charged £10 by HSBC here in UK. No charges in Turkey.
Title: Money transfer
Post by: puma on March 15, 2006, 19:39:43 PM
hi and welcome coldkeys,HSBC seem to be quite good.how about if you want to say hello to us all in the intro section,:Dlots of members there will give you lots of advice on any questions you may have
Title: Money transfer
Post by: Crabbit on March 15, 2006, 20:01:10 PM
Hi Coldkeys
That will interest a lot of members on here.

Crabbit
PS, I hope nobody TELLS me to introduce myself.
Title: Money transfer
Post by: puma on March 15, 2006, 20:09:28 PM
would i be so bold as to tell the big almighty crabbit,:D no-one is telling anyone i was only being helpful to a new member,but maybe you can't see beyond your nose and stop being so crabbie
Title: Money transfer
Post by: c1 on March 18, 2006, 12:41:35 PM
Isbank has a branch in london just over the road from BOE and when I visited them they reckoned that I could open all the accounts I needed here.so posiblily no charges? not done it yet still gleaning knolwedge from yuo all.
Title: Money transfer
Post by: cathy h on March 20, 2006, 10:25:26 AM
Hi there,
Over the last few months I have transferred a number of payments from NatWest to Finansbank.
Charges are: £18 standard transfer from NatWest and 0.01% of the transferred amount from Finansbank.