RichS

I have a friend who needs to top up a UK bank account to service a UK mortgage. This seemed to be costing her a considerable amount in transaction fees and charges when she spoke to me. anyone got any ideas on how to do this cheapest.

She has:

a UK current account (barclays)
an Aus current account (no idea)

TheAncientGeek

I vaguely recall there is an Australian bank that allowed you to complete international money transfers free of charge, via online banking. It may have been Westpac but like I say, the recollection is only vague.

We ended up with BankWest, and it's quite a lengthy process of queuing, form-filling, plus $35 to $55 transaction fees. The only thing BankWest could do to ease the process, was to photocopy the details for me so I can just hand it over each month and ask for a repeat of the transaction.

Hope this helps

Pollyana

Try www.tranzfers.com
They charge $15 a go, regardless of the amount. Cheaper than most, if not all, banks. I've been using them to transfer money monthly for oevr a year with no problems.

peppi

useful little site pollyana..I'll be saving that one to my favourites...thanks

sophia

At the risk of sounding slightly stupid (no change there then!)...can't she set up a dd/standing order to her UK bank account each month through internet banking from her aussie bank?

I haven't actually tried it so don't know how it would work, but my ANZ internet banking account has a facility to "pay anyone" which means, once set up I can set up dd like facilities....surely this would be worth looking into?

Just a thought!

love sophia xx

Pollyana

Some banks will do this, but they will charge you a large fee every time they convert $ to £, whether its as a one-off or a regular thing as a dd. Its the conversion that costs the money unfortunately. I looked into every conceivable way of moving money monthly, and tranzfers came out the cheapest.

leedslad

what about paypal?

www.paypal.com

set up an e-mail address to pay from and one to pay to.

Pollyana

Never tried using it - I;ve just had a look through the site, and its not very clear how if your cash is in an Aus bank, you move itto a UK bank?
I'm no financial wizard, so can you explain it in English!

leedslad

What you do is register and it will ask you for an e-mail address. This will be your bank account (effectively) You will then tell them a bank account that you want to attach to the e-mail.

If you were to have one e-mail for you bank account in the UK, and another for the Aus bank. All you have to do is go to the paypal site and log in as Aus and pay X amount to uk e-mail....easy!

You can also keep your money in the Paypal account and use it to bid on e-bay, as this is an e-bay joint venture company

Check the fees, but i'm sure they are next to nothing.

Pollyana

Looks interesting - they say the exchange rate includes a 2.5% fee, so that could be quite a bit? The actual fees themselves don't seem too high.
I'll stick to tranzfers now I'm set up with them, but others might find paypal useful.

leedslad

Yea tranzfers does look good!

anya4oz

Does anyone have any experience of regularly transferring money from Blighty to Oz?

It seems easy transferring it the other way, but the UK Banks all seem to conspire to make it difficult/expensive for you to get your cash out of the country....

Cheers,
Anya

Pollyana

Yeah - use tranzfers.com! They move cash both ways, if it originates in the UK they charge £7 per transaction.

MarkMyWords

Yes, but isn't the issue how much the bank charges to move it to where tranzfers can get hold of it? That's always been my experience with UK banks... "oh you want us to let you have some (large amount) of your money back? Well we'll charge you for the privilege." But it was my money in the first place!

Pollyana

It comes straight out of your account like a normal bill payment. Ok, the way tranzfers works is - you set up a payment from your bank (UK or Aus) into the Tranzfers account. This is either Westpac or Barclays, depending which country your money is starting in. This payment into their account has to include the fee (£7 or $15). They then move the money to their account across the world, and from there it is deposited to your nominated account
No more fees, no hidden charges - unless you have a bank which charges you for a normal payment like a gas bill. Its just a transfer between bank accounts, it just happens that the accounts in the middle are owned by a third party.
I was suspicious at first, seemed too good to be true but I;ve been using it for nearly two years, in both directions, and never had to pay a penny in fees to any of the banks holding my accounts - including Lloyds and Abbey. On Wednesday I moved $185 from my Aus Building Society (via the net), that includes the $15, on Monday morning it was in my Lloyds account as £76. No charges to pay Lloyds. Works the same in reverse, but I don't do that as often.

(and no, I don't work for them, I just find they make my financial affairs a lot easier!