duffer

Just a heads up for anyone interested, since 28 Jan, most Italian banks started using the SEPA step 2 system allowing for direct debits and payments Europe-wide (27 countries so far) at the same cost.

So now I can transfer funds to my UK account for only 1 euro to take advantage of better interest rates!

Haven't actually tried it yet though...

Title should read Single Euro Payments Area. Doh!

DORI DOE

Hey this is new are you. I've not heard anything of the sort from my banks, or have they just decided not to tell anyone about it and keep charging silly money. Where did you here of this?

duffer

When I was transferring money to another Italian AC online I noticed there was a new tab for European transfers which wasn't there before.

However on the actual homepage of my bank there had been a notice which of course I have been ignoring up until now - Can you spot it?

http://www.sanpaolo.com/scriptIbve/vetrina/index.jsp

TestaRossa

Er, it was pretty big really wasn't it?!

Wonder when the UK banks are going to start doing this? I pay the HSBC £21 or £9 to transfer money here from my Biz account!!

TestaRossa

hang on though, when I went to the SEPA website it says it is only for payments within the Euro area, so are you sure the UK would be included as it doesn't have the Euro?

duffer

Well I'm not sure about Sterling payments. You would need a Euro account in the UK.

TestaRossa

Ah, okay, didn't realise this was what you were talking about transferring to.

duffer

Well maybe the UK bank can receive the amount in Euro and convert to Sterling. It will really depend on the bank and obviously they will charge you extra for this or give you a crappy exchange rate.

TestaRossa

When I've done transfers from here to UK it's only cost about €4 anyway compared to the £21 my UK bank charges. So my interest was more from this point of view.

duffer

OK. I've made an online transfer in Euro from my Italian Zerotondo (San Paolo) account free of charge.

It will be received free of charge at my UK First Direct (HSBC) account into Sterling.

Both these accounts are free, i.e. no bank account fees.

Obviously transferring money from UK to Italy is not free.

TestaRossa

Does it have to be your account you are doing the transfer to? I sometimes pay a few English origin bills (music lessons for my son) out of my Italian account and it only costs about €4.00 but it would be nice if it were free! Also why do I have to pay to do a transfer to another persons Italian account or is this the same question?!

duffer

There was a fee for all my online transactions, e.g. paying bills, transferring money, etc as well as an account charge of approx €5 monthly until I changed it to the Zerotondo account. So check with your Italian bank if they have an online only account as opposed to online access.

In theory you can make to payment to anyone BUT you MUST use the IBAN and BIC number. These are printed on all statements. First Direct advised me that only when both these numbers are used the transaction is free whereas NastyWest aren't even accepting my transfer.

Mitzyboy

If you have a sun pay account you can transfer money from UK to Spain (or reverse) for €10 a transaction, and at commercial rates.

TestaRossa

Why won't NatWest accept it?!! I use BIC/Swift and Iban all the time to transfer from the HSBC to here and to Spain. But one thing I have noticed, I used to be able to transfer from UK to here and it would arrive next day. Then HSBC took their callcentres away from India and put priority payments in Swansea - it can now take 3-4 days for it to appear in my account!!

duffer

Well... I heard the Welsh are a bit slow... Joke!

Well I tried to make a transfer to my NatWest ac (from Sanpaolo) and it came back with an error saying that they have yet to setup SEPA and to keep trying periodically. So I tried a transfer to First Direct and it went through straight away.