Making foreign payments

[Pondlife]

Hi All,

Abbey insist on having the chaps/foreign payment form faxed to them in order to pay into a foreign account. I don't mind the £20 charge as this seems standard but does anyone know of a more up to date service than submitting by post or fax.

How do others pay into foreign accounts? It's a couple of grand and so western union etc fees are way too much

TIA

PL

[scooterscot]

When I was living in Norway I had to pay my rent on a monthly basis into a local account. A&L required me to fax the first authorisation afterwards doing it electronic was fine by them. But I agree it is a hassle. Otherwise go to the bank in person.

[Pondlife]

When I was living in Norway I had to pay my rent on a monthly basis into a local account. A&L required me to fax the first authorisation afterwards doing it electronic was fine by them. But I agree it is a hassle. Otherwise go to the bank in person.

I did it through my personal bank over the phone and will claim it back from MyCo in the end. I cannot understand why banks are reliant of faxes in 2008(9).

The argument from the stupid bint in customer service was that emails were not clear enough. I mean FFS! How can some fax/scan of a scrawled IBAN number be more ledgible than me filling in an online form or proforma document.

[pmeswani]

I did it through my personal bank over the phone and will claim it back from MyCo in the end. I cannot understand why banks are reliant of faxes in 2008(9).

The argument from the stupid bint in customer service was that emails were not clear enough. I mean FFS! How can some fax/scan of a scrawled IBAN number be more ledgible than me filling in an online form or proforma document.

I believe that in some organisations, and may be in law (don't know for certain), email instructions don't constitute as legally enforceable. Hence why faxing something with ones signature (allegedly) removes the element of fraud (as an example).

[Pondlife]

I believe that in some organisations, and may be in law (don't know for certain), email instructions don't constitute as legally enforceable. Hence why faxing something with ones signature (allegedly) removes the element of fraud (as an example).

Yet I can set up all manner of other payments online. And what would they be validating my signature against anyway? Anyone could have sent the fax.

[Gonzo]

Hi All,

Abbey insist on having the chaps/foreign payment form faxed to them in order to pay into a foreign account. I don't mind the £20 charge as this seems standard but does anyone know of a more up to date service than submitting by post or fax.

How do others pay into foreign accounts? It's a couple of grand and so western union etc fees are way too much

TIA

PL

I use http://www.ukforex.co.uk

You have to go through the normal money laundering checks to get the account set up, but once that is done, you input your beneficiaries' account details, input a trade through their website, then instruct your bank to transfer the GBP into the UK collection bank account.

There are other companies that do the same thing like HiFX and Moneycorp to name a couple. UK Forex have a minimum trade size of 1000GBP - when I was picking a provider I think I found the others were higher but this is worth checking again now.

All of these firms will give you a better FX rate than your bank will.

I find the website dealing very convenient and the service is quick too - I have done trades for under 5000GBP (where the UK bank transfer side is done same day) and the money has been in my account in New Zealand in 36 hours (that is the fastest ever though, typically it takes 48 hours).

I am not on commission, just a happy customer!

[xoggoth]

Not tried it that way round, rather I have used it for getting foreign account holders to pay to my UK account, but could you use Paypal?

Sign up and if it lets you put a foreign bank as recipient, send a payment request email to yourself and pay from Brit account. The charge on a few thousand is 2.9%. Very little effort involved in trying it anyway.

[pmeswani]

Yet I can set up all manner of other payments online. And what would they be validating my signature against anyway? Anyone could have sent the fax.

When setting up transactions online, you are already validated by your username and password. The Bank can assume that the person who is logging onto the online portal is the person who owns the Account. They would, in theory, check your signature on the fax against what they have on file (whether it is electronic or offline). Not the best method, and I have no way of knowing if they really do it.