UK 2 US Bank Wire

[PapaSB]

After my last post which was hijaked about "US is Cheaper Than UK" type talk I have a new question for anyone who has bought in the US.

I am buying from a company that I need to wire the money to. The whole "UK bank being able to know what its donig" is proving an absolutely pain in the butt. ''Cause they don''t!

Hence my post. Somone told me that if i send money to the US via wire i will incurr a charge in the UK, 20GBP, be subject to a routing charge £40 and then have another charge when the money lands in the beneficieries account £??.

Geeze, someone really needs to get together a guide to do this . . .

Maisie, and other UK people, was it hard when you did it? Did you get charged loads when you sent it through?

 

[Cleo]

Hello

I have sent money to New Zealand in this way, and there are fees involved - although I''m fairly sure it was not as high as the sums you mention. (If it is based on how much you are sending, this could explain it).

Is wiring the money the only way to get your discount?

If you can still get your PS discount, but pay by credit card I would be inclined to do that.

x x x

 

[Maisie]

I was told that there may be a charge for the intermediary bank. I don''t think there was one as I didn''t get any further charges from Whiteflash.

 

[MP]

Wow, those charges seem extremely excessive. I know that with PNCbank you can send an international wire for $30 US. I would ask around to other banks, perhaps banks with more business clients will do a better job.

 

[PapaSB]

Absolutely agree - they do seem high.

The problem is, that the WF bank is not an international bank (this is my simple way to understand it anyway) and to this end they use Chase to recieve funds from abroad. Chase is a huge mega international bank and has money diving all around the world all the time.

The problem is that the UK banks can not tell me if the intermediary banks will charge extra?

Maisie, did you send the wire and set it to "I pay my charges", to "They pay all charges" or "I pay all charges" - there are three options when you send the wire?

Did you do the "I pay my charges" and then wait to see if WF charged you extra?

 

[PapaSB]

I know i am answering my own post, but it might be useful in the future for others.

It would appear that you have to send the cash in the local currency to where you are purchasing (this example $).
Some companies do not do international payment and in this case they go through a "intermediary" bank.
WF said they pick up the charges for this processing.

The Beneficiary is always the bank it will end up at, the BIC code and route number are the numer of the intermidary and the costs are always "I will pay my bit, not the intermediary bit"

Hope that helps.

WF were extremely helpful in answering my questions.

 

[Mellin75]

Thanks for taking the time to come back and post your findings PapaSB.

I have just completed a UK bank transfer to Whiteflash and your info was very helpful.

I will also add for anyone else reading this....

My bank (HSBC) charged £15 for the international money transfer and I did it online. It was a £30 charge if you went into the bank to organise the transfer.

You also have the option of using one of the many foreign currency transfer online services (eg.onlinefx, ukforex, tnt etc). However be sure to check the exchange rate offered, as it turned out that my bank offered a better USD exchange rate on the day.