swift transfer to Bangkok Bank from UK extra charge

[smedly]

So I did a transfer of funds via swift to Bangkok Bank in May, my UK bank charged me 20 quid for this which I expected

Next I see a debit on my UK bank account of 20GBP in Sept, I called them up and they said it was a request from Bangkok Bank in Thailand for and additional charge of 20GBP relating to the swift transfer in May, so the total transfer fee ended up as 40GBP, has anyone ever heard of this - being charged at both ends

[Jip99]

Did you have any Bangkok Bank handling charges in May ?

Normally, I will have, say 520 Baht deducted from the amount sent over based on Kasikorn's charging structure on inward payments of 0.25% (max 500 Bt), 0.1% + 20 Baht for transfer upcountry.

This happens because I instruct my UK bank to deduct their charges and ask for Kasikorn to take theirs.

It sounds like you have asked (inadvertently or otherwise) for your UK bank to debit the remitter with ALL charges - it has just taken an age for BKB to claim their cut.

[Singerman]

Check the link !

Detail of how to transfer cash from the UK via the London branch of the Bangkok Bank ........

http://www.bangkokbank.com/BangkokBank/PersonalBanking/DailyBanking/TransferingFunds/TransferringIntoThailand/ReceivingFundsfromUK/Pages/ReceivingFundsfromUK.aspx

Time the transfer appropriately and the money will arrive in Thailand within 24 hours.

Edited December 14, 2015 by Singerman

[smedly]

Check the link !

Detail of how to transfer cash from the UK via the London branch of the Bangkok Bank ........

http://www.bangkokbank.com/BangkokBank/PersonalBanking/DailyBanking/TransferingFunds/TransferringIntoThailand/ReceivingFundsfromUK/Pages/ReceivingFundsfromUK.aspx

Time the transfer appropriately and the money will arrive in Thailand within 24 hours.

well yes I already do that now, but what I am thinking is that my UK bank is wrong about the date relating to the charge being May, I did a further transfer in August using the Bangkok Bank branch in London which is a charge of 20quid, I had assumed that the charge would have been taken from the funds once they reached Thailand or taken from the funds I transferred to UK BKB but perhaps not

BKB UK may have left the amount untouched and requested their fee from my UK bank, I need to check this and see how it works and where these charges are actually applied, maybe someone who has done this can shed some light on this

[jacky54]

I got done for 62 quid earlier this year, charge at both ends. Even stranger the bank here, Tanachart had charged me the old transfer fee of 25 quid, then compounded that by using the reverse exchange rate so it ended up being 27, plus the original 20 charged by the UK bank and the 15 for the intermediary Bank HSBC. Daylight robbery. Nationwide said Tanachart were wrong but Tanachart would not even answer NW emails. I complained to Tanachart and to the consumer protection office at Cheang Wattana, no reply. I will not be using swift this way in future. Used transferwise and that worked very well, exactly the amount they said and on the day with no extra debits.

[champken]

I am currently in dispute with Nationwide UK over this very charge.

If you go onto there website and click on fees and charges for SWIFT transfer it will say £20, and if you verbally ask one of their staff what the charge is, you will be told £20. However, tucked away in the terms and conditions you will find reference to them using a third party (HSBC) to facilitate the transfer and they may(will) levy a charge against you for doing so.

All a bit underhanded in my book, and on top of that, because I wasn't expecting this extra scam of a charge, it put me overdrawn and incurring interest charges, albeit miniscule amounts. So at the moment as a matter of principle I am trying to get the charges taken off

[scorecard]

I got done for 62 quid earlier this year, charge at both ends. Even stranger the bank here, Tanachart had charged me the old transfer fee of 25 quid, then compounded that by using the reverse exchange rate so it ended up being 27, plus the original 20 charged by the UK bank and the 15 for the intermediary Bank HSBC. Daylight robbery. Nationwide said Tanachart were wrong but Tanachart would not even answer NW emails. I complained to Tanachart and to the consumer protection office at Cheang Wattana, no reply. I will not be using swift this way in future. Used transferwise and that worked very well, exactly the amount they said and on the day with no extra debits.

Further to all the various comments it seems to me there is another point.

Is it ethical for BBL or any bank to contact your bank in UK and ask them to remove 20GBP from your account with no prior reference to you and without your personal authorization?

[Eclipse]

Yep sent a Swift from NationWide. £20 fee.

A month later got hit with 2 deductions. £15 and £15.10.

After complaining was told it was other banks along the way.

HSBC I think.

I no longer use this method by these bunch of crooks.

Now using TransferWise which seems a lot cheaper.

Edited December 14, 2015 by Eclipse

[Hugh Jarse]

I am currently in dispute with Nationwide UK over this very charge.

If you go onto there website and click on fees and charges for SWIFT transfer it will say £20, and if you verbally ask one of their staff what the charge is, you will be told £20. However, tucked away in the terms and conditions you will find reference to them using a third party (HSBC) to facilitate the transfer and they may(will) levy a charge against you for doing so.

All a bit underhanded in my book, and on top of that, because I wasn't expecting this extra scam of a charge, it put me overdrawn and incurring interest charges, albeit miniscule amounts. So at the moment as a matter of principle I am trying to get the charges taken off

I no longer use Nationwide (Proud to be the same as every other bank) for O/S transfers because of their excessive charges and gave up on Bangkok Bank 6 years ago when they demanded c.£20 for a small transfer of less than a million THB. Lloyd's Bank have recently reduced their SWIFT transfer rate to £9.50 (was £17.50 'til November this year) so I use them ; takes about 2 days.

[smedly]

I am currently in dispute with Nationwide UK over this very charge.

If you go onto there website and click on fees and charges for SWIFT transfer it will say £20, and if you verbally ask one of their staff what the charge is, you will be told £20. However, tucked away in the terms and conditions you will find reference to them using a third party (HSBC) to facilitate the transfer and they may(will) levy a charge against you for doing so.

All a bit underhanded in my book, and on top of that, because I wasn't expecting this extra scam of a charge, it put me overdrawn and incurring interest charges, albeit miniscule amounts. So at the moment as a matter of principle I am trying to get the charges taken off

yes I know about the HSBC thing and had a dispute also with them because I had ask for the swift transfer to be completed in sterling back in May but the funds arrived at Bangkok bank in Thai Baht, I then ask for a detailed review of this transfer and found out that HSBC did the conversion at a worse rate than BKB, Nationwide refunded me my estimated loss of 200quid for the whole transaction after they admitted they had not carried out may instruction of transfer in sterling

And yes when I asked how BKB were able to remove/request funds from my account for fees they shouldn't have charged I was quoted the same small print conditions, I did however explicitly ask who requested these fees and they said it was BKB not HSBC, I am beginning to think it is actually just the swift transfer fee for the transfer in Aug when I used the BKB UK process, I cannot see back as far as May online with BKB so I am going to ask in the branch wt f is going on

If it is indeed the BKB UK transfer fee I don't understand why they didn't the fee out of the sterling at the time, rather confusing to say the least

[Singerman]

Check the link !

Detail of how to transfer cash from the UK via the London branch of the Bangkok Bank ........

http://www.bangkokbank.com/BangkokBank/PersonalBanking/DailyBanking/TransferingFunds/TransferringIntoThailand/ReceivingFundsfromUK/Pages/ReceivingFundsfromUK.aspx

Time the transfer appropriately and the money will arrive in Thailand within 24 hours.

well yes I already do that now, but what I am thinking is that my UK bank is wrong about the date relating to the charge being May, I did a further transfer in August using the Bangkok Bank branch in London which is a charge of 20quid, I had assumed that the charge would have been taken from the funds once they reached Thailand or taken from the funds I transferred to UK BKB but perhaps not

BKB UK may have left the amount untouched and requested their fee from my UK bank, I need to check this and see how it works and where these charges are actually applied, maybe someone who has done this can shed some light on this

The BKB take their charge from the cash you transfer via them. There is a small (max 500 Bht) fee payable to the BKB in Thailand if you choose (as you should) to transfer the cash in £'s

Methinks there may be a problem with the UK bank !

When I transfer funds I always print and retain a copy of the internet transaction screen confirming the transfer from my UK bank.

There should be no charge for an in country UK bank to the UK (London) based branch of the BKB.

I have used this BKB service for a number of years and have never experienced a problem.

[Expattaff1308]

I am currently in dispute with Nationwide UK over this very charge.

If you go onto there website and click on fees and charges for SWIFT transfer it will say £20, and if you verbally ask one of their staff what the charge is, you will be told £20. However, tucked away in the terms and conditions you will find reference to them using a third party (HSBC) to facilitate the transfer and they may(will) levy a charge against you for doing so.

All a bit underhanded in my book, and on top of that, because I wasn't expecting this extra scam of a charge, it put me overdrawn and incurring interest charges, albeit miniscule amounts. So at the moment as a matter of principle I am trying to get the charges taken off

I used Nationwide to transfer my pension monthly then got stumped with the additional charge from HSBC Like you I kicked and screamed but to no avail, they claim to have no control over the intermediate bank.

Since then i've found Transferwise Use the link for a free transfer of upto 3000 GBP. therafter there is a fee to pay but its cheaper than Nationwide.

Another one I've found and again have used with no issues is Xendpay their charges are even less you get 10 GBP credit on your first transfer and the fee is around 6 GBP per 1000 GBP but they do say you can pay what you think is fair.

Both take 3-5 Business days so dont get alarmed, I haven't been let down to date, They both seem to give a better rate than the TT Rate too.

Here are some replies I got from Nationwide.

Thank you for your message.

Please accept my apologies on behalf of Nationwide in the delay in responding to your query.

As previously mentioned in our past correspondence, we can not inform you of the charge in advance as this can be determined and charged by the beneficiary bank up to 6 months after your SWIFT payment has been sent.

The beneficiary bank has also been unable to confirm that this was a one off charge, and charges may be applied to any future payments that are sent to

Thank you for your message.

For us to be able to send a payment directly to a bank, we need to have a direct banking relationship with them. As we do not have a direct banking relationship with the Kasikorn bank in Thailand, we have to send our payment through an intermediary bank who share a banking relationship with them; in this case HSBC.

I can confirm that all payments to Thailand have always been routed in this manner, With regards to the additional charge, it appears it maybe a one-off relating to this SWIFT payment being sent, but any future SWIFT payments to Thailand may also incur an additional charge.

Any wonder why I looked for alternative means......

Edited December 15, 2015 by CharlieH

[Expattaff1308]

I got done for 62 quid earlier this year, charge at both ends. Even stranger the bank here, Tanachart had charged me the old transfer fee of 25 quid, then compounded that by using the reverse exchange rate so it ended up being 27, plus the original 20 charged by the UK bank and the 15 for the intermediary Bank HSBC. Daylight robbery. Nationwide said Tanachart were wrong but Tanachart would not even answer NW emails. I complained to Tanachart and to the consumer protection office at Cheang Wattana, no reply. I will not be using swift this way in future. Used transferwise and that worked very well, exactly the amount they said and on the day with no extra debits.

Here's another one I've been using and for you to look at...Xendpay, cheaper than Transferwise but just as good.

[champken]

I am currently in dispute with Nationwide UK over this very charge.

If you go onto there website and click on fees and charges for SWIFT transfer it will say £20, and if you verbally ask one of their staff what the charge is, you will be told £20. However, tucked away in the terms and conditions you will find reference to them using a third party (HSBC) to facilitate the transfer and they may(will) levy a charge against you for doing so.

All a bit underhanded in my book, and on top of that, because I wasn't expecting this extra scam of a charge, it put me overdrawn and incurring interest charges, albeit miniscule amounts. So at the moment as a matter of principle I am trying to get the charges taken off

I used Nationwide to transfer my pension monthly then got stumped with the additional charge from HSBC Like you I kicked and screamed but to no avail, they claim to have no control over the intermediate bank.

Since then i've found Transferwise Use the link for a free transfer of upto 3000 GBP. therafter there is a fee to pay but its cheaper than Nationwide.

Another one I've found and again have used with no issues is Xendpay their charges are even less you get 10 GBP credit on your first transfer and the fee is around 6 GBP per 1000 GBP but they do say you can pay what you think is fair.

Both take 3-5 Business days so dont get alarmed, I haven't been let down to date, They both seem to give a better rate than the TT Rate too.

The point for me with Nationwide is that they are not up front with customers about these extra charges and it almost seems like they are deliberately hiding and so deceiving people which if true is shocking.

I am just waiting for the overdraft interest charges to hit my account and then if I get nowhere with Nationwide then I'm going to try the financial ombudsman or at least threaten them with it

[Expattaff1308]

I am currently in dispute with Nationwide UK over this very charge.

If you go onto there website and click on fees and charges for SWIFT transfer it will say £20, and if you verbally ask one of their staff what the charge is, you will be told £20. However, tucked away in the terms and conditions you will find reference to them using a third party (HSBC) to facilitate the transfer and they may(will) levy a charge against you for doing so.

All a bit underhanded in my book, and on top of that, because I wasn't expecting this extra scam of a charge, it put me overdrawn and incurring interest charges, albeit miniscule amounts. So at the moment as a matter of principle I am trying to get the charges taken off

I used Nationwide to transfer my pension monthly then got stumped with the additional charge from HSBC Like you I kicked and screamed but to no avail, they claim to have no control over the intermediate bank.

Since then i've found Transferwise Use the link for a free transfer of upto 3000 GBP. therafter there is a fee to pay but its cheaper than Nationwide.

Another one I've found and again have used with no issues is Xendpay their charges are even less you get 10 GBP credit on your first transfer and the fee is around 6 GBP per 1000 GBP but they do say you can pay what you think is fair.

Both take 3-5 Business days so dont get alarmed, I haven't been let down to date, They both seem to give a better rate than the TT Rate too.

The point for me with Nationwide is that they are not up front with customers about these extra charges and it almost seems like they are deliberately hiding and so deceiving people which if true is shocking.

I am just waiting for the overdraft interest charges to hit my account and then if I get nowhere with Nationwide then I'm going to try the financial ombudsman or at least threaten them with it

I know exactly what you mean I accused them of 'sharp business practice' etc etc but they come back full of apologies and tell me they have no control, although they say this practice has always been the case, it is only this year the extra charges have come about, I have been transferring monthly for over 7 years. When they said they couldn't guarantee that there would be no future additional charges and that these charges can take upto 6 months to manifest themselves against the account I decided it was time to look elsewhere hence me using Transferwise and Xendpay, they take a few days longer but the savings in cost and the better rate makes it all worthwhile. Now if these can do it why do the banks have to be so greedy!!

[hhgz]

I've used SWIFT'd funds to/from Thailand, to/from my Schwab account. Schwab covered all charges.

[Jip99]

I got done for 62 quid earlier this year, charge at both ends. Even stranger the bank here, Tanachart had charged me the old transfer fee of 25 quid, then compounded that by using the reverse exchange rate so it ended up being 27, plus the original 20 charged by the UK bank and the 15 for the intermediary Bank HSBC. Daylight robbery. Nationwide said Tanachart were wrong but Tanachart would not even answer NW emails. I complained to Tanachart and to the consumer protection office at Cheang Wattana, no reply. I will not be using swift this way in future. Used transferwise and that worked very well, exactly the amount they said and on the day with no extra debits.

Further to all the various comments it seems to me there is another point.

Is it ethical for BBL or any bank to contact your bank in UK and ask them to remove 20GBP from your account with no prior reference to you and without your personal authorization?

Perfectly legitimate - and ethical.

The authority is contained within the SWIFT transfer authority.

The small print is the 'catch all'.

[CharlieH]

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