HSBC Intl payment what a disaster

Good god

Just completed a deal with a friend of a member on here. What a palava trying to get funds from the UK all the way to ireland via HSBC.

I set up a sterling account for the purposes of my watch hobby as a lot of my purchases and sales are through SC.

Works fine, someone sends in sterling you receive in sterling, happy days.

Anyway, we agreed a price for a watch, the gentleman tried to send the funds, wouldnt work, he tried numerous times no dice technical difficulties the website said. He then spent an hour on the phone monday getting them to do the transfer.

It arrives in my sterling account this morning £200 less than he has sent.

According to HSBC its to do with the euro conversion???? To my sterling account.

In the end we agreed to split the fee, so we are both out by 100 through no fault of either party.

Suffice to say i would hesitate to receive a transfer from HSBC again, so much for the EU

I feel your pain. My recently-disposed-of business did supply abroad on a small scale, and usually we ended up transferring by Paypal as the engendered costs were transparent and tbh not that swingeing.

in my experience the uk banks are the worst for this kind of transaction, the irish banks are way ahead, which is a) unusual and b) baffling!

Ah banking its a license to steal.

Very strange no such problems with my Natwest account can transfer from my sterling to any currency and am given the rate at the time so if I transfer to a Euro account for example I know at the time of transfer exactly what my costs are and a sterling to sterling should be straightforward no matter where you are based?

^^^ This.

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Originally Posted by mart broad

Very strange no such problems with my Natwest account can transfer from my sterling to any currency and am given the rate at the time so if I transfer to a Euro account for example I know at the time of transfer exactly what my costs are and a sterling to sterling should be straightforward no matter where you are based?

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Same here, sent money to germany and the fee was like £20 or something - and I knew what exchange rate I was getting etc...

only problem I had once was that they sent the same amount twice - and refused to refund until the bloke in germany told his bank to reverse one of the payments...

it took a lot of insisting I don't know why, to convince them to refund me immediately and to chase the bank/end recipient themselves as it was their error and I had better things to do.

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Originally Posted by mart broad

Very strange no such problems with my Natwest account can transfer from my sterling to any currency and am given the rate at the time so if I transfer to a Euro account for example I know at the time of transfer exactly what my costs are and a sterling to sterling should be straightforward no matter where you are based?

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indeed mart you would have thought so

there answer was sterling account or not its ireland so we convert to euro :grief:

Using a non-bank agency may be better. I'm using this one but there are others.

http://www.hifx.co.uk/

Terry

I use HSBC and when transferring online to a non sterling account ive had no problems at all.

Select the net amount you wish the reciever to have, select currency etc and then it gives you a live conversion before you hit the send button so you know exactly how much comes out of your account.

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Originally Posted by mart broad

Very strange no such problems with my Natwest account can transfer from my sterling to any currency and am given the rate at the time so if I transfer to a Euro account for example I know at the time of transfer exactly what my costs are and a sterling to sterling should be straightforward no matter where you are based?

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This is exactly how my UK HSBC online account works

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Originally Posted by kultschar

This is exactly how my UK HSBC online account works

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dont know what happened then, the guy sent it from his UK HSBC account

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Originally Posted by cyrusir

dont know what happened then, the guy sent it from his UK HSBC account

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A UK account to a sterling account should not really incur any fines. If there are any it should be detailed prior to the transfer taking place, are you sure the full amount was actually sent?

yes i saw the picture from his online banking

my bank confimed that 3,750 was sent, but that the intermediary bank took a fee so all that got lodged to my account was £200 less

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Originally Posted by cyrusir

yes i saw the picture from his online banking

my bank confimed that 3,750 was sent, but that the intermediary bank took a fee so all that got lodged to my account was £200 less

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The intermediary bank is the problem and you have no control over this. The problem is the senders back doesn't have an arrangement to deal direct with yours so the monies go via an intermediary which both your banks are happy with. 99 times out of 100 the intermediary bank will take a fee. Typically we find it's between £20 and £40 quid. There's nothing you can do about it. However Euro to Euro transfers between any bank are without fees (its the rules). Ditto Sterling to Sterling should be without fees. This is why we run an EU bank account... simply for customers in Europe to pay us without fees.

To me it sounds like the transfer went from GBP - EUR and back to GBP hence the conversion fee.

why would they do that to a sterling bank account?

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Originally Posted by solwisesteve

The intermediary bank is the problem and you have no control over this. The problem is the senders back doesn't have an arrangement to deal direct with yours so the monies go via an intermediary which both your banks are happy with. 99 times out of 100 the intermediary bank will take a fee. Typically we find it's between £20 and £40 quid. There's nothing you can do about it. However Euro to Euro transfers between any bank are without fees (its the rules). Ditto Sterling to Sterling should be without fees. This is why we run an EU bank account... simply for customers in Europe to pay us without fees.

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and hence why i set up a sterling account :neutralskull:

as the other poster said looks like for some idiot reason they did sterling to euro to sterling

FML

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Originally Posted by cyrusir

why would they do that to a sterling bank account?

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They wouldn't, it sounds like the fees have been charged by the correspondent / intermediary bank in Ireland (i.e. the bank that HSBC used to process in Ireland before passing on to your bank) - though £200 sounds way too high.
The fact the ccy is the same is irrelevant, the correspondent / intermediary bank will still charge a fee, and I'm guessing the original transfer stated charges to be paid by beneficiary (you).

Personally I'd contest the charges and ask for a breakdown of who charged what in the settlement lifecycle.

my bank cant give that though, they can just tell me what was sent and what they received

the charge of 197 seems far too high to be a transmission fee though

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Originally Posted by cyrusir

my bank cant give that though, they can just tell me what was sent and what they received

the charge of 197 seems far too high to be a transmission fee though

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The payment originator (the chap who sent the monies) can ask his bank for a breakdown.

£197 is way too high for a GBP to GBP even through a correspondent / intermediary bank ... £20 would be more like the normal.

If FX-ed GBP -> EUR then EUR -> GBP then £197 on around £3k would be about right, you need to find out from your bank if they received EUR and then converted to GBP or if they received GBP (that will help to work out if FX was involved and if you've been shafted by your bank or the intermediary).

Ive had similar awful experiences with HSBC and international transfers.

The easiest way to transfer cash around the world is per TransferWise...the cost is minimal and they always use the mid bank conversion rate! I have done literally 1000's around the globe and am expecting a payment from the UK tomorrow.

http://i.imgur.com/1EXFPZQ.png

^^^ I'd be talking to this guy by now. HSBC to HSBC Sterling to Sterling transfer should not incure any charges.

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Originally Posted by Swissz

To me it sounds like the transfer went from GBP - EUR and back to GBP hence the conversion fee.

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Sounds right. I make and receive many HSBC international payments and very occassionally these particular transfers do turn up. Not sure why this has happened in this particular case based on the OP's post.

...and I would take it up with the financial ombudsman the Financial services comission or whatever they're called...

"Some'll rob you with a six-gun, some'll do it with a fountain pen"

Banks being crooks is hardly news is it?

I recently did a transfer to Australia to pay a supplier. Ulster Bank (nat west) couldn't send the funds with the information I supplied (even though they did it 6 months prior, with the same information) and so refunded the funds. Less £50! I was told it was probably due to a change in the exchange rate!

Yeah right! They hadn't changed the funds to AUD, and it was one day later so was just absolute tripe.

I made a decision about 10 years ago they were crooks and have been doing everything I can to have nothing to do with them other than necessities.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-0...re-manipulated

Slight thread segue, apologies, but worth 5 minutes of your time just to appreciate the extent to which ALL markets are being manipulated....makes it abundantly clear that there´s rules for a small elite group and then there is the rest of us.

My wife works for HSBC but on the Commercial side. She said the sender of the cash will need to initiate a trace. HSBC should then be able to provide details of which bank the transfer went through, what charges were made and why. The sender can then challenge them accordingly.

thanks for the advice