Bank transfer to Germany

[japancool]

I pay my European suppliers by bank transfer.

My Italian and Belgian suppliers receive the payment within minutes. My German suppliers claim it takes 3-4 days.

Is this normal? Or are the Germans just being typically inefficient?

 

[DontAsk]

Maybe they don't have a "faster payments" system in Germany.

 

[The Byre]

Is this normal? Or are the Germans just being typically inefficient?

We have accounts in Germany and it costs us 60 cents for instant transfer (Deutsche Bank) and next-day transfer is free of cost. If you are buying and selling many times a month in and out of Germany, it pays to have an account there and just do a monthly adjustment across borders - or adjust when the imbalance reaches a given figure.

There are big differences between the various banks and it pays to read their T&Cs - our Mrs. M. has just told me. I run a mile from reading banking T&Cs! I just regard them all as thieving, dishonest swine and leave it at that!

The 3-4 days sounds odd TBH. With the introduction of SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) replacing the IBAN codes, payments sound take a few seconds. The UK banks are supposed to be members of SEPA. German banks do have their own transfer system, as well as using SWIFT, but all the main large banks (Deutsche, Dresdener, Commerz, Hypo) are plugged into one another. There are 400-500 hundred little Sparkassen that are local, non-profit banks owned by the local councils and then there are 970 little independent Raiffeisenbanken and Volksbanken and all that lot can be a pain sometimes.

It could be that your supplier uses one of the little goofball banks!

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Are you using a traditional high street bank?

Would a service like Wise be better (it would probably be cheaper!)?

 

[japancool]

Would a service like Wise be better (it would probably be cheaper!)?

Wise is what I use.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Wise is what I use.

Aha!

 

[DontAsk]

The UK banks are supposed to be members of SEPA.

Santander's UK bank was not when I asked pre-brexit and seemed to have no plan to join.

Wise is what I use.

Do you have a Wise EUR account, or are you sending from your UK account?

It might be quicker from a EU account as it will be based in the EU (Belgium) and may be part of SEPA.

Transfers to/from GBP and EUR Wise accounts are virtually instantaneous.

 

[Michael5]

I pay my European suppliers by bank transfer.

My Italian and Belgian suppliers receive the payment within minutes. My German suppliers claim it takes 3-4 days.

Is this normal? Or are the Germans just being typically inefficient?

I work for a company that manages international payments to suppliers in foreign countries. If you'd like to discuss this further I could reach out to you on the phone? If your suppliers are claiming its taking longer for them to receive the payments, this is likely due to the payment rails being used. We provide locally domiciled IBAN accounts which speeds up the payment process.

 

[Clodbuster]

I have a regular monthly bill that gets lined up early in the month for payment on the last day. It is received the next working day. Been doing this for 17 years.

 

[japancool]

I think my Germans are just being bureaucratic. Maybe their accounts guy only comes in once a week.