Lloyds Bank charges for receiving International transfers - shocking!

[Rob-Ed]

Hi folks. I'm thinking it might finally be time to switch to a different business banking provider. I've been with Lloyds TSB for 15 years and they really do nothing to help my business.

The thing that annoys me the most is that Lloyds apply unreasonable charges when receiving funds from non UK customers via International transfer. The rates are as follows:

Up to £50, £2 charge
Over £50, £5 charge
Over £100, £7 charge
There may be higher charges for higher amounts but these don't normally apply to us.

You can see from these figures that there is potential for 10% to be charged to a £50 receipt, disgraceful! I'm not sure how Lloyds can justify these charges, they send me a letter to advise me of the charge each time, I'd rather they saved the expense and didn't charge me. I also begrudge having to account for these charges each time.

My question for the forum is, does any member receive International payments without attracting charges from their bank? If so, who do you bank with?
Thanks,
Rob

 

[STDFR33]

https://www.barclays.co.uk/business-banking/business-abroad/international-payments/

 

[Mr D]

Is this a new charge the bank has brought in?

 

[Raw Rob]

We're with Santander and have never had a charge for receiving an international payment, although not had one for a while so couldn't say if it's a new thing banks have brought in.

 

[deniser]

Not just receiving money but sending it also.

They used to charge a fixed amount but now quote an estimated rate online for transferring the money but when you get the actual statement it is far in excess of the quoted amount.

When we asked how can we find out how much it will cost to send the money in advance they told us that it had nothing to do with them but that the intermediate bank set the charges and we were stuck with them whatever the intermediate bank decides to charge. So you send your money and could be charged anything and there is no way of finding out what that amount is.

 

[Raw Rob]

Not just receiving money but sending it also.

I gave up using banks to send international payments a long time ago. There are multiple companies with much better rates, personally I like Transferwise, very low fees (which they tell you up front) and pretty much the actual interbank exchange rate.

 

[deniser]

I gave up using banks to send international payments a long time ago. There are multiple companies with much better rates, personally I like Transferwise, very low fees (which they tell you up front) and pretty much the actual interbank exchange rate.

Yes would use Transferwise if I could - always my first choice- but two of the countries I send to don't have currencies that Transferwise deals with.

 

[Raw Rob]

Yes would use Transferwise if I could - always my first choice- but two of the countries I send to don't have currencies that Transferwise deals with.

What about a company like CaxtonFX, possibly not as cheap as Transferwise, but definitely cheaper than the banks, and they probably cover more countries: https://www.caxtonfx.com/business/international-payments/ (I used to use them before I discovered Transferwise and they were very good.)

 

[Rob-Ed]

Hi. Thanks for the replies. Probably part of our problem is that we only deal in GBP so there is always a conversion rate to be applied, billed to the customer though as far as I can see.

I had considered Santander as they had told me 'no charges or receiving foreign transfers' a couple of years ago. I expect Barclays simply apply a less favourable exchange rate and take their fees that way. I think I'll revisit the whole topic once we have a clue what effect 'Brexit' will have on us all - might never get a foreign order again!!

Re: Transferwise, yes, excellent service and rates, however only used it for personal rather than business. For business payments I use Transfermate, same idea, different company.
Cheers
Rob

 

[KellyBDE]

@Rob-Ed I use to deal with International payments through Barclays and more then not there would be a £6 charge rate which would be taken off the money received in. However we had several currency accounts to deal with the payments being received.

In relation to sending International Payments you could look at Bibby Financial Services FX for a comparison.

Kind Regards

Kelly

 

[nick34785]

This is normal. I was most surprised to see how low the fee was to receive up to £50.