Transferring money from abroad

[caroline7758]

My son is working in Australia and is paying a lot in charges to move money from his Aatralian bank account into his english account (to pay off his overdraft!) even though he is doing it online. Does anyone know what the cheapest way to do it is? What about Paypal?

[caroline7758]

[ACE]

Paypal is not free. They charge quite a bit of cash to the receiver. He should threaten to change banks if they will not lessen their fees. I had a charge made against my account once that seemed disproportionate to the transaction. I asked why and was told it was a standard charge. Close the account then I'm moving to another bank was my response. They cancelled the fee within the hour.

[Bruce]

usual fee for international transfer was about £25 the last time I did one. no easy way to avoid it. for small amounts, paypal is/was free. maybe that's changed.

[caroline7758]

I think it's the bank in Oz that is charging him. He says they generally seem to have more charges than English banks!

[Chrispy]

In the UK, Paypal is free to transfer money as long as the receiving account is a personal account and no debit/credit cards are used.

There is a 2.5% loading for currency conversions, but once converted I think you can then send this for free, but not 100% sure.

[Busby]

This is one of the reasons why it's pointless giving money to overseas charities - by the time the money gets there it's dwindled to a pittance.

[Jeannine]

We found when we did it from the UK to Canada with the HSBC there was a fixed charge up to a certain anmount I think it was 10,000 pounds sterling, if you only sent 1000 it was the same charge so he needstoi find out the maximum he can transfer on one fee. So instead of paying multiple charges he can do iut in one. You can send more but the charge went up. You have to find the step up limit.