Bank Exchange Rate - Overcharged?

CuppaCocoa

Went to my bank (BOI) on Monday to do an international money transfer (inter bank) to Sweden. My partner is having an operation and I was paying the bill for the clinic. The bill was 115,000 Swedish kronor which according to X-Com equals 12,203.85 EUR. The charge for the transaction was €7. Total €12,210.85. Now I expected to give and take a few euro on the exchange rate so I was expecting a debit of approx €12,300 from my account max. Tonight when I check my account I see they have taken €12,682.18 :eek: Nearly €400 extra.

What can account for this extra fee? The total wasn't given to me when I bought the draft, I just gave my account number. The exchange rate wasn't mentioned. I'm under enough pressure as it is with the operation looming and I don't need this rape of my account. Anyone any advice?

Toots

XE.com gives what is described as a 'mid rate'. When you go into a bank, the rates are then broken down into different brackets for buying/selling cash, buying/selling cheques(or transfers). In the bank you would have gotten the sell rate for cheques/transfers. This would be different to the mid rate. With a figure like what you were transferring, there would very easily be a difference of €400 between the 'mid rate' and the 'sell rate'. Look at XE as a reference point, but don't go budgeting your transfer on the figure you get on XE, cos no bank is going to give you that rate. I see a lot of customers get caught out by this.

As regards the charges, I think whoever you dealt with in BOI gave you misinformation as regards the charges. There are three options with the charges. You can choose to pay the BOI charge and the beneficiary bank charge yourself; you can elect for the beneficiary to pay the BOI charge and any charge their own bank levies (in this case the amount that they receive into their account will be net of charges); or you can opt to split it: you pay the BOI charge, and they pay their bank charge. If you elect to take all the charges, the foreign bank charge is €7. BOI takes this charge from you, and this covers the beneficiary charge of up to €20. Ie:, they charge you €7, and the Sweedish bank might charge €19 for receiving the transfer, but BOI will cover any shortfall. If the beneficiary charge is over €20, they'll invoice you seperately.

If you send money in a foreign currency, the BOI charge is 0.25% of the Euro equivelant. If you send Euro to outside the Euro zone, the BOI charge is .75% of the Euro equivalent. The minimum charge is €8.85, the max is €36.80. So, assuming you decided to take all charges on this side, and assuming that you did get the 'mid rate' that you saw on XE.com (which I guarantee you didn't) your charges would break down like this:

SEK115,000 = €12,203.85
€12,203.85 x 0.0025 = €30.51 = BOI Charge
BOI Charge + Foreign Bank Charge (€7) = €37.51

So your actual debit is €12,682.18. Take away roughly €37.51, and that's €12,644.67. I think the difference is definitely due to the rate.

What time did you go into the branch? If you want your transfer to be initiated that day, it has to be received by your branch before 2pm that day. If you came in at say 3.30, or if you filled in the form in a branch other than your account holding branch, it wouldn't be done until the next day. If you filled it in in a branch that you don't hold an account in, they'd have to send it to your account holding branch for verification (they'll check the signature on the form, and verify the IBAN and BIC/SWIFT number before sending it). The transfer form is faxed up to the BOI International Payments dept, and the rate you get is the exchange rate of the day when the payments dept receive the form and the payment is initiated on the system. If your form wasn't sent until the following day, the rate on XE.com would also be different, as rates fluctuate daily. Sometimes there can be a huge gain or drop overnight on the currency markets, which can either be of benefit or detriment to the customer.

Anyhoo, when the transfer goes through your account BOI will send you out an advice of payment, which is a sheet which basically gives a summary of the transfer, and it'll have the rate and the charges broken down on it. If you want, give your account holding branch a ring, cos they'll have a copy of it, and will be able to give you the details before you receive the form in the post.

Sorry for the long post, but hope it's cleared things up for you.:)

CuppaCocoa

Christ :eek: was hoping it was a mistake! Went into the bank (my own branch) at 10.30 on Monday morning. Was told it would take 3 days for it to go through (which it has). I opted to pay the beneficiary charge myself but I was just so glad the whole transaction went through (the op is on the 9th Sept) that I didn't ask any questions. It would have been nice to have the charges and exchange rate explained to me though as I wasn't budgeting for the extra money.

Toots

Yes, they should have explained the charges to you. I'd always go through the charge breakdown with the customer, and the exchange rate, so they'd have a good idea what the cost is going to be and they don't get a nasty shock when they look at the account. Unfortunately a lot of staff won't do this unless specifically asked by the customer.:(

CuppaCocoa

Thanks Toots, just got the letter from the bank. It was the exchange rate - 9.09 as opposed to 9.44 on XE.Com. All adds up when it's a large amount . Guess I should check the BOI site before I change currency in the future (better still if Sweden joined the euro zone!)

Toots

'Twould indeed! Best bet is give your branch a quick ring the day you're going down to do the transfer, and they'll give you that day's rate, so you'll know what you're going to be charged.

CuppaCocoa

Can I claim tax relief for this amount for my partner? Neither of us has private health insurance. It's for bariatric surgery. She was approved and placed on the waiting list for it to be done in Ireland and was no. 10 on the list but there were no operations carried out last year at all under the public health service! The only other option was to go private

ircoha

While I can understand the Op is understandably a bit pre-occupied with his situation, there is no evidence to show that he was over charged.
In addition the use of the word rape is entirely inappropriate.

Bank Exchange Rate - Overcharged
Went to my bank (BOI) on Monday to do an international money transfer (inter bank) to Sweden. My partner is having an operation and I was paying the bill for the clinic. The bill was 115,000 Swedish kronor which according to X-Com equals 12,203.85 EUR. The charge for the transaction was €7. Total €12,210.85. Now I expected to give and take a few euro on the exchange rate so I was expecting a debit of approx €12,300 from my account max. Tonight when I check my account I see they have taken €12,682.18 Nearly €400 extra.

What can account for this extra fee? The total wasn't given to me when I bought the draft, I just gave my account number. The exchange rate wasn't mentioned. I'm under enough pressure as it is with the operation looming and I don't need this rape of my account. Anyone any advice?

CuppaCocoa

there is no evidence to show that he was over charged.(a) I'm a woman, look at my avatar! :rolleyes: (b) My argument is that I was not given the exchange rate when I transfered the payment. As I said - I did allow for some difference in the exchange rate but not nearly €400!

the use of the word rape is entirely inappropriate.
Get over it!

Toots

lilybarlean wrote: »

Can I claim tax relief for this amount for my partner? Neither of us has private health insurance. It's for bariatric surgery. She was approved and placed on the waiting list for it to be done in Ireland and was no. 10 on the list but there were no operations carried out last year at all under the public health service! The only other option was to go private

TBH, I'm not entirely sure, because it's being done in Sweeden. Maybe try giving your local revenue office a ring, they should be able to tell you straight out whether or not you can claim. If it's a case that you can claim, you won't be able to do it until you get your P60 next year.

Rashers72

Minor point - but did the branch not have the exchange rate on display in a public area within the branch? Anytime I have ever gone into my bank (or any of their branches) they have the foreign exchange rates clearly on display (normally via an electronic display).
They also have their fee's in a small booklet nearby. Not up in big letters, but what company does that.

Nody

lilybarlean wrote: »

Thanks Toots, just got the letter from the bank. It was the exchange rate - 9.09 as opposed to 9.44 on XE.Com. All adds up when it's a large amount . Guess I should check the BOI site before I change currency in the future (better still if Sweden joined the euro zone!)

Only for reference really but if you had brought it in CASH instead to Sweden you'd have gotten it with an exchange rate of 9.33 that day (you can check it out at www.forex.se, this is the best place in Sweden to exchange money and the rates you see is what you get, they got offices in most airports etc.). For another 20 SEK would they also transfer the money directly to a bank account of your choice.

No help now but in general I've found that the Irish exchange rates are usually worse then what you can get "on the spot" so I'd always recommend to bring cash if possible.

Do-more

lilybarlean wrote: »

Can I claim tax relief for this amount for my partner? Neither of us has private health insurance. It's for bariatric surgery. She was approved and placed on the waiting list for it to be done in Ireland and was no. 10 on the list but there were no operations carried out last year at all under the public health service! The only other option was to go private

Hopefully the operation is all over and done with and your partner is doing well, but I'm interested to know why this wasn't covered by The National Treatment Purchase Fund surely this is exactly the type of case that they are there to address?