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Theoretically, we now have the SEPA system, which should allow low-cost money transfers between bank accounts within the EU.

About a year ago, I asked my German bank (Postbank) about the costs of money transfer to Poland. I was informed that if I give the IBAN number of a Polish account, no money will be charged. I've transferred a test sum of 10 Euro, and was charged a 8 Euro fee. Both banks denied taking that fee. The Polish bank claimed no fee should be charged if I explicitly select the SEPA option, but Postbank doesn't allow that (they claim they detect SEPA transfers automatically).

Now, I'd like to transfer a larger sum, and I'd like to avoid such pitfalls. Do I have any real possibility to learn about such fees before doing any transfer? What claims do I have in case such fee is taken from me, although it was promised not to be taken?

Rodrigo de Azevedo
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    Yea I know what you mean. Every time i click on free SEPA transfers I get charged more than sending in my bank. I send bitcoins to friends instead and they sell in for Zloty there - But taht works ok for few hundred pounds, not thousands. – Piotr Kula Mar 13 '14 at 10:27
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    +1 I believe that this problem affects only EU-but-not-EURO countries. I have the same problem with France->Czechia transfers. – yo' Mar 13 '14 at 10:36
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    I think SEPA only works properly if you are transferring from an EUR account to an EUR account (eg you have an EUR account in Poland and not a Zloty one) – SztupY Mar 13 '14 at 10:36
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    This question appears to be off-topic because it is about technicalities of two banks' terms and conditions, and probably not applicable to other businesses or life as an expatriate in general. The OP could have easily checked at which bank the transfer fee was collected, and contact the respective bank to resolve the issue. – nikola Mar 13 '14 at 11:08
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    @nikola, no, money transfers are extremally important for expats, and my question is how to avoid such pitfalls in general. I doesn't matter for me if the problem are poorely technicalities, but what matter, what to do to not let them rob me out of hard earned expat money –  Mar 13 '14 at 11:08
  • It's not possible to generalize anything from the question because, in all likelihood, the two specific banks are responsible for any fees, and the exact amount. – nikola Mar 13 '14 at 11:10
  • @nikola AFAIK it's not possible to sent other bank transfer as between two specific banks and without exact amount –  Mar 13 '14 at 11:14
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    Yea I believe this is very important too. Especially the SEPA is meant to be an easy way to send many for expats.. but yet its so confusing. This should stay open! I am still looking on how to send my GPB to Poland using SEPA. Not even banks know how this works... – Piotr Kula Mar 13 '14 at 11:33
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    Are you specifying the amount in euros or in zlotys? When transferring money from Sweden to The Netherlands, I was charged when transferring Swedish crowns, but not when transferring Euros. – gerrit Mar 13 '14 at 14:13
  • This question appears to be off-topic because it is about personal finance. – Karlson Mar 13 '14 at 20:26
  • You could try transfering your money using bitcoins. The fees are realy low, even in comparison to inland electronic payments. – Smiling_Man Mar 14 '14 at 13:58
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    @Smiling_Man but bitcoins aren't even money. I could buy gold as well, but it's not a solution. I've wanted to do money transfer. –  Mar 14 '14 at 14:09
  • @Łukasz웃Lツ Well, US federal jugde declared that Bitcoin is a form of money ( see this article ) from legal point of view, and from practical point of view you can transfer welth with it in a cheap way. On the other hand have you ever tried transfering gold over the internet? – Smiling_Man Mar 14 '14 at 14:30
  • The deadline in Germany for requiring banks to adhere to the SEPA guidelines was recently extended. I'd imagine there are still quite a few kinks to work out. – Tim Seguine Mar 18 '14 at 21:51
  • BItcoins is like buying stocks in using one bank account then selling the stock and releases the funds in another country. Highly volatile but a very nice and anonymous way. EUR transfers would make EU transactions so much easier for everybody. Buying stuff off ebay in UK from Italy, forget rip off paypal just do a SEPA with online banking. But nooooooo. Thats just to convenient for people. – Piotr Kula Mar 20 '14 at 13:19
  • In my experience SEPA transfers work without problem at all. In case of transfer or EUR amount to PLN account the bank obviously exchanges the money with significant spread. – vartec Mar 20 '14 at 13:36
  • @SztupY: SEPA "works properly" when transferring between different currencies also. Of course banks may charge you conversion fee and always have non-zero spread. – vartec Mar 20 '14 at 23:34

2 Answers2

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Disclaimer: I am the co-founder of a comparison website for international money transfer services which gives me insights to respond to OP’s question.

Traditional banks may charge fees on the sending and/or receiving sides for international money transfers. There are two variables you have to check (with your bank or money transfer operator):

Transfer fee is charged by the payment service provider to transfer the money. It can either be a fixed fee, or vary depending on the transfer amount.

Conversion fee in the form of a differences between interbank exchange rates and the rates they apply to their customer's transactions. This conversion fee is not paid upfront and is essentially hidden to the untrained eye.

You either need to ask your banks (sending/receiving side) what are the transfer fees and the exchange rate applied or use a money transfer operator that applies more interesting exchange rate and transparent cost structure. You’ll make a national transfer in their bank account in Germany and they will transfer money on your bank account in Poland.

As we don't cover Germany-Poland yet on our comparison engine, I have manually searched here for a 1000€ transfer with some innovative companies we know of (sorted by order of increasing cost):

StrongBad
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briodf
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As of this year there will be no "national" transfers, all transfer between EU banks will be SEPA transfers, thus priced equally regardless if both banks are in same country or not.

SEPA will create a payment market for all cashless euro payments, in which there will no longer be a difference between national and cross-border payments. From 1 February 2014, the current national credit transfer and direct debit procedures will expire. Subsequently, all payment service providers in the euro area will only be able to settle payments using the new SEPA procedures.

source: Bundesbank

Due some banks lagging behind, EU has extended deadline by 6 months, but most banks implement this already. Note, that the deadline is only for the format in which transfers are done, rather than charges.

If you're transferring Euros to account in Złotys, bank can apply currency conversion fee (usually fraction of percent, sometimes with some minimal fee) and convert it according to it's exchange rates which usually have significant spread (for example mBank has spread of 6%, thus effectively you're loosing 3% of value). Which bank will apply this depends on the currency you've selected while making the transfer. If you selected Euro, than conversion will be done by the receiving bank, if you selected PLN, then conversion is done by sending bank.

To avoid all these problems, the easiest remedy is to create (sub)account denominated in Euro in your Polish bank. Most, if not all, Polish banks have that option. You can then use 3rd party service to exchange EUR->PLN at much better rate. You can compare these 3rd party exchange services here: http://strefawalut.pl/ As you can see the spreads are significantly lower than in banks.

vartec
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  • So this will apply to all intra-EU transfers, including for example GBP-HUF or HUF-PLN transfers? – SztupY Mar 21 '14 at 14:50
  • @SztupY: yes, all SEPA transfers, however, there is still question of currency conversion. – vartec Mar 21 '14 at 14:52
  • I just checked my bank (UK) and they say that only EUR transfers are considered SEPA, if I want to send money to a non-EUR account they will still charge non-SEPA rates. – SztupY Mar 21 '14 at 15:02
  • @SztupY: you can send EUR to non-EUR account and let the receiving bank handle the currency exchange. – vartec Mar 21 '14 at 15:26
  • yes, but AFAIK a bank when doing non-EUR to non-EUR transfers it won't convert your money to EUR first, then send to the receiving bank who will also convert it from EUR back to something else again. – SztupY Mar 21 '14 at 16:06
  • @SztupY: this is basically where SEPA meets real world, where banks' have tremendous inertia and are slow to adopt to any rules. Your bank should allow you making SEPA transfer to any EU account. My situation is simpler, that I'm in Eurozone country. OTOH, the bank I'm using redesigned their on-line and mobile app. Local and international-SEPA has been merged together, now it's just SEPA used indistinctly for local and non-local. – vartec Mar 21 '14 at 16:16
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    I've made a SEPA transfer, but using 'internal' not 'international' form, and I've created an account in EUR in Poland, and it went without a fee, finally! –  Apr 08 '14 at 19:28